Family Historian User Group

Hi, our son, Gwilym, is a busy musician so doesn't have time to do family history research but he is always interested in my researches. Gwil uses an Apple laptop and I use a Windows one. He is getting married in August and I thought it might be nice to give him a family history program so that I could transfer all my information for a present. I know nothing of Mac systems so I wondered if anyone could recommend a program for Macs which would fit well with Family Historian so I could update his program as I progress (hopefully) with my researches. Ideas and suggestions would be appreciated.
Regards Ann

Ann

There are various Mac FH programmes such as Reunion, Heredis etc, some free some paid. IMHO none of them are a patch on Family Historian.

If he just wants to look at what you have done then maybe something like the free version of Ancestral Quest will do.

However, a better solution may well be to buy him a copy of Family Historian and for him to install it using the free PlayOnMac version of Wine so that it runs on his Mac. You can then just give him a copy of your Full Backup and he can then restore it to his FH instance.

If you were prepared to spend a little more money, then Crossover is a supported version of Wine that runs FH even better.

It all hinges on how computer literate your son Gwilym is at installing and configuring applications.

See how_to:family_historian_on_imac_ipad_android_etc|> Family Historian on Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, etc under Apple Mac for the options.
Virtual Machines are the easiest option and fully support FH, but you need to buy a Windows 10 licence about £100.
Windows Emulators are a trickier option and a few FH features do not work, but Crossover only costs about £30.

Another option is to export your data to an online tree. They are mostly subscription free.
You will be aware of Ancestry and FindMyPast but fhugdownloads:contents:service_zoompast|> Service ~ ZoomPast is an interesting alternative.
Providing you restrict private access to yourself and your son there is limited risk of disclosing private personal details.

Have a think and consider the options, then we can talk you through the details of your preferred option.

Dear Mike as usual thank you for your detailed options. I like the idea of being able to use FH. Will study the options and consult Gwil. He is pretty good with computers as he uses a program called Sibelius for his composing and I think that is fairly complex. Thanks again. Ann

Ann,

Not sure what your son, Gwilym, would want to do with the information you've gathered, and will continue to add, but if he only wants to view the information on his Mac at present, then, apart from the suggestions already made, you could also consider using Family Historian's ability to publish a Website or CD/DVD (which also produce output that can also be copied to an external USB Drive) Gwilym could then view those files on his Mac without needing any additional software at all. That option also removes the need for him to learn how to use any specific piece of genealogy software.

Incidentally, apart from the cost of purchasing another copy of Family Historian, the cost of using the 'Crossover for Mac' software route is now somewhat more expensive than the figure Mike quoted, i.e. currently £48 for a one-year licence, plus an annual subscription for continued support and programme updates, or £400 for a 'lifetime licence and support'. That's why I prefer to directly support the developers of WINE and the non-commercial alternatives to Crossover such as 'Play On Mac' with donations as and when I want to. But, as Mike said, it all depends on how vital the direct support from a commercial software developer is to an individual user.

Mac specific family history software does tend to be more expensive than Windows software (a smaller market and higher development costs are usually cited for this) and the problem of choosing one is also affected by the usual difficulties of how to reliably move data between different software applications together with linked media/images without incurring significant loss. The only native cross-platform options, as of today, which use the same data structure on both Windows and Mac seem to be recent versions of Heredis and Family Tree Maker, with RootsMagic promising similar functionality soon; but, like Colin, I much prefer Family Historian even though I've been primarily a Mac User for over 5 years.

Sorry, I quoted the 2016 pricing, but it is not quite as expensive as Mervyn suggests.
It costs £38 for a full licence that never expires but without support.
It costs £48 for a similar full licence plus 1 year of support. (It is not a 1 year licence.)
There are support renewal costs if you want them.

They say: "NOTE: The version you purchase will never expire. Renewals grant access to new versions and ongoing support."

See https://www.codeweavers.com/store/pricing/

However, Mervyn is correct that if Gwilym only needs a static snapshot, then a mixture of published web pages, with Reports and Diagrams may be all that is needed for free.

Mike I see Colin suggested PlayOnMac which is free so that might also work well.

Having tried Wine, Wine Bottler, PlayOnMac and Crossover as well as a Virtual Machine setup. In future my recommendation will be PlayOnMac it is easier to setup than Crossover, it works just as well and there is no cost involved other than a voluntary donation. However, if you need support then Crossover is still the best BUT Family Historian is still not a 'supported application' by Crossover so it is only best endeavours support.

Colin, this sounds like you have had success with PlayOnMac. I notice you have listed FH 6.2.4 under Supported software.

Could you give your feedback on Upgrading FH to 6.2.3 on a MAC with wine (14795) so we can update how_to:family_historian_v6_on_crossover_wine|> Family Historian V6 & Ancestral Sources V5 on Crossover & Wine with advice & screenshots.

Mike

I have updated the thread and will look at what is required to update the Knowledgebase.

Hello, thank you Valkrider, Jane, Mjashby and Mike for all the information. It does give food for thought. At present it will be just keeping up with my research but I hope in future he will be able to carry on with the research. Thank you Ann