Why I use computers for genealogy

There are still a significant number of people who use only paper copiesof their genealogical data. The reasons for doing so, run from a lackof computer knowledge, to comments about being better able to visualizethe information on paper. I have long since learned that I do not getinto discussions with these people about using computers. It is notproductive. I was very early in adopting computers for my genealogy,using an Apple II with a dot matrix printer. It seemed to me that giventhe amount of information can more than double in each generation, therewas really no way to keep track of all those people, dates, places andfacts without either using a strict organizational structure or letting acomputer do the organizing.

Of course, my Great-grand Mother never had the opportunity to use acomputer. Everything she did, she did by hand or by typewriter. As anaside, I was showing one of my grandsons a picture of a typewriter andhe didn't know what it was. Back to Great-grandmother and her genealogy.In going through all the work she did for over thirty years, it becameapparent that she repeated several of the lines more than once. Therewere as many as four and five copies of the same material in her files.Even today, with very advanced computers and programs, I still have someduplicates. But, why do I use computers? I could answer like GeorgeMallory, the mountain climber, because it's there. But the real reasonis more practical, computers enable me to process the huge number ofindividuals that make up my database. Our family's genealogical effortsgo back several generations and I have inherited a good portion of allthe previous work. Quite frankly, without computer assistance, I wouldnever have completed even a first level survey during my lifetime.

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I couldn't agree more! I use my computer for my research and even bought a laptop to take with me when I do research. And on the other side I have my Grandmother's notes and books that date back decades. She had so many scraps and bits of paper with scribbles on them scattered all over the place. Most were duplicates and partial information. I gathered them up and put them into a plastic bin so at least I have them in one place. I'm now working on organizing her work while doing my own research.
When I have time I upload old family pictures so if something happens to the originals at least its on a computer. Thanks to my computer and reliable websites I have found a lot of ancestors I wouldn't have found before without having to travel hundreds of miles to look for them.

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Amanda Dee Wolfe July 22, 2010 at 2:10pm

I couldn't agree more! I use my computer for my research and even bought a laptop to take with me when I do research. And on the other side I have my Grandmother's notes and books that date back decades. She had so many scraps and bits of paper with scribbles on them scattered all over the place. Most were duplicates and partial information. I gathered them up and put them into a plastic bin so at least I have them in one place. I'm now working on organizing her work while doing my own research.
When I have time I upload old family pictures so if something happens to the originals at least its on a computer. Thanks to my computer and reliable websites I have found a lot of ancestors I wouldn't have found before without having to travel hundreds of miles to look for them.

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