genealogy

An excellent guide to compiling a family tree which has shed some pretty interesting light on my uncle Sandy's claim that his father was the man who delivered the punch which ruptured Harry Houdini's appendix.

I think the book is helpful in many ways. However, I think buyers should be advised that the book is not compatable with some older versions of Family Tree Maker.

Pluses: This book has clear instructions and good hints on entering family information, and some of the tougher jobs such as exporting and importing files. The book has a unique section, not in the "official" manuals or companion publications: Chapter 16, "Ten Ways to Avoid Calling Technical Support". Here there are hints here that have never been published. Chapter 15 "Ten Things That Can Save You Time" has more short cuts than in the "official" publications. The short cuts are either not in the manuals or hard to find. All users will find some of them useful. The book also covers some of the fine points of Genealogy and computer management: Cite sources and Back Up, Back Up are two examples.

Minuses: The authors examples are a ridiculous genealogy of household pets,"Greyhound Canine" and "Tabitha Zee Feline". Their example did not allow the complexity of a real family. The animal parallel was distracting from the excellent work explaining the program. Some information and relationships which are in many family files were not covered.