Over the last year I’ve vacillated between buying another genealogy program and continuing to use iFamily For Leopard–it was called iFamily For Tiger when I purchased it. There are a number of reasons to continue with iFamily, most of which I have mentioned in previous posts but a rather special feature of the software was lost with the passing of Keith Wilson, the software’s developer and chief advocate. Keith was almost omnipresent on the iFamily forum with quick responses to questions and uncanny with his rapid delivery of fixes to any issues which arose with the software itself. The high profile that Keith set would be difficult, if not impossible, for successive developers to maintain; however, even granting a less herculean stature for the next developer to step into the breach as iFamily’s architect, the once bright future of the software seems much dimmer and less certain. Perhaps, the most annoying aspect of iFamily’s development is the lack of communication regarding that development. The developer’s deafening silence in the forum fuels the doubt that iFamily is being actively developed.
With the uncertainty of iFamily’s future as an actively developed genealogy program becoming a greater possibility, I downloaded Reunion 9 as an option should I decide to make a change. Reunion enjoys a large following of active and devoted users as well as being cited by many genealogists as the premier genealogy program for Mac. The Reunion forums, at first glance, seem to be very active, responsive, and helpful both regarding the specifics of using Reunion and diverse topics involved in genealogy itself. When technical issues need to be vetted the developers post on the forum as well.
While I am more than disappointed with the way progress on iFamily has unfolded, there are several reasons for not abandoning iFamily for Reunion 9 immediately. I find iFamily’s interface more aesthetically pleasing to me than Reunion which may be attributed to the fact that I have used iFamily for a few years now. I prefer iFamily’s generated HTML for web sites to the web cards that Reunion outputs. I do find that Reunion’s documentation is a strength that iFamily would profit from if it were incorporated into its development regime, in fact, iFamily’s lack of adequate and readily available documentation is a glaring flaw despite the archived Q & A’s, and FAQ’s on its forum boards. Price is another factor since Reunion 9 is three times as expensive as iFamily; however, if a program is no longer actively developed, the issue of price becomes moot. I am not a seasoned genealogist so I found iFamily’s evolving nature to my own personal tastes; with Keith gone, that approach may no longer be possible or viable.
Reunion doesn’t offer limited GEDCOM file importing in its demo version which is very troubling as I would like to test the software with my own data rather than rely on the Royal Family or manually key in data. I have discovered from Reunion’s various online forums that unlinked sources are not transferred into Reunion when a GEDCOM file is imported which has prompted me to recheck my iFamily data should I take the plunge and switch to Reunion 9. Reunion has been around for a long time and its future as a Mac only genealogy program appears to be secure. There is an old adage that a leopard cannot change its spots but I am willing to be patient for a little longer in hope that a snow leopard will–or at least until I can get a proper GEDCOM file prepared to export/import.
