06.20.07
Computers
I became involved with computers in 1983, and so when I started Family History reserach four years later it seemed the sensible thing to use the computer for storing data etc. At first I used Personal Ancestral File (PAF) as it was at the time the only dedicated program which was of any use. When I moved on to PCs I tried many of the Shareware programs which appeared in the early 1990s. Some were good, some were not.
How things have changed! FH programs are now very sophisticated pieces of software, but they are still only a way of stroing and presenting data. The data still has to be gathered and recorded in a logical way. Sadly too many newcomers to our hobby start with the opinion that the computer will ‘do’ their family history. That somehow you switch the machine on, possibly install an FH program, and lo and behold there is you complete ancestry laid out in front of you!
Yes, you can access huge amounts of data from the internet without leaving home and travelling to all parts of the country to search for records, although a vast amount of material is still not online (that’s not a criticism, merely a comment). What some researchers forget, or fail to realise, is that you still have to develop the skills of a researcher - detective, speculator, theory tester and so on.
The computer is only a tool, in just the same way as a pencil and notebook in a Record office are a tool. It is vital that we ‘old hands’ make this clear