Central WV Genealogy

As you can no doubt tell, my genealogy work has been sadly neglected for several months.  I have a few too many interests and not nearly enough time.  The recent death of my father has sparked that interest again and I am trying to do a bit more here and there.  After the first of the year I want to upload more photos and update a few other things.  Look for more links to West Virginia related web resources to be posted, too.

I have also become a Mac switcher in the past several months.  I am using a Mac Mini and it is great!  Switching to Mac OSX has forced me to change genealogy database programs, too.  Reunion 8 is what I'm using now.  The program is very easy to use, but still a little hard to get used to after using Family Tree Maker for so many years.

West Virginia Archives and History

Thanks to an article in Dick Eastman's newsletter, I have spent quite a bit of time at the West Virginia Archives and History site.  The Vital Records Research database has gone online and allows searching for birth, death and marriage records from specific counties.  Workers on the project spent many hours scanning actual vital record certificates and official register pages. I have had the most succes with the death record search. Birth and marriage records are more limited in scope.

Tribal Pages

I recently discovered an online genealogy service called Tribal Pages.  There are three levels of membership available, inlcuding a besic level that is free.  Setting up your own site is quite simple.  Your pages can include photos and notes about any individual.  Check out my family tree here.

Family Tree Maker 2005

Have seen the ads for the latest update to Family Tree Maker? I received the software a few days ago and have tried out a few of the new features. Installation was simple and created no problems.

The look of the program has been drastically altered. I like the new look, but it does take some time to adjust. Moving between family groups and children is quite easy. The children in each family are listed below the parents and can be accessed there instead of those little tabs to the right on previous versions. The bookmark feature will be a help in locating the people that you use most often.

Not surprisingly, the new Web Search features is just a way to entice users to purchase subscriptions to Ancestry.com. I own a couple of those subscriptions, and find the new search entertaining for now--a major annoyance is the overload of bogus matches that clearly have no relation to the person you are searching.

These are just a few random thoughts after only a couple of days of trying out the program. If I come across any new revelations, you'll be the first to hear the news.

Today, I spent quite a bit of time organizing and scanning some photographs to add to the site. My plan is to have individual albums for each major surname. I have included a link to the first album of Cutright pictures. If you have an interest in receiving a better quality scan for printing, let me know via email.