- GENViewer

Do you have "islands" in your genealogy database? That is, a person or groups of persons that are not connected by blood or marriage to other people in the same database? If so, does your present genealogy program allow you to quickly find the individuals who are marooned on these "islands?"

Perhaps someone has sent you GEDCOM files. Or you have downloaded lots of GEDCOM files from the Internet. How do you quickly and easily find the individuals of interest in those files? Loading each and every GEDCOM file individually into your favorite genealogy program may be time-consuming. And then how do you quickly find "all the males named Smith who were born in England between 1800 and 1900?" The powerful genealogy programs can do this easily, but the simpler ones do not.

This week I used a new Windows program written by Luc Comeau that will do all this and a lot more. GENViewer for Windows is in beta test right now and is being offered as a free program during the beta. Best of all, GENViewer not only reads GEDCOM files, but it also will read files directly from Personal Ancestral File versions 3 and 4.

I went on to describe the full operation of the beta version of GENviewer. I was pleased with the program and especially impressed with its speed of operation. I won’t repeat the full article this week. However, if interested, you can read it online at:http://www.ancestry.com/library/view/columns/eastman/2764.asp.

Luc Comeau of MudCreek Software has continued to polish and develop the program. The beta is over, and Comeau has announced that GENViewer version 1.0 is now available. The announcement lists the following GENViewer features:

Views GEDCOM and PAF genealogy files.

GENViewer allows you to view GEDCOM and Personal Ancestral File data files without creating any new files on your computer

Fast imports
GENViewer can import a GEDCOM in seconds, not minutes. Thousands of individuals can be imported per second. Large GEDCOM files containing information about more than 100,000 individuals can be viewed in less than 30 seconds.

One click Internet Searching.
With the click of a mouse, Internet Genealogy web sites can be searched for information about individuals without entering any information.

Create Self-Viewing GEDCOM executables.
GENViewer allows you create an executable that combines GENViewer plus a GEDCOM file. This combined executable can be run on any 32-bit Windows system and will load GENViewer with your GEDCOM file for viewing. This executable can be sent to family and friends so they can view your genealogy information and email back comments or corrections to you. The receiver doesn’t require a genealogy application and GENViewer is not installed on their computer. They see exactly what you see.

GENViewer is a Windows 32bit application that operates under Windows 95, 98, NT, 2000 and Me. GENViewer version 1.0 retails for $29.95 Canadian (approximately $20.00 U.S.). It can be downloaded and evaluated for 30 days. After 30 days, the program stops operating unless you purchase a license.

For more information, or to download the 30-day evaluation program, go to: