SLOAN Ranger
Software to help to trace your roots
One of the least-noted but most utilised functions of the Internet is this: Finding like-minded people. The little attention the media gives to this use sometimes negative (paedophile chat rooms) but usually positive (social networks).
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| It’s Our Tree is a real-deal, free program that lets you enter and build details of your family tree—or any other family you are researching. Much of the process is automated, and photos can be added anywhere. |
Recently, like-minded people gathered and helped Barack Obama launch his quest for the presidency. Like-minded people also get together for charity work and fight to make governments and corporations - and the media - more accountable.
Even less noted is the way the Internet has made hobbies more enjoyable. Stamp collectors in Thailand and Venezuela can chat instantly, while ice-hockey fans in Thailand can obtain all the latest information on their favourite sport from anywhere in the world.
One hobby that has positively bloomed and boomed is genealogy. The family tree has long been an interest around the world, of course. But the Internet has opened up this hobby of finding ancestors in ways that our parents never could have imagined.
Worldwide, databases have opened to the public and now are available on the Web. Genealogy nuts have, well, probably thousands of web sites and forums to exchange ideas, information and tips. And these are really, truly helpful people.
You can start on your own of course. Most people know their parents, siblings and aunts and uncles. The more the tree extends, however, the more help you might need. And the Web is likely to be the place to get it.
There is a new genealogy program available, very nice software on its own but more impressive (to me at least) because it is free.
dynastree Home Edition seems about all that the amateur family-tree builder would ever need.
Usually "home edition" signifies that there is a pay-for "pro" edition in the background, but this program is different. This home edition contrasts with the Germany-based, multilingual web site where you can enter and keep your family tree online. It is also free.
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| The no-nonsense and compact Age Calculator program lets you quickly find two days and instantly shows the amount of time between them. |
Time Sentry initially appears as a simple one-month calendar, but has multiple options and sub-utilities, including calculating the time between two dates. |
This is fairly typical of the genealogy world, I've found. It really is a community in the old sense of the word, where people work to help each other, and where information is free in both senses of the word - price and accessibility.
In any case, I found Home Edition super-simple to use. It makes, and uses, the standard ".Gedcom" file format once you start, so you can easily exchange files with anyone.
Parents, uncles, aunts, siblings and more - the program is quite logical and intuitive about what to enter and where. There is a editing screen for every person you enter in the database, with room for just about any information you can think up.
I wrote about this program partly because a fan of genealogy asked me if I knew where she could obtain a calculator that shows the time between two dates.
In fact, software like this is a cinch for programmers, and there are so many nice free ones that I don't know how someone could think of charging for it.
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| Date Calculator has a few custom options, such as instantly showing the number of days until New Year’s Eve, but is a basic, fast way to find the time between any two dates. |
Windows ("Wintel") computers do date calculations so easily that for most programmers it's just a matter of putting on look and feel. While testing for the best ones, I found that most are about 300 to 500KB in size, and it's a matter of what you think looks best. Briefly:
Age Calculator is a sharp-edged tool that does one thing - date differences. Pick a date in the left-hand calendar, pick another on the right (both default to "today" at the start).
Time Sentry is specifically a portable program you can carry on a USB drive and use anywhere.
Its unique aspect is that it starts off as one of those one-month calendars (something everyone should have). But it is endowed with a lot of other features about times and dates, including a time-between module.
Time Sentry also is an alarm/reminder clock, a time-sync, and a way to paste dates and times into the clipboard.
Date Calculator by Acute Software from the land of Oz also only finds the number of days between two dates. It also allows you to mark important dates.
At the dynastree site, you can either start an online genealogy chart (with good security to keep it in the family) or download the very impressive Home Edition software for your own computer: (http://www.dynastree.com)
Age Calculator Ver 2 is from the nice folks at Computer Services for You, LLC, of New Jersey. Click on "Downloads" at (http://www.csforu.com)
Time Sentry is at the amazing utility download site Xtort of Florida, at (http://www.xtort.net/xtort-software/timesentry)
Date Calculator is free (yes, it is) from Acute Software of Australia at (http://www.acutesoftware.com.au)
Email: wandasloan@gmail.com
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