Video: Legacy Family Tree with Ken McGinnis

Ken McGinnis is Vice-President of Millennia Corporation, publishers of Legacy Family Tree, one of the leading genealogy programs for Windows. He and partner Dave Berdan have been publishing Legacy Family Tree for twelve years. Their program is easy-to-use and appeals to computer and genealogy novices and experts alike. It also has a great price: the Standard Version is FREE while the DeLuxe Edition sells for $29.95.

I had a chance to talk with Ken at the recent Genealogy and Family Heritage Expo in St. George, Utah. Ken described many of the features of Legacy Family Tree. He also brought along a large "billboard" that illustrated many of the reports available.

I can report that Ken and Dave also hold a great genealogy cruise every year. They are well known for their two-week cruises going to exotic ports of call. In this video, Ken also talks about the upcoming 2008 twelve-day cruise to Russia, England, Germany, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, and Estonia.

You can see my interview of Ken McGinnis of Millennia Corporation on Roots Television at http://rootstelevision.com/players/player_conferences.php?bctid=1423436164.

Comments

[Debbie Halley]

I occassionaly get duplicates on the RSS feeds. Today I received 60 (3 of almost every RSS message) going back to mid-January.

[Dick Eastman]

The RSS feed looks normal when I look at it manually and it displays normally in NewNewsWire (the popular Macintosh RSS newsreader) and in Google Reader, the RSS online newsreader available on http://www.google.com/reader

I don't know what else to tell you.

- Dick Eastman

[Timothy Eastman]

I use Legacy 5 Deluxe and find it to be great. There are a few features I would like to see added - maybe they're in the new version 7 Deluxe. I would like to try other family tree programs, but I do not know if they have free trial versions to test. I do not want to pay for something I won't like. Any suggestions?

[Sharon]

Timothy Eastman, try your local Genealogical Society. The St Louis Genealogy Society had several programs that people can 'test drive'. Perhaps yours does, too.

[Jean Tauer]

I have used Legacy for a number of years and really like it. Problem is I now have Vista and my V6 isn't compatible. Do you have any idea when Legacy is coming out with version 7. I am anxiously awaiting it. They said February, but I've yet to see anything.

[Mary Brenzel]

Jean,

I've been using Legacy for years too. I got version 6 when it first came out. I just moved to a new computer with Vista without any problems. I recently pulled down the update to version 6.0.0.188.

[Dick Eastman]

Legacy version 6 IS compatible with Vista. In fact, in the video, you will note that Ken states that Legacy is compatible with ALL versions of Windows.

The Legacy Family Tree web site lists the following system requirements (note that it does list Vista):

* Pentium class computer.
* VGA or higher display.
* Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows ME*, Windows 98*, Windows 95*, Windows NT, Windows 2000 (Legacy will run on newer Macs with Parallel, Bootcamp or Fusion.)
* A Hard Disk with 55 megabytes of available space.
* A CD-ROM drive.
* 256 megabytes of RAM minimum.
* A mouse.
* Internet connection recommended.

* Win 95, Win 98, and Win Me need all available Microsoft Service Packs installed.

- Dick Eastman

[jking]

Dick -

Have you ever thought of providing transcripts to your audio and video interviews. For many of us trapped on dial-up, viewing or listening to them is almost totally out of question.

The more of these you do, the fewer hits I'm making on the newsletter site. Transcripts would be one alternative.

Jackie

[Dick Eastman]

You can easily view (and listen) to the videos on a dial-up line. When the video starts playing, click on PAUSE. You will notice that the video continues to download even though it is not playing. The video is being stored on your hard drive. You will see the little "speedometer bar" will continue to move as the video is downloaded and strored on your hard drive.

Once fully downloaded, click on PLAY. The video will be retrieved from your hard drive and played at normal speed.

That will work even on the slowest of dial-up connections. That should work on all videos on all web sites.

- Dick Eastman

[Joan Parker]

I too have dial-up and have used that trick for months now. Works like a charm. Naturally the bigger the file the longer the download time, but that's not a problem because one can still do other computer work.

[jking]

It is a solution but not a very practical one. I did try this last night. After 12 minutes of download I still didn't have quite the first full minute of the interview. The file says it is a 12 minute interview meaning more than two hours to download the whole thing to watch it.

The problem is the mish mash of technologies and many of us are just going to have to put up with it for some time. I can't download it any faster than the pipeline at my end will allow.

And yes you can still use your computer for other things - at a vastly slower rate of speed because of the download going on in the background. And if you are using your computer for other things you are further slowing the download.

My real objective in pointing this out was anyone who is marketing anything via the internet right now does need to be aware of the mixture of technologies and the potential to cut out many of those who might want to buy or use the product in question. Many of us find ourselves just skipping those sites who use the higher technologies with no thought to those with slower connections. At the minimum, fewer hits means less income and a less vibrant community.

Jackie

[David]

Dick,
Is there a place where we can go online to see what Legacy Version 7 will be like, what changes there will be, etc? Thank you.

[Dick Eastman]

http://www.legacyfamilytree.com has all the info that the company has released so far.