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.

About a year ago I went through a process of evaluating genealogy programs for Macs which I documented in a post at the time.  While I tended toward Reunion 9 because of its venerable status and reputation within the Mac community, its steep price tag forced me to consider alternatives before I made my choice.  Ultimately I opted for iFamily For Tiger, as it was known at the time.  The price was certainly right; however, the real selling point for me was the quirky, engaging personality of the developer, Keith Wilson.  iFamily was a shining example of Keith’s skill as a programmer; it was also a platform for his approach to and abiding interest in genealogy.  Because Keith was engaged in his own genealogical search he was an advocate for genealogy first and a programmer second; although, the product of his efforts or his ability to translate the needs of the genealogist into code were always first class.  Have a question about genealogy, iFamily; want a function, report, or chart added to the program; found a bug; just ask Keith.  In most instances the feature would be added almost as quickly as the request was made.  The lively interaction with Keith both on the user forum and through personal email was invigorating for iFamily users and responsible for its rapid, feature-rich development.

While activity on the forum seemed to lag noticeably, the change to a new host for the forum had not gone as well as Keith would have liked.  While the problems were being ironed out, as he frequently did, Keith notified registered users personally by email regarding the difficulties and instructions for rejoining the forum obtaining version updates–once one purchased iFamily all updates to the program were free, forever.  Nearly a month of inactivity preceded the shocking news delivered to registered iFamily users:  Keith died suddenly in November while on vacation.

Keith’s son, Warwick, has pledged to continue the work his father had begun.  While Warwick expressed both his intention to continue development of iFamily and competence as a professional programmer to achieve that end, the forum exchanges have almost disappeared and the last update which was prepared by Keith has still not been released.  The grief of losing one’s father is indescribable, the effect on one’s life is unimaginable so I presume that the jaunty wit, the devil-may-care attitude, the celebration of life that Keith exuded in almost every email, post, or response may be as painful to emulate as it is difficult to duplicate.  Keith’s incredible work ethic translated into an unbelievably robust genealogy program; however, I am certain he would be the first to admit that there was still much more development and refinement planned for iFamily.  While patience may be the apothecary’s potion for the present, time still flees, families reunite and their numbers may increase even as their generations fade away; I hope iFamily is not one of those disappearing generations.

I had tested several genealogy programs for Mac: Reunion 9, MacFamilyTree 5, Heredis, Genealogy Pro, PAWriterX, and a few more whose names elude me at present before I finally demoed iFamily for Tiger. For starters, $100 was way too steep a price to shell out for Reunion 9–it just didn’t seem worth it to me despite its apparent dominance in its category for Mac software; and, I also found that its crippled demo was incredibly short-sighted considering the cost of the product. MacFamilyTree was better but the glowing reports regarding the software that I had encountered were for the old version, 4.5.  I visited the support forum of the latest version where the user comments and the company’s responses read like a script to a modern day soap opera or perhaps a mystery miniseries which revolved around the on-going, suspense-filled question: Will they ever get it right? To be frank, I liked iFamily from the start but it lacked a feature of being able to generate an HTML file, which could be published on a web site. That capability was already built into Reunion and MacFamilyTree and it seemed as if I would have to resort to other means to accomplish HTML generation with the data maintained in iFamily. As requests for this feature increased on iFamily’s support forum, Keith responded by implementing it in style–the resulting file looks so good that it is fun just to generate an HTML file and burn it to a CD or DVD for family members to view on their own computers, PC’s or Macs. iFamily has continued to mature with the addition of features and enhancements, which, in many cases, are a collaborative effort involving specific requests submitted by forum members and the developer. Equally as important as the maturation of the software is the restraint Keith has shown by not sacrificing quality for unnecessary bells and whistles and performance degrading bloat. iFamily for Tiger, Leopard, or Snow Leopard, this cat just purrs!