Sharing Genealogy On CDs

I'm working on a project to share some genealogy information on CDs with longtime collaborator, Larry. We worked on the Yoho family of Beaver Co., PA.  Larry doesn't have a computer.

I created two CDs that I'll be sending via snail mail.

I used RootsMagic7 to create a shareable CD of the family of Jacob Yoho and Mary Lawrence. When RootsMagic creates a shareable CD all of the information in the genealogy file is included. Because I only wanted to share the information about the Jacob Yoho family I needed to create a GEDCOM file that included just Jacob Yoho and his descendants.  Next I created a "new" RootsMagic file with the GEDCOM.  The final step was to create the shareable CD.

The Shareable CD Menu

Here's a screen shot of what Larry will see when he clicks on "View Family Tree" on the menu.

The second CD contains three files.

1) McCullAnc.pdf, a 67-page PDF report about Larry's ancestors.

2) McCullDes.pdf, a 345-page report about the descendants of Jacob Yoho.

3) YohoJacob150107.ged, the GEDCOM file.

Dick Henthorn

8 January 2015

Making A Shareable CD

Yesterday I decided it was time to learn how to make a shareable CD with RootsMagic.

The idea is to load an entire genealogy file onto a CD that can be handed to, or mailed, to someone who doesn't have a genealogy program. The file is displayed with a modified version of RootsMagic which doesn't allow updates to the file.  A clickable menu is displayed on the screen when the CD is inserted in the drive.

The person who receives the CD can:

• move around in the genealogy file
• create and print reports in various formats

Because there are executable files on the disk, with the .exe file extension I don't see an easy way to share the package via Email.  Sharing by physically transferring the CD to the recipient seems to be the best option.

Dick Henthorn

22 December 2014