- Keith Riggle on Family Tree Maker 2019 Released – A Review (Updated 26 Oct 2019) Linda Surrem on Family Tree Maker 2019 Released – A Review (Updated 26 Oct 2019) James Cowan on Splitting a Family Tree with Family Tree Maker, Part 2; Keith Riggle on Splitting a Family Tree with Family Tree Maker, Part 2.
- Family Tree Maker (FTM) is certainly the most well-known family tree software on Mac and the latest version of FTM 2019 for Mac is still one of the best. Family Tree Maker is made by MacKiev, the makers of the popular Mavis Beacon Typing courses and features just about everything you need in family tree software on Mac.
Apple released macOS Catalina (10.15) today, 7 Oct 2019. Assuming your hardware is compatible with it, should you go ahead and upgrade right away?
Ftm For Mac Catalina Coupon Free
Unless a major OS release contains a critical security patch, I always recommend that people hold off upgrading until at least the first dot one release containing bug fixes. Let the early adopters find the bugs that the beta testers missed. But for genealogists, there’s another important reason to hold off: 32-bit apps will no longer run in Catalina, and many apps, especially older genealogy apps, are 32-bit. For example, here are the 32-bit genealogy apps I use and their status, if known:
- Ancestral Quest 15 – uses CrossOver, which is being updated to 64-bit
- Family Tree Builder 8 – uses CrossOver
- Genome Mate Pro – uses the Xojo development tools, which does not yet support building 64-bit apps
- Reunion 11 – replaced by Reunion 12, which is 64-bit
- RootsMagic 7 – will be replaced by RootsMagic 8, which will be 64-bit
Family Tree Maker makes it easier than ever to discover your family story, preserve your legacy and share your unique heritage. If you're new to family history, you'll appreciate how this intuitive program lets you easily grow your family tree with simple navigation, tree-building tools, and integrated Web searching. If you’re already an expert, you can dive into the more advanced features.
How can you find out which of your apps are 32-bit? You could look in System Information, but the easiest way is to download and run the 32-bitCheck app by The Electric Light Company.
Be aware that some apps in the list may be apps within apps (every Mac app is actually a package, or special folder, containing several files). For example, Adobe Lightroom 6 is a 64-bit app that contains a 32-bit app called Adobe QT32 Server; while most of Lightroom 6 should work on Catalina, the parts requiring the QT32 Server will not.
What can you do about 32-bit apps you still need? Obviously the first step is to check the app publisher and see if they’ve released a 64-bit version and upgrade to it (which may cost you something, but most publishers provide upgrade discounts). If there’s no 64-bit version yet, contact the publisher/developer. If it looks like there will never be any 64-bit version, you could simply not upgrade to Catalina, but eventually Apple will stop supporting older versions of macOS and you’d miss out on important security patches. Another option would be to go ahead and upgrade to Catalina (after 10.15.1 is released) and then install Mojave in a virtual machine using something like VirtualBox. This is a bit more technical solution but still feasible.
Until 64-bit versions of your essential 32-bit apps are released, you can still get your machine ready for Catalina by removing unneeded applications, updating the apps you keep (I recommend an app called MacUpdater for this purpose), and, as always, backing up regularly and often.
What 32-bit genealogy apps are you using? Let us know in the comments.
Here are the select set of resources you’ll need to explore your family’s history.
Start with Software
Your genealogy software is the repository for all the information you discover. It’s the main tool in your genealogy toolbox. Which one you choose will likely depend primarily on whether you use a Windows PC or a Mac.
Already Have Software?
Handy indexes of articles and videos by application are linked below for your convenience:
Still Looking for Software?
I’ve also created a couple of buyer’s guides to help you make a choice between software:
See my recommendations in the following sections.
Genealogy Software for Windows
I recommend RootsMagic 7 and Family Historian. There are many good alternatives though.
- Family Historian
- Family Tree Maker 2017
- Legacy Family Tree
- RootsMagic 7
Genealogy Software for Mac
- Family Tree Maker 2017 for Mac
- GEDitCOM II
- iFamily for Leopard
- MacFamilyTree 8 by Synium
- Reunion 12 by Leister Productions
Get Good Books
Setup Folders on Your Computer
You’ll need places to put archival copies of scanned documents, photos, and other files on your computer. This series of video screencasts will walk you, step-by-step, through setting up a folder system and putting files into it. They’re created on a Mac and take advantage of the powerful alias feature in Mac OS X, but most of the system will work well on Windows too.
Get Information About Your Ancestors
Not all of the information about your relatives is online, so you’ll need to do some sleuthing in the real world. But, there is a wealth of information available online. My advice to you is to consider everything, but only trust it after you prove it. That said, these online databases provide a great source of leads! There’s some overlap between the records on these sites and they each have treasured family history that the others won’t. You can search for free to get an idea which holds the most (and most interesting) genealogy data for your ancestors.
- Fold3.com (Military Records)
- Newspapers.com
- NewspaperARCHIVES.com
- Find out how you are related to the rest of humanity at OneGreatFamily
There are tons more sites, but I want to keep this concise so that it’s most useful for you.
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