Well I have changed my genealogy software again! I just can’t seem to stick to one lately. I know those who read my blog are really surprised by this!
I am going back to Family Tree Maker 2012 for my genealogy data and I have changed my genealogy research methods. I am going to use Family Tree Maker for my genealogy data and to research using my Ancestry.com subscription. However, instead of trying to add in all my photos and personal anecdote information, I am going to make some scrapbooks of my photos using a digital scrapbooking software.
I am making good progress in getting everything transferred to FTM2012 and getting my photos sorted!
Since I have switched software I am switching how I do my website again. I am keeping the blog but I am not going to have my full genealogy data on my website. By not maintaining the huge amount of data and the time-consuming tasks of creating the pages and uploading them, I will be able to get more research done and to add more blog posts about that research. Also, not to be taken lightly, I think I will once again regain the fun in my genealogy research! Genealogy should be fun and by going to back to spending my available time on finding new things and solving new puzzles, I will regain my fun!
Also, the change gets me back to the Paperless Genealogist project I wanted to work on. I have to get my genealogy organized and the way for that to happen for me is to get rid of the piles and piles of paper that I have accumulated over the years! I am getting back to that and getting slowly but surely organized!
More to come soon,
Kellie
Kellie,
Welcome back to FTM2012.
Have you considered including your Photos in FTM2012? I am putting my photos in FTM2012 and it works very well.
It’s not scrapbooking software, but there are some things you can do with FTM2012.
Russ
Russ,
First thanks for reading my blog! I am always excited to find out that someone besides me reads my posts!
I am going to use some of my photos in FTM 2012 but not all of them! I have several thousand photos and many hundred that I was trying to include in my genealogy software before now. I have decided that while FTM and the other genealogy software packages do have good photo tools, they don’t have the tools to manage the hundreds of photos I was adding.
Also, I have concerns about privacy for many of my photos. Many of the hundreds of photos that I have include living members of my family. I want to keep most of those photos private with the family without having to take numerous precautions to be sure that they don’t get accidentally published online.
Also, I think that the scrapbooks will be a better fit for many of the photos of the living family members. I can group them by pages and get them printed. My niece and nephews will be able to more readily view the books than they were to look at my entire genealogy information.
In my family history information, I like to include any information I can about my ancestors to bring them to life for me as well as for my niece and nephews and other family members. So, I will continue to add many images of the documents that I discover, the obits, the old letters, and newspaper articles that help to bring my ancestors to life! I just won’t be trying to add in the hundreds of current family photos that I have that were making me spend much more time trying to make the genealogy software do what should really be done by scrapbooking!
As I said in my post, I have just recently started using FTM again and I am pleased so far with the new features of the latest update. I find that my tree is syncing more reliably as the update said that it would. I am also looking forward to being able to more easily combine facts and copy/paste facts! I will be trying out some of those features today so hopefully I will be able to include more in my research update post later this evening!
Kellie