Over the last two weeks, I have been visiting family in the Midwest. My eighty-one-year-old first cousin once removed had mentioned from time to time that she had been entering data into a genealogy program. Since I had been working on the genealogy of the family too, we had talked briefly. However, she was not feeling well and I was unable to spend any time with her or look at what she had. She had told me a few things that lead me to new information, but I had many questions. This visit, I was determined to try to get a copy of her data set. She had told me she was using FTM, so I thought it would be easy. Since she seemed to be feeling a little better this trip, I arranged to spend an afternoon.

We got on her computer and I discovered that she was using version 3 of FTM she had purchased in 1994. After reading parts of her manual, (she had kept it all these years) and asking a couple of questions on line, I was able to get a gedcom copy of her data set and email it to myself. I then ordered a copy of version 16 from Amazon. (Fortunately, she had updated her computer to Windows XP even though she did not update the program.) Since I was leaving in two days, I had it sent over night.

Then the real fun began. Her joy with the new program was amazing. It is so much easier for her to see and work with. I taught her how to use her mouse to move from one person to another and how to delete a person. She had been trying to delete them using the delete key. My cousin has a lot of cleaning up to do, but she is excited. I told my sisters how much better she seemed, and my sister said, “You have gotten interested in something again. Perhaps she will be less depressed.” We spent three afternoons together and the two of us went out to dinner twice. I got the impression that she had not gone out to dinner for a long time. I look forward to my next time I go for a visit. I will show her how to make a book and maybe even search on line.

I got a lot too. Our work together sparked her memory and she told me stories. With her data set and the stories, I have new people to add and many new leads to follow. I have not seen my cousin so full of life and eager to do things in years. She has even said she would think about going to a tennis match to see her first cousin three times removed play. She played tennis until she was in her 60s.

I know this is not the usual post, but after being very critical of FTM recently, I decided that it would be good to say something nice. However, my cousin nor I will not be upgrading to FTM 2008 anytime soon.