Didgets
Software helps peel back rings from family trees
By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer
Are you descended from someone famous or noble in American or European history? If you are of those ethnic backgrounds, the chances are excellent that you are.
So says Bruce Harrison, who, with his wife, Kristine, runs Millisecond Publishing Co., a software company based at their home in Kamuela. The company is just out with the latest version of its historical/genealogical searchable database, American and European Family Forest, Odyssey Edition ($49, 1-888-638-0333).
The latest edition of American and European Family Forest adds new features.
This edition adds new data and incorporates banks from five earlier editions, including one on U.S. presidents and patriots. Running the program is like unfolding a mammoth family tree; nobody's got a living-room floor big enough to spread it out, of course, so the computer allows you to scroll over it a little at a time.
It comes with a set of instructions, a "tour" that gets you acquainted with the features. For example, the names are paired with facts about their lives, so if you want to search for people who were involved in the Crusades, say, you could do so.
And yes, it does go back that far, even farther. The emphasis is on people from the 1850s and earlier, but if you can start with the name of a forebear from that era, you might find a relative going back 2,000 years. Imagine the living-room floor you'd need to display that chart!
