GSE341 Getting Started with Genealogy

pocket watch with old black and white photograph of a young man
Photo by Anne Nygård on Unsplash

Listen on Apple Podcasts
Have you ever wanted to research genealogy and learn about your family history, but weren’t sure where to start? Then episode 341 of Geekiest Show Ever is just for you! Elisa walks us through how to get started using the free and paid versions of Ancestry.com as well as other tools like MacFamilyTree and more. Melissa shares a quick check-in on Distance Learning with the ways she’s flexing her geekery at home to get through another day. Elisa gives us even more tips for using watchOS 7 for sleep tracking and shopping — though not at the same time — we’ll save that for another show!

Apps & Tips:

Use an app on your computer or mobile device in addition to an Ancestry.com tree. There are facts, stories, or photos you may not want made publicly available online for various reasons.

app: Ancestry Family History

MacFamilyTree by Synium Software GmbH
This goes on sale at least once per year so you might be able to get it at a discounted price. The macOS app is currently $59.99. They offer a free demo version. There is also a version for iPhone and iPad that currently costs $29.99

MacFamilyTree app icon

app: MacFamilyTree for macOS

app: MobileFamilyTree 9 for iOS and iPadOS

Heredis
Currently, Heredis 2021 is on sale for $23.99 until October 6. It normally costs $50.00. There are other platforms besides Mac and iOS.

app: Heredis 2021

Reunion used to be the app everyone used on the Mac. It’s now it’s up to version 12 and priced at $99.00. The web site is very dated and it doesn’t reflect when the software was updated, but it seems like the message boards are current. It may be worth checking out to see if it has the features you want or need.

You’ve probably heard phrases like “first cousin once removed” or “second great uncle.” It’s quite confusing to figure out the relationships of distant family. A nice feature of Ancestry is that it discloses the relationship of a person to you. For example, when you enter info for your mother’s sister, underneath the death date it will say Aunt. Sadly, there’s no way to figure out how one person is related to another automatically.

You don’t need a membership or account to look at these articles. It gives a nice overview of how to research, then what to do with records once you find them: https://support.ancestry.com/s/article/Ancestry-Family-Tree-Resources

Ancestry.com for Free? 7 Ways to Research With No Subscription

Kindly consider using Elisa’s Ancestry referral link if you decide to try Ancestry. She’ll get a gift card from Amazon if you decide to use the service.

Do you have questions about what you heard in this episode? Please send us your feedback. We’d like to hear from you. Let us know about a tech topic that interests you.

Elisa can be found at http://twitter.com/senseidai or www.threegeekyladies.com
Melissa can be found at http://twitter.com/themacmommy or www.themacmommy.com
(As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases from links on this site.

Audio Link

GSE335 WWDC20 Reactions

Listen on Apple Podcasts
Apple Special Event June 2020
After watching and listening to WWDC20 demonstrations and announcements, Elisa thinks the new App Clip will be really useful. Melissa is excited for macOS and iOS to finally have some UI consistency. Mike is looking forward to kicking the tires on the new Apple CarPlay.

Here are the links we followed for our discussion:
iOS 14 Preview
iPadOS 14 Preview
watchOS 7 Preview
macOS 11 Big Sur Preview


Melissa is happy to eat her rant about the lack of adding metadata using the native Photos app in iOS 14. Though there wasn’t time to demonstrate everything in the Keynote, this would have been an amazing thing to see!! From Apple’s iOS 14 All New Features, scroll to the Photos section and you will see:

“Add context to photos and videos with captions”
View and edit captions to add context to your photos and videos, and easily find captions you’ve added in the Search tab. With iCloud Photos enabled, captions sync seamlessly across all your devices.”

Mike can be found at http://twitter.com/dscchipman or mike-mcpeek.com
Elisa can be found at http://twitter.com/senseidai or www.threegeekyladies.com
Melissa can be found at http://twitter.com/themacmommy or www.themacmommy.com
(As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases from links on this site.)

Audio Link