Monday, July 21, 2003
Aunt Martha Who? -- CE My Family review
Posted by Don Tolson in "SOFTWARE" @ 09:00 AM
If you're looking for an electronic traveling companion on those treks through the old country, digging up new information on your ancestors, CE My Family may fit the bill very well. It's not a full service genealogy tool like those for the desktop, but it does provide the basic tools needed for field work.
Keeping track of the family tree can sometimes be a daunting experience. The first load can take a lot of time and getting agreement on the facts can sometimes require the aid of the diplomatic corp. ;-) Then, lugging around a laptop to family meetings or on a vacation visit to the ancestral homestead to get updates on Aunt Martha's side of the family can be very inconvenient, so I was hoping to find something that would fit onto my Pocket PC. Voila - enter CE My Family!
CE My Family is designed as an adjunct to an existing genealogy application on your desktop PC. It could be used as a standalone family tree program on your Pocket PC, since it contains the basic facilities for creation of family groups (husband, wife, children, etc.). But it lacks reporting and display capabilities which, in my mind, are just as important as the database itself.
CE My Family consists of two parts -- a desktop PC application for converting GEDCOM files and transferring them to the Pocket PC, and the Pocket PC application which allows you to view and modify the contents of the converted file.
GEDCOM is a standard file format (recognized by practically all genealogy applications) for storing of information on family members and their relationships. Be aware, however, as I found out during the course of this review, that not all vendors use the GEDCOM format in the same way. There are a number of free format records which vendors may use for special information or notes not strictly in accordance with the specifications. Bob Wittmann (of on eMan software) and I found out about this when trying to convert my family tree from Family Tree Maker (FTM) into CE My Family. Apparently, FTM was using a Notes record to store interesting facts about my relatives in a non-standard format. So, when these were read by CE My family, they were ignored! Fortunately, when I contacted Bob about this, we quickly discovered the problem and came up with a workaround, since FTM is a fairly well known product. (BTW, Bob and the crew at CE My Family have gone out of their way to be very responsive to my questions and queries. It gives me a comfortable feeling they take good care of their customers.)
Installation
Installation of CE My Family is fairly straightforward. The setup program provided installs the conversion/transfer application and user manual on the desktop, then installs the viewer/editor application onto the Pocket PC using Activesync's installation routines. On the Pocket PC, the application takes 706K of memory and can be loaded onto a CF or SD card.
As mentioned above, you could use CE My Family as a standalone genealogy application on your Pocket PC to gather information on members of your family and their relationships. However, there are none of the reporting features (trees, ancestry/descendant reports, etc.) which are so important to applications like these. There is also no capability for deleting or moving individuals or branches. If you are going to get into genealogy in a serious way, then you need to purchase a full-fledged desktop PC program. Since CE My Family reads the GEDCOM file format, almost any of the major ones should work well.
Getting Stuff Into CE My Family
To transfer information from your desktop to CE My Family, you will need to have your desktop application produce a GEDCOM output file from its database. Then, attach your Pocket PC to your desktop, establish a partnership, and run the CE My Family application on the desktop to get to the import screen.
Figure 1: CE My Family Import/Conversion screen
Once you've identified the GEDCOM file, conversion takes place pretty quickly. My family file of about 1500 individuals converted in about a minute and ended up 320K in size. After conversion, the next step is to transfer the file to your Pocket PC. This is done via the Pocket PC File Manager tab.
Figure 2: Pocket PC File Manager screen
Transferring to the Pocket PC occurs reasonably quickly - again, dependent upon how you've connected and the size of file being transferred.
Using CE My Family
When you run CE My Family on the Pocket PC, you will be asked if you want the file opened with individuals sorted or not. I found there was little difference in response time moving around in the file. However, if you choose the unsorted option then new individuals you add to the database will show up at the end of the list - rather than in alphabetical order.
There are three basic interfaces within the Pocket PC portion of CE My Family:
Figure 3: CE My Family Individual screen
The information provided on the Individual screen is pretty basic (birth date & location, death date and location, etc.) but there is a dropdown to add other religious dates and locations such as baptisms, confirmations, first communions, etc. Any other interesting material would have to be added to the Source/Notes page.
The bottom half of the Individual screen is devoted to a list of other individuals in the family file, sorted alphabetically by last name. Note: if you did not select a sorted list, new people added to the database will show up at the bottom of this list. A search capability is provided in the Edit menu. Below this is a dropdown list to select which family file to load.
Once you tap on an individual from the list, their personal data is shown in the fields above. Tapping on the Family tab (at the bottom of the screen) will take you to information about their immediate family.
Figure 4: CE My Family Family screen
When making this kind of selection, CE My Family assumes that the individual is a child, and displays their parents and siblings.
The Husband and Wife buttons are used to add new husbands to the wife, new wives to the husband or new children to the couple.
Figure 5: Adding new individuals to a family group
The icons next to the Husband and Wife buttons are used to navigate to the parents and siblings of the husband or wife (respectively). The icon next to the Children button displays the wife and children (if any) of the child highlighted.
The Source/Notes tab opens up to a large open area for inputting text. The maximum allowed is 32K. The extensive help file provided with CE My Family provides more information on how to use the Source/Notes field.
Back on the Desktop
When you transfer your changed family file back to the desktop PC (via the Pocket PC Manager tab in CE My Family) a suffix of _edited is added to ensure the original is not overwritten. Once the transfer is complete, you can then use the Pocket PC Edit Report tab to generate a report of all the differences between the Pocket PC version of the database and the original on the desktop. This report can then be used to manually update the family files in your desktop application.
Gotchas
The user interface on the Pocket PC has a few oddities which, for me, took a bit of getting used to. I won't go into a list here, but suffice to say I'd recommend reading through the User Manual first.
Also, it's important to recognize that this is a basic tool for reviewing and adding new information. It doesn't have the capabilities to delete or move individuals or branches of the family around. There are also limitations to the amount of info you can store on an individual -- not all fields found in the desktop versions are directly accessible to CE My Family.
Where to Buy
A free, full-featured trial version of CE My Family is available from on eMan software's Web site for a 20-use period. Registration of the application is US$20.00 and can be completed via the same Web site.
Specifications
CE My Family works on all Pocket PC 2000 and 2002 devices. on eMan software has tested the application on Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC and has it working, but there are caveats. They do not recommend installing to this platform as yet. (on Eman software system specifications) .
The application takes approximately 706K of memory and can be installed to main memory or a CF card.
on eMan software doesn't list any restrictions as to the size of the family history which can be supported. CE My Family easily handled my family tree of approximately 1500 individuals, spanning 14 generations. Bigger files will take longer to convert, load and sort.
Conclusions
Ce My Family works well as a basic tool for recording family information, and it would prove most helpful when traveling away from the main database. I really liked the Change Report produced when the file is transferred back to the desktop PC, since this will be a big help in making sure I get all the updates.
As on eMan software states, you really need a full-fledged desktop genealogy application to work with if you're going to get into any depth.
Keeping track of the family tree can sometimes be a daunting experience. The first load can take a lot of time and getting agreement on the facts can sometimes require the aid of the diplomatic corp. ;-) Then, lugging around a laptop to family meetings or on a vacation visit to the ancestral homestead to get updates on Aunt Martha's side of the family can be very inconvenient, so I was hoping to find something that would fit onto my Pocket PC. Voila - enter CE My Family!
CE My Family is designed as an adjunct to an existing genealogy application on your desktop PC. It could be used as a standalone family tree program on your Pocket PC, since it contains the basic facilities for creation of family groups (husband, wife, children, etc.). But it lacks reporting and display capabilities which, in my mind, are just as important as the database itself.
CE My Family consists of two parts -- a desktop PC application for converting GEDCOM files and transferring them to the Pocket PC, and the Pocket PC application which allows you to view and modify the contents of the converted file.
GEDCOM is a standard file format (recognized by practically all genealogy applications) for storing of information on family members and their relationships. Be aware, however, as I found out during the course of this review, that not all vendors use the GEDCOM format in the same way. There are a number of free format records which vendors may use for special information or notes not strictly in accordance with the specifications. Bob Wittmann (of on eMan software) and I found out about this when trying to convert my family tree from Family Tree Maker (FTM) into CE My Family. Apparently, FTM was using a Notes record to store interesting facts about my relatives in a non-standard format. So, when these were read by CE My family, they were ignored! Fortunately, when I contacted Bob about this, we quickly discovered the problem and came up with a workaround, since FTM is a fairly well known product. (BTW, Bob and the crew at CE My Family have gone out of their way to be very responsive to my questions and queries. It gives me a comfortable feeling they take good care of their customers.)
Installation
Installation of CE My Family is fairly straightforward. The setup program provided installs the conversion/transfer application and user manual on the desktop, then installs the viewer/editor application onto the Pocket PC using Activesync's installation routines. On the Pocket PC, the application takes 706K of memory and can be loaded onto a CF or SD card.
As mentioned above, you could use CE My Family as a standalone genealogy application on your Pocket PC to gather information on members of your family and their relationships. However, there are none of the reporting features (trees, ancestry/descendant reports, etc.) which are so important to applications like these. There is also no capability for deleting or moving individuals or branches. If you are going to get into genealogy in a serious way, then you need to purchase a full-fledged desktop PC program. Since CE My Family reads the GEDCOM file format, almost any of the major ones should work well.
Getting Stuff Into CE My Family
To transfer information from your desktop to CE My Family, you will need to have your desktop application produce a GEDCOM output file from its database. Then, attach your Pocket PC to your desktop, establish a partnership, and run the CE My Family application on the desktop to get to the import screen.
Figure 1: CE My Family Import/Conversion screen
Once you've identified the GEDCOM file, conversion takes place pretty quickly. My family file of about 1500 individuals converted in about a minute and ended up 320K in size. After conversion, the next step is to transfer the file to your Pocket PC. This is done via the Pocket PC File Manager tab.
Figure 2: Pocket PC File Manager screen
Transferring to the Pocket PC occurs reasonably quickly - again, dependent upon how you've connected and the size of file being transferred.
Using CE My Family
When you run CE My Family on the Pocket PC, you will be asked if you want the file opened with individuals sorted or not. I found there was little difference in response time moving around in the file. However, if you choose the unsorted option then new individuals you add to the database will show up at the end of the list - rather than in alphabetical order.
There are three basic interfaces within the Pocket PC portion of CE My Family:
- Individual - where you can find and modify information of any of the people in your database;
- Family - where you can review and modify the members of the individual's immediate family (husband, wife, children), and;
- Source/Notes - where you can add other interesting information about the individual.
Figure 3: CE My Family Individual screen
The information provided on the Individual screen is pretty basic (birth date & location, death date and location, etc.) but there is a dropdown to add other religious dates and locations such as baptisms, confirmations, first communions, etc. Any other interesting material would have to be added to the Source/Notes page.
The bottom half of the Individual screen is devoted to a list of other individuals in the family file, sorted alphabetically by last name. Note: if you did not select a sorted list, new people added to the database will show up at the bottom of this list. A search capability is provided in the Edit menu. Below this is a dropdown list to select which family file to load.
Once you tap on an individual from the list, their personal data is shown in the fields above. Tapping on the Family tab (at the bottom of the screen) will take you to information about their immediate family.
Figure 4: CE My Family Family screen
When making this kind of selection, CE My Family assumes that the individual is a child, and displays their parents and siblings.
The Husband and Wife buttons are used to add new husbands to the wife, new wives to the husband or new children to the couple.
Figure 5: Adding new individuals to a family group
The icons next to the Husband and Wife buttons are used to navigate to the parents and siblings of the husband or wife (respectively). The icon next to the Children button displays the wife and children (if any) of the child highlighted.
The Source/Notes tab opens up to a large open area for inputting text. The maximum allowed is 32K. The extensive help file provided with CE My Family provides more information on how to use the Source/Notes field.
Back on the Desktop
When you transfer your changed family file back to the desktop PC (via the Pocket PC Manager tab in CE My Family) a suffix of _edited is added to ensure the original is not overwritten. Once the transfer is complete, you can then use the Pocket PC Edit Report tab to generate a report of all the differences between the Pocket PC version of the database and the original on the desktop. This report can then be used to manually update the family files in your desktop application.
Gotchas
The user interface on the Pocket PC has a few oddities which, for me, took a bit of getting used to. I won't go into a list here, but suffice to say I'd recommend reading through the User Manual first.
Also, it's important to recognize that this is a basic tool for reviewing and adding new information. It doesn't have the capabilities to delete or move individuals or branches of the family around. There are also limitations to the amount of info you can store on an individual -- not all fields found in the desktop versions are directly accessible to CE My Family.
Where to Buy
A free, full-featured trial version of CE My Family is available from on eMan software's Web site for a 20-use period. Registration of the application is US$20.00 and can be completed via the same Web site.
Specifications
CE My Family works on all Pocket PC 2000 and 2002 devices. on eMan software has tested the application on Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC and has it working, but there are caveats. They do not recommend installing to this platform as yet. (on Eman software system specifications) .
The application takes approximately 706K of memory and can be installed to main memory or a CF card.
on eMan software doesn't list any restrictions as to the size of the family history which can be supported. CE My Family easily handled my family tree of approximately 1500 individuals, spanning 14 generations. Bigger files will take longer to convert, load and sort.
Conclusions
Ce My Family works well as a basic tool for recording family information, and it would prove most helpful when traveling away from the main database. I really liked the Change Report produced when the file is transferred back to the desktop PC, since this will be a big help in making sure I get all the updates.
As on eMan software states, you really need a full-fledged desktop genealogy application to work with if you're going to get into any depth.
