Mac Friendly Genealogy Magazine: Your Family Tree

I came across an imported genealogy magazine (from the UK) that caught my eye (and my wallet). Depending on location, it is either called “Your Family History” or “Your Family Tree” – in the US it’s available through Amazon.com (link to Your Family Tree) however it’s a bit pricey – $93 for 13 issues (keep in mind it is an imported magazine with genealogy software and records), but in some of the chain book stores in the US it runs for $15 an issue, so $93 is not necessarily a high price (and like I said, it comes with software).

The thing that caught my eye (besides it being large with a bold cover) was that they made a very good attempt at being Mac-friendly, something that most genealogy magazines don’t try to do, at least those that come with genealogy software CDs/DVDs. This issue included Mac genealogy software and utilities, as well as records that could be searched on a Mac (of course the software and records vary from issue to issue – not every issue will have software or records you can use, and it benefits Windows genealogists more than Mac genealogists just because the majority of included software is Windows-based).

In the December issue, the Mac-compatible software/shareware (not all is free) and information included:
* Readiris Pro for Mac, a nice Optical Character Recognition (OCR) application
* Oxfordshire Parish Magazines and Trade Directory Sample Data
* Date Calculator
* Gene 4.3.4
* Heredis X
* MacFamilyTree 4.1.3
* SeeGEDCOMX
* Tree Tracker

I picked up the December issue, and hopefully they won’t mind if I reprint the description from their website:

The 1851 Census online!
At Your Family Tree we bring you the biggest stories in genealogy, and the best advice on how to trace your family tree. This month, Ancestry.co.uk has put the 1851 Census for England and Wales online at its site. Bring you the full, inside story, and show you how to find your ancestors using this resource. Exclusive to Your Family Tree.

PLUS we bring you Toni Smith’s diagnosis on how to use medical records in your research, and Nick Barratt covers The National Archives for beginners. Our computer whiz-kids explain how digital cameras can add to the family history experience in a variety of ways. Our region research guide covers the county of Oxfordshire, and we bring you surname histories for Brown, Hopwood, Boswell and Darville.

Master Optical Character Recognition
Our CD-ROM this issue brings you the full software, Readiris Pro 7. With it you can scan a printed page and convert it from an image (which you can’t edit, copy or paste from) to editable text so that you can copy and paste key listings straight into your family history software, or wordprocessor. It’s worth £99. In addition, you get a full copy of Ancestral Author 1.3, worth $19.99, free!

Remembering the fallen
Issue 31 of Your Family Tree coincides with Remembrance Day this year, and inside you’ll find two case studies – one that looks at a trench hero from WWI, and another covering the story of a sailor lost at sea in WWII. These are poignant reminders of how family history can uncover the individual stories of the war years and shed light on our ancestors in their times or bravery, struggle, triumph and, sometimes, defeat. Our website guide this issue looks at Military-Genealogy.com, and we bring you a double-credits special offer for the site.

I would consider Family Tree Magazine to be Mac friendly as well, although they don’t have the software that magazines like Your Family Tree have, but they do answer readers’ Mac questions.