Date: Sun, 21 Mar 1993 13:41:41 +0000 
From: Richard Rathe <Richard_Rathe@qm.circa.ufl.edu>
Subject: [*] Family Tree Software Report 

Thanks to all who responded to my appeal for information. Please place this 
upload in the reports subdirectory. It contains comments on three genealogy 
programs for the Mac: MacRoots, Personal Ancestor File, and Reunion.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Richard Rathe, MD
rrathe@nervm.nerdc.ufl.edu

------CUT HERE------

Report on Macintosh Genealogy Programs
Compiled by Richard Rathe 3/93

=== MacRoots ==============================

This is a basic, no frills genealogy program. The program is structured around 
individuals who can then be linked to others through marriage or parentage. It 
has the ability to generate tree diagrams, however, the printed versions are 
character based, ala 9-pin dot matrix days.

$35 from

Itasca Softworks
Bruce W. Muckala
Rt. 1, Box 408
Bagley, MN 56621

The version I tried is 5.7 and copyright 1990. I am not sure if there is an 
update.

=== Personal Ancestor File ================

"...I have been using Personal Ancestor File 2.1 for a couple of years and am 
quite happy with it.  The Church of Latter Day Saints(LDS)in Salt Lake puts it 
out for Mac and DOS.  It is well documented and packaged and cost (back then) $
35.00.  Quite a bargain.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
Family History Department
Ancestral File Operations Unit, 2 WW
50 East North Temple Street
Salt Lake City, Utah 84150
1-800-336-6644

Don't let the sectarian origins of this software put you off it is widely used 
and appreciated by genealogy people of all stripes..."

"...I used PAF from the Church of the Latter Day Saints. PAF = personal 
ancestral file.  I am not a Mormon, but the software is outstanding and the 
cost is less than $40.00.  I do not have it with me here at work so that is 
all I know off the top of my head.  If you can't track it down based on this, 
let me know and I will send you more specific info about getting it.  It is 
the best thing for geneology work I have ever seen and the you can get access 
to their databases of info too..."

"...My wife and I have been using 'Personal Ancestral Files' (for the Mac) 
from the Mormon Church.  It seems to be a very usable and friendly system.  It 
doesn't require much disk space, as the manual states that it will work on a 
single (800K) floppy system.

It has many features for insuring that you are consistent in spelling names of 
persons and places.  It can also produce innumerable charts, diagrams and 
reports.  If you are not Mormon (we aren't) you can turn off the 'extra' 
Mormon-only data the program can collect..."

=== Reunion ==============================

"...I have been using Reunion for several years and have found it excellent. 
It is HyperCard based, but extremely powerful. Unlike many other applications 
that I investigated before choosing Reunion, Reunion is a Mac application -- 
it really takes advantage of GUI. I have not come across another program that 
can match all Reunion's features..."

"...I can recommend Reunion, by Leister Prod... The upgrade from 2.0 to 3.0 
was free, and the current price is about $ 110.00, available from most of the 
big mail order places. They usually run a small ad in the back of Macworld..."


"...I recommend Reunion, a HyperCard-based package that requires 2 MB and a 
hard disk.  Reunion is complete, elegant, robust, and flexible.  It produces 
high-quality charts and other types of documents.  Charts include descendant 
and pedigree charts; other documents include family histories (comprehensive 
listings), family group sheets, person sheets, questionnaires, mailing lists, 
birthday lists, etc.  It allows storage of up to 30,000 (I think) characters 
of of text per person.  It is sold by MacConnection for $115.

=== Other =================================

"...I looked around for the same thing as you, couldn't find anything
suitable, and started playing around with MacFlow, the flowcharting s/w
from Mainstay. I have found it excellent for constructing fairly complicated
family trees, they can be multilevel if required. Clicking on an item in the
tree can either take you to an additional info screen, or another level of
family tree. The printing, font and graphic possibilities seem to cover all
that is needed. You can even use this s/w for making flowcharts (when provoked)
..."