Back in December, a call for beta testers was posted on the GenSmarts website.
For those of you who have come over from the world of Windows-based genealogy, you may be familiar with GenMarts. If you’ve been a Mac genealogist for a longtime, or have never used GenSmarts, GenSmarts is not an actual genealogy application. It’s more of a genealogy utility, as it interacts with your genealogy application and its genealogy data. It analyzes your data and then provides a list of recommendations for research possibilities – perhaps you’ve not investigated the census information of a particular individual or family that could provide you information about a previous generation (such as the parents). It can also list online websites where you can do this research, and you can even tell it which sites you have accounts or subscriptions too.
It already supports Family Tree Maker, but I’m not sure if it will support Family Tree Maker for Mac (or FTM for Mac 2). That is something I will test out with CrossOver and FTM for Mac 2. Mac users can obviously use it – just have virtualization software with a Windows VM (Virtual Machine) setup such as Parallels Desktop for Mac, VMWare Fusion, or VirtualBox, and generate a GEDCOM file from your Mac software, and then copy it over into the VM. Or use something like CrossOver from CodeWeavers, which makes it even easier since you aren’t loading a full VM session.
During the beta test application, there is a mention of whether a Mac version of GenSmarts is important to you. You rate a list of features from the most important to you to least important, and “Make it work on my Mac” is mentioned, implying a Mac version. Among the list of hardware it asks if you own, a Mac is mentioned, along with Apple iPad and Apple iPhone. Among the most important features, it mentions being able to access GenSmarts’ suggestions on a mobile/portable device.
If GenSmarts is something that interests you, I would head over to the beta application (link – upper right side of website – GenSmarts), and I would pay close attention to Question #3 – What software do you plan to use for genealogy data (you can mention Mac genealogy software in the “Other” section). In Question #4, you can mention that you have a Mac and/or iPad and/or iPhone. In Question #5, you can list how important “Make it work on my Mac” is to you. Finally, at the very bottom, Question #11, there is a section for additional comments you can make.
If I had to make a list of the top 5 genealogy-related applications I’d like to see ported over from the Windows/PC world, this would head the top of the list.