I had been using Cumberland Family Tree (CFT) since 2000 and loved it as it was really easy to navigate, input data, add custom details and notes and I love the way it did reports. However recently its started moving data from one individual to another for no reason, in some cases duplicating people I haven't even worked on in months. I've found I was spending way to much time having to re-verify and re-enter data to the correct people I wasnt getting time to do anything else.
I've since found out that the creator of CFT has closed his website and no longer offers support for the program. So the search for a new program begins, why do there have to be so many, why so expensive, why so many features to chose from, maybe I should go back to pen and paper :)
While I'm contemplating the many, many choices hopefully with guidance from 'Your Family Tree Magazine' I've decided to transfer everything to PAF and can then use that to transfer to any other program. I can't copy the GEDCOM from CFT to PAF as I would be copying all the errors as well so have started my tree again from scratch!
This is where I hit the 'Sources' problem.
I was so busy entering data and having fun finding my ancestors and their details I didn't bother to write up my sources at the time or keep a research log.
I did at least kept copies of all the birth, marriage and death certs, census printouts, notes of conversations with family and photos of grave stones but they're in two big files and currently only the certificates are sorted into two sides of the family (my mums and my dads) the rest is in a big heap of notebooks.
So using the advice on PAF help files and various online articles found thanks to Google and Cyndi's List I'm learning the joy of citing my sources and updating my tree on Ancestry at the same time.
The research log I'll have to just start from now and risk duplicating all the searches I've already done. Maybe this will help me be more organised.
