As I was adding Life Events to Behold, some of the “events” included the names of parents and older siblings who were alive when the person was born. I was trying to force them into the Life Event structure I had created, but they weren’t really an event in the person’s life. I determined then, that ...

Well I snuck a new version in, and no, it’s not an April fools joke. It includes one small fix for a particular type of date that rarely occurs but two people have now encountered it. It’s bad because it causes Behold to be unable to read the GEDCOM file and gives an Access Violation and crashes. The type ...

I have to make a decision on how to implement some aspects of the Life Events that are going into Behold. I’ve run upon a couple of places where GEDCOM isn’t clear. I thought I’d document them here for the benefit of other developers and for future consideration in any future standard. The lines in GEDCOM ...

Although I’m not at #RootsTech this year, I’ve been very interested in seeing what has been happening there since last year. Last year when I was there, I blogged every day on the goings on. For those who can’t be there, the live streaming that takes place from Room 1, the big room where the Keynotes ...

One of my talks on the Unlock Your Past genealogy cruise was on choosing Genealogy Software. A point I made was that genealogy software should help you, and not be a burden on you. If you are not particularly good at computers, or even if you are and the particular program you are using is just frustrating you ...

Theresa (Serenity2006) contributed a detailed and notable post on the Behold User Forum. It prompted my thinking and is some new thinking that I’ve not encountered before. I encourage you to read it now. Theresa is doing a one-place study. She needs software that can do source-based data entry. She needs ...

After 3 wonderful weeks down south of the equator for the first time, across the international date line for the first time, and enjoying summer and days longer than 12 hours in February for the first time, after a total of 18 gruelling hours in the air, I’m back home again. Despite returning to snow on the ...

The last day of our onboard genealogy conference. I woke up early, and went to the top deck of the ship and did what I call the Voyager of the Seas marathon. I went through all the decks and all the public spaces, both inside and outside, starting with decks 13, 14 and 15 and working my way down to deck 1. It ...

At 9 am, Paul Milner’s talk was about “Occupation and Guild Records”. Paul always talked to a room-full of interested listeners. At 10 am, we all (145 of us) assembled on the majestic staircase of our ship’s main dining room for a group picture. Below is a picture of the proof, since I don’t ...

On Day 6, I caught Shauna Hicks' presentation: “Warning, Warning: Tips & Tricks to Avoid Family History Mistakes”. At 11 am, I gained further knowledge about writing an interesting family history with Carol Baxter’s talk on “Writing Narrative Non-Fiction”. My wife and I shared a nice lunch ...

Back at sea, sadly heading back for Sydney, meaning the cruise is half over. I have no talks to give today. My remaining 5 talks will be two tomorrow, two Sunday, and the last one on Monday. So today I had a chance to listen and learn. As usual, I wasn’t there early enough for the 9 am session. But I ...

Day 2, Thu Feb 12 had a full day of sessions. Shauna Hicks started off the day talking about “Trove and other National Library of Australia Treasures”. Helen Smith was always busy helping with the conference at the back of the room. Jill Ball and Anthea Phillips Natalya Mills, from Clean Cruising, ...

My schedule for speaking is perfect. I’m always on in the afternoon sessions, 1 p.m. to 4 pm. So technically, all my mornings and evenings are free. But I am going to attend other sessions of interest to me and also make an attempt to talk to as many genealogy people as possible. My endeavor to get ...

Today we set sail. Wow! Prior to supper, we met up with Helen Smith (a genea-blogger) and Alona Tester (also a blogger, and an Unlock the Past employee who is not so secretly the daughter of Alan Phillips). It’s easy to identify each other by the green Clean Cruising lanyard we wear around our necks, which ...

We’ve had a great 4 days in Sydney, enjoying summer when it should be winter, enjoying walking around in t-shirts and shorts when it should be parkas and mitts, enjoying sunshine for 14 hours when it should only be daytime for 9, seeing all the mandatory sights of the city, and shopping, shopping, shopping. ...

My wife and I are leaving tomorrow for Sydney Australia. We’ll arrive on Tuesday and we’ll be staying at the Swissotel until the cruise starts on Feb 10, and we’ll be there again for a few days after the cruise ends on Feb 19. If there are any Behold users that can make it to downtown Sydney while we’re ...

I’m all ready and looking forward to the Unlock the Past History & Genealogy cruise. My seven presentations are all prepared and should be interesting for those who attend my sessions. The final count is 145 people booked for the genealogy program. But it will still feel like a RootsTech type of event ...

As you know, I run the GenSoftReviews site that lists all genealogy software available and allows people to review and rate the programs. The ratings are from 1 to 5 stars. 1 is worst. 5 is best. They are subjective ratings, up to the user. For the past 4 years, at the end of the year, I have listed all ...

So let’s see what’s happening: +1 Behold just received an Honourable Mention in the Best New Genealogy Product category of Tamura Jones’ GeneAwards 2012. +1 Just compiled the 19 programs receiving the GenSoftReviews Top Rated Genealogy Software awards for 2012. -1 My Dad’s 88 and not doing so well in ...