Always being on the look out for free software, specially genealogy stuff, I saw
this in Dick Eastmans last newsletter. I downloaded it and it is as fast as he
claims.
I'm not sure how usefull it is yet, haven't had much time to play with it yet, but
if
you keep a large genealogy database, it should be usefull.
I found 4 islands in mine, not sure why yet, but will be checking it out.
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- GENViewer
Do you have "islands" in your genealogy database? That is, a
person or groups of persons that are not connected by blood or
marriage to other people in the same database? If so, does your
present genealogy program allow you to quickly find the
individuals who are marooned on these "islands?"
Perhaps someone has sent you GEDCOM files. Or you have downloaded
lots of GEDCOM files from the Internet. How do you quickly and
easily find the individuals of interest in those files? Loading
each and every GEDCOM file individually into your favorite
genealogy program may be time-consuming. And then how do you
quickly find "all the males named Smith who were born in England
between 1800 and 1900?" The powerful genealogy programs can do
this easily, but the simpler ones do not.
This week I used a new Windows program written by Luc Comeau that
will do all this and a lot more. GENViewer for Windows is in beta
test right now and is being offered as a free program during the
beta. Best of all, GENViewer not only reads GEDCOM files, but it
also will read files directly from Personal Ancestral File
versions 3 and 4.
Installation was a snap. I first used GENViewer to open a GEDCOM
file of more than 3,000 individuals. I was amazed at the speed; I
opened the file, and pedigree charts, descendant charts and more
were available instantly. The program's user's manual says that it
can import about 10,000 to 30,000 individuals a second from a
GEDCOM file. PAF database files are even faster. Apparently my
3,000-person file was read in about one-third of a second. This
program reads data very quickly!
I used GENViewer for a while and found that it is great for
finding "islands" and for selecting all individuals that meet
certain criteria. It also can perform the following functions:
* GENViewer gives an almost instant list of individuals contained
within a GEDCOM file or PAF (Personal Ancestral File) database.
You can quickly see "who's here." This feature is great for
examining new GEDCOM files of questionable origin and accuracy
downloaded from the Internet. I also used it to look at some
GEDCOM files stored on my hard drive for a long time where I had
forgotten why I had kept them.
* GENViewer will find information errors in your database;
for example, a mother giving birth at age 4. GENViewer allows
you to visually highlight these individuals in seconds.
* GENViewer allows you to highlight individuals that are still
missing information. For example, you can highlight all
ancestors that are missing a birth date.
* You can highlight all the individuals in a file who are
related to a particular person. I used this to find those
individuals who were direct relatives of mine.
* LDS members will appreciate GENViewer's capability to
highlight individuals that are missing LDS ordinates as well
as who is temple-ready. Remember that GENViewer can also do
this while directly reading PAF 3 or PAF 4 files.
I found the program easy to use. However, a full user's manual is
included in the download. The user's manual is in HTML format; you
read it with Netscape or Internet Explorer or whatever Web browser
you prefer.
GENViewer is an "add on" utility application to existing genealogy
applications. Since this is a "viewer," it is "read only." In
contrast to genealogy creation programs, it doesn't have any
editing abilities and cannot write any data to your GEDCOM or PAF
files.
GENViewer runs on Windows 95, 98, NT, and 2000 as well as on
Windows Me. It requires little disk space. When reading a GEDCOM
file it does require an additional 10% disk space. For instance,
when reading a 10-megabyte GEDCOM file it will also need an
additional one megabyte for temporary files. GENViewer will read
GEDCOM, PAF 3 and PAF 4 files up to 2 gigabytes in size. This
translates to about 10 million individuals in a GEDCOM file.
GENViewer for Windows beta version is available as a free program.
There is no hint in the online user's manual whether or not the
final version will remain free. You can obtain a free copy of
GENViewer for Windows beta software at:
http://www.mudcreek.ca
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Neal F. Carrier
Holland Patent, NY
email ncarrier(a)dreamscape.com
web site
www.dreamscape.com/ncarrier
List Coordinator Carrier-Roots Mail List
www.rootsweb.com