Apple Computers and genealogy -- all things great and small

My earliest attempts to use computers for genealogy began with an Apple
II with a primitive program that was entirely text based and used a dot
matrix printer with fan-fold paper. I remember that I ended up
re-entering my entire file a number of times either due to data crashes
or to incompatible upgrades. The amount of information about each
individual and family was minimal, but the promise of organization and
convenience was worth the effort to keep entering data. Eventually, and
coincidentally, Apple introduced the Macintosh computer in 1984 and I
really began to see the promise of actually doing my family history on a
computer and GEDCOM
version 1.o was released the same year. Doing genealogy on a computer,
for me, dates officially from 1984. Personal Ancestral File 2.0 was
released in 1985 and eventually, released for the Macintosh.

Eventually, because of the limitations of program availability, I moved from using a
Macintosh to using a PC especially after the Personal Ancestral File
version for Macintosh was discontinued.
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