Most family history software enables researchers to document and share their findings about the past. GeneWeaver offers genealogists and family historians something more. It is an easy-to-use but powerful tool for summarizing and detailing vital family health history information that all present-day family members can use in very practical ways. The printed output of the program, Individual Health History reports, Medical Pedigree Charts, and Medical Genograms, provide a usable range of information that your relatives and their physicians can immediately use.

Last year I reviewed the initial version of this program. (Genealogical Computing 21.4) Now, with the release of Version 1.1 of GeneWeaver, another look at this newly enhanced program is in order.

Overview
GeneWeaver is unique. Many general genealogical programs offer some family health history capabilities. GeneWeaver provides much more, and fills a very real need at a time when family health history information has never been more useful to living family members.

GeneWeaver is easy to use. It loads from CD-ROM quickly and simply. Designed with a Web-browser look and feel, researchers and computer-users from beginning to advanced levels will find it simple to learn and use. For those who have already entered data in a standard genealogical software program, GEDCOM import of basic individual data and relationships to GeneWeaver is a quick and straightforward process. You can transfer individual families or the entire database from another program, avoiding duplication of most data entry. GeneWeaver allows for the creation and maintenance of multiple databases for different family lines.

The GeneWizard guides the user through the input of information. The tutorials are clearly written in everyday language. Relationships are color-coded. (Paternal relationships appear in blue, and maternal relationships in red.)

GeneWeaver is practical. This program is the first real tool that facilitates the assembly of family information that present and future family members can use in their everyday lives. At a time when medical care and prevention are rapidly changing, it can help place valuable information in the hands of your cousins and their physicians. (Even those cousins who really couldn't care less about genealogy can benefit greatly from such information.)

GeneWeaver is a genealogist's program, not a programmer's. GeneWeaver was developed by Elizabeth Kelley Kerstens, CGRS, CGL, and Norma Storrs Keating, RN, BSN. Both are professional genealogists who recognized a specific need for such a program. Norma's knowledge as a health care professional and Liz's software experience as the developer of the popular Clooz program added important expertise for the development of GeneWeaver.

The Basic Program
The basic program operation and function remains the same as in Version 1.0. As I detailed in my review in the Spring 2002 issue of Genealogical Computing, that function is clean, logical, and simple to use.

Health information can be entered or updated by importing a GEDCOM file, completing a family tree, entering names in a series, or entering one individual at a time. Following the Health Wizard prompts will speed the user through a questionnaire that then fills in many of the entry fields. The Wizard's Health History Questionnaire report is four pages long. Users can enter a little information, or a wealth of medical history, for any living or deceased individual. The fields provided for data entry cover the obvious items researchers would hope to see: birth, marriage, and death information; spouses and biological parents' names. It also includes fields to capture a great deal of information on individuals.

Data entry is also simplified by the autotext feature. As you begin to type a data field, the program will automatically complete the entry if it recognizes it as an entry previously made in that field. Users who import a GEDCOM file will find many of the GeneWeaver fields automatically filled in.

Information in the GeneWeaver tables including the People List and the Person Detail tabs (Events, Spouse, Sibling, and Health Events) can be sorted and grouped.

Improvements in Version 1.1

• The Individual Health History Report is now printable for any individual in the database. This is the most significant and usable improvement of the update. Combined with the already-printable Medical Pedigree Chart and Medical Genogram form, family members can now record and have in-hand basic as well as very detailed health history information. There are now formats individual family members can use and understand, as well as the more scientific genograms that are understood and used by health care professionals. (The inability to easily print an Individual Health History for any individual was the major weakness of Version 1.0.)

• Sources can now be added to each item documented for an individual. Sources imported with a GEDCOM transfer are now viewable and editable. (This is a significant improvement over version 1.0, where sources were imported with a GEDCOM transfer, but were not viewable.)

• GeneWeaver now automatically calculates a person's age at death. That calculation is done automatically at the time of a GEDCOM transfer into GeneWeaver, or whenever a birth and death date for an individual are manually entered in the program. (In version 1.0, that calculation needed to be made manually.)

• Upon exiting the program, GeneWeaver now automatically prompts the user to archive databases.

• Upon its release, Version 1.1 was shipped free of charge to all registered users of the original GeneWeaver version. New customers purchasing GeneWeaver receive Version 1.1 CD-ROMs.

Extras
The program includes a bibliography of family health history and genetics publications, articles, and audio tapes, and a checklist of health information resources.

Assistance
The 128-page manual, like the program, is straight- forward, easy to use, and written for genealogists. It includes samples of the input screens and output forms, and is well indexed. Online assistance is a strength of GeneWeaver. The GeneWeaver website includes excellent introductory information, samples, download capability for a sample version of the program, and much interesting and useful health history information.

Support for GeneWeaver users is available via e-mail, phone, fax, and mail weekdays from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Technical support is available those hours in Eastern Time, and customer support and general information are available those hours in Pacific Time. That support is provided directly by GeneWeaver's developers, so users have direct contact with the individuals who understand the program, its use, and the needs of fellow genealogists. That level of support is becoming more rare in the world of genealogical software.

A message list for GeneWeaver users is also closely monitored and responded to by the developers. The Archives for GeneWeaver-L is maintained on RootsWeb, and you may view past messages from users and the user messages and responses from the GeneWeaver team at that site.

Summary of Printed Forms
The following forms can now be printed from GeneWeaver:

Using a Unique Tool for Genealogists
Like most genealogical tools, GeneWeaver facilitates the collection and listing of information. It does not automatically perform detailed analysis of family health patterns. But it does provide the best available tool and formats to enable individuals and health care professionals to analyze that information.

Using the skills of a genealogist, users of GeneWeaver will find that the program prompts users to dig a little deeper for certain types of records that may otherwise be overlooked. In reviewing and filling in sections on military service, education history, places and countries of residence and travel, and professional work history, a researcher may realize that there are unexplored potential records for an ancestor in those areas. (Another review of the pension file of an ancestral cousin may review medical or other genealogical information that was previously glossed over.)

Proceeding through the Health History questionnaire can also alert a researcher to previously undetected clues or patterns in the family history. There are fields for entering miscarriages, stillbirths, infant deaths, birth complications, and illnesses during pregnancy. These could provide valuable clues for present-day young family members. Similarly, the fields for known medical conditions, disabilities, emotional and behavioral problems, allergies, and whether parents were related to each other can provide clues. Even the basic physical characteristics—height, weight, hair and eye color, and facial features—can provide medical clues as well as interesting family history.

The printed Individual Health History forms and Medical Pedigree forms give individual researchers a tool to use in helping other family members. Use the blank questionnaire to help close family members complete a more useful health history to take to the doctor. The young mothers in your family probably appreciate more than anyone the potential importance of family health history. Enlist their help in gathering and updating Individual Health Histories from the older family members on their family lines.

Use the information obtained carefully and guard its private nature. (GeneWeaver explains to users that it will not share or sell any user information. Explaining to your family members your own policy regarding the family health history data you gather may set their minds at ease and make them more willing to provide information.)

Conclusion
Like other software programs, GeneWeaver is just a tool and is only as good as the genealogists who use it. But it is easy to learn and use, and powerful enough in Version 1.1 to equip any researcher to provide a very important and practical service to living family members. Priced under $40, that's a lot of value for the priceless health history information it can help you provide.

GeneWeaver 1.1

James W. Warren is a professional genealogical writer, speaker, and researcher who specializes in the Midwestern states, family health history, American Indian genealogy, and tribal consulting. Jim served eleven years as a director or officer of the Federation of Genealogical Societies, and is presently a member of the National Genealogical Society Family Health and Heredity Committee. He may be reached by e-mail at warren@space star.com.

Return to the July-September 2003 Genealogical Computing Table of Contents.