Genealogy and Technology

As I sort through my stacks of genealogy materials (why did I feel the need to print EVERYTHING) to convert them to digital and selectively shred, I am reminded of all the different ways I've stored my data. 

When I first started, I worked for a company with a word processing machine.  My boss allowed me to learn how to use the machine (it wasn't a part of my job duties) and on my lunch hour I would enter my family information.  I created a number system.  I have been reminded of that number system as the old documents have the number(s) written on them.

This was cumbersome and not handy at all as I only had access to the machine during lunch hour at work and only if the person assigned to the machine was not working over her lunch hour.

The Commodore64 came out and we bought one.  I bought a genealogy program for it.  I don't remember the name, but I remember not being that happy with it.  I re-entered all the data into the program.  Something happened and I lost it all and got to do it again.  I learned a big lesson about backing up. The program was not as effective as I would have liked, but it was better than doing it by hand.

At work I was learning to use a relational database called RBase.  I loved that database.  I purchased RBase for use at home.  I used it to store my genealogy and once again, I re-entered all my data.  My very most favorite thing about using the database was I could create whatever report I wanted and make it look exactly the way I wanted. 

That worked until new technology came out and RBase was no longer supported.  By this time I had thousands of names and was not thrilled about moving the data again.  And I hated the idea of losing my control over reports.

I decided to use Family Tree Maker for my next venture into storing and sorting data.  I've stuck with it although at times it frustrates me too.  Even though at times I'm tempted to move to a different program, I am sticking with FTM.  I get tired of the updates and haven't been thrilled with their 'improvements' as I still can't create reports the way I did before although I'm getting better at understanding the program and can get close to what I want.  There are a few things I've not figured out yet, but I really don't need those particular features either...at the moment...so I'm letting it go.  I do like the capability of storing digital copies of documents and photos and linking them to people.

Now that we are deep into the digital age, I look back at how long it took me to get information versus how fast I can get the information and have a copy of the document stored and linked to the person.