We get kudos from customers on a regular basis on how helpful Genelines can be; Here are just a few examples.

"I want to tell you what a wonderful product you deliver in Genelines!
I'm excited to be able to make the charts so easily that would have taken so much time manually. I'm thrilled that I discovered Genelines at the bookstore when I did...Again, thanks for a great product!"
- Mark in Kent, WA

"Genelines is great. I'm amazed by it and by the timeline program -
expectations exceeded!"
- Holly

"Wow, what a fun product. Downloading and installing went quite fast and was non-stressful. [I am] having too much fun using it... I really like the Chart Sizing sliding guide so I can control how many pages, size, etc., and easily see how many pages [and the] Reverse Orientation is so handy."
- Lynell in Utah

"This version [2.0] is a marked improvement over the first version."
- Rick in Idaho

"Love the program"
- Joyce

Progeny products are often reviewed in the press, Genelines included. Read the articles included below to learn more about our software.

1. Genelines Review by Dick Eastman (version 2.0)
2. Genelines 2.0 review by Jim Byram
3. Genelines Review by Dick Eastman (version 1.3)
4. "It's About Time" by Rick Crume (version 1.2P)

Genelines Review by Dick Eastman
Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter, Vol. 7 No. 35 - September 2, 2002

Genelines 2.0 Universal Edition

Genelines for Windows is a great timeline charting companion for use with almost any genealogy program. In a nutshell, Genelines lets you place the names and lives of your family's past into historical context by creating interesting charts that you can both view on-screen and print. Progeny Software has just released version 2.0, which adds a lot of new functionality. A "Universal Edition" reads information directly from Family Tree Maker(r),
Personal Ancestral File(r), Legacy Family Tree, Ancestry Family Tree(tm) and Ancestral Quest(tm). It will also read information from a GEDCOM file created by any modern genealogy program so that you can use Genelines even if your regular genealogy program is not on the list of supported programs. Descriptions of the other editions of Genelines 2.0 appear at the end of this article.

This week I had a chance to use Genelines 2.0 Universal Edition. Installation of Genelines 2.0 was simple, about the same as any other Windows program. Once installed, I clicked on the new icon, entered my name and a registration code, and then was shown a "What's New" page. I clicked past that and was soon looking at the
program's main page.

Genelines 2.0 has a unique feature called "Scan For Files." The program searched my hard drive, looking for GEDCOM files as well as data files from Family Tree Maker, Personal Ancestral File, Legacy Family Tree, Ancestry Family Tree, Ancestral Quest, and any files created by earlier versions of Genelines. Since I have used several of these programs in the past, Genelines found several databases on my hard drive. It also found a number of GEDCOM files that I have received from other people. I clicked on one of the listed files, and a few seconds later I was looking at my data inside of Genelines 2.0.

The program first shows a list of names in alphabetical order. It is possible to scroll up and down the list although that becomes unwieldy on larger databases. Instead, I started typing a name of interest. As I typed, Genelines instantly jumped to the first name that matched. I clicked on the desired name, and then a display appeared showing the details of that record, along with several icons for tasks that could be accomplished.

I started with my own name and then selected the Individual Biographical Report. I selected a few options, which produced a timeline of my own life. This timeline started at birth and displayed my age across the bottom of the screen and the years across the top. In between there were color bars for Health, History, Occupation, Relationship and Residence. Each fact contained in the database was displayed in the appropriate horizontal bar. The Relationship bar contained entries for marriage, birth of children, and even divorce. I could have added my own historical events, such as the dates of wars, who was President at the time, or the various economic recessions (I seem to have an occupation change during each recession.).

Visualizing charts from a textual newsletter is a challenge. Instead, I can refer you to Progeny Software's Web site, which shows numerous examples of the screens and printed reports available. You can see an example of an Individual Biographical Report, similar to what I just described, at http://www.progenygenealogy.com/genelines_samplecharts_individual.html. The main screen for all the charts is at http://www.progenygenealogy.com/genelines_charts.html.

Genelines gives you an almost infinite number of timeline reports. You can use the history files that come with the program and can also create your own historical events as you wish. You can even create your own history files and save them later for use with other Genelines charts. You can display your ancestor's life alongside the events that shaped his or her life, or you can compare the lives of several ancestors or other relatives together on one sheet.

Not only can you show the wars, heads of state, or other national data, but you can also display data on a local scale. For instance, one thing that I find interesting for my farmer ancestors is to show the dates that railroads first came to their towns. With new markets for their goods, many of these farmers increased their personal worth within a few years and started buying more land for themselves or their children. This is just one way that Genelines lets you see your ancestors' lives in time.

I spent quite a bit of time experimenting with all the charts available in Genelines 2.0. I won't describe each in detail as you can see them on the Web site. However, I have to tell you about the Fan Charts. I have seen fan charts before, produced by other programs. However, Genelines 2.0 produces a fan chart that is also a timeline. When you first look at the fan chart, you think the lines drawn between individuals are "jagged" or rough looking. However, a closer examination shows that these lines are drawn in accordance with birth years and death dates. The result is a chart that is much more meaningful than a standard fan chart. To see what I mean, look closely at the example at http://www.progenygenealogy.com/genelines_samplecharts_fan.html.

I wrote most of this article on the day before the annual family reunion of my mother's family. I printed out a six-generation fan chart of my grandfather's ancestry and another of my grandmother's ancestry. I printed the charts in color on an inkjet printer; each one required six sheets of standard printer paper, which I taped together. I could have printed to a file on a floppy diskette and then taken that file to Kinko's or some other print service. These services will print the files on wide plotters or large-format printers for a fee.

I also printed a Direct Line report, showing my grandfather's male ancestry back to the original French immigrant to Canada. This chart also displays the multiple spelling changes of the family name.

I took these charts to the family reunion, where they were quite a hit. I taped the charts to the wall and almost everyone stopped by to look at them for a while. These full-color charts created a lot of conversation all day long. We hold a mini-auction every year; family members bring craft items, gift items, children's toys and other items which we then auction off. All money received goes to fund the next year's reunion. I am one of the auctioneers and this year I auctioned off the Genelines 2.0 fan charts of our ancestry. Those charts produced the highest bids of the auction!

Here are the Key Features of Genelines 2.0, as listed on the company's Web site:

* Seven full-color, completely customizable charts, including the unique and compelling Biographical chart - a timeline chart that tells the complete story for just one individual.

* A new text report that lists, in chronological order, all the events, dates, and places for the people in any chart,
along with applicable notes and sources.

* Flexible options for choosing the individuals to show on a chart, including family groups, ancestors, descendants, and even unrelated individuals.

* Allows on-screen manipulation of the timeline, colors, fonts, borders, box positioning, and much more.

* Estimates and visually points out unknown dates, making it easy to see where more research is needed, as well as illogical or contradictory data.

* Ability to save any chart for reuse at a later time.

* Publishes charts in PDF format.

* Prints charts in a full range of sizes - from a standard size paper to large wall charts.

* Provides the ability to merge two or more charts together.

* Supports BC dates and metric units of measure.

* Comes with ready to use timeline (historical event) files, plus more available as free downloads from the Timeline
Exchange. You can also create and modify your own historical events within Genelines.

If you are already familiar with an earlier version of Genelines, you will be especially interested in this list of additions and changes found in version 2.0:

New Charts:

* Full Descendant Chart - Displays all descendants of a chosen subject, for as many generations as selected and available in your data file, with the ability to create charts up to 25 feet long! A spectacular Color by Child Line option is available for this chart, making it easy for you to color code descendants according to family line.

* Fan Chart - Portrays a subject's pedigree in the form of an open fan. Using curved boxes linked by generation, the ancestors' year of birth is printed across a year-based timeline.

Other new features include the following:

* Text View will display all the information included on any Chart, Historical Event screen, or Event Categories screen in text format. If the information is present in the database, Text View will show places, dates, applicable notes, and sources. The Text View can even be printed or published to HTML.

* Publish to PDF - Publishing charts to PDF format makes it easy for you to share your documents with others
electronically. Simply create your chart, publish to PDF, and send as an email attachment!

* Merge Charts - Create a unique, individualized chart by combining different Relationship charts into one.

* Historical Events in Biographical Charts - Displayed as a new Event Category bar, historical events can be added in Biographical Charts to include the important local, national or world events that occurred in your subject's life.

* Convenient Zoom toolbar buttons let you quickly adjust chart viewing scale.

* Author - Genelines now reads your author information directly from your genealogy database and can include the information in the chart footer.

* Label to Display in Biographical Charts. Now you can choose the label to display for the events on your Individual and Comparative charts.

* Split Screen. The new Split Screen option makes it easy to view large charts by allowing you to leave one part of the chart static while, at the same time, scrolling through the chart in another section of the screen.

New Customization Capabilities:

* Biographical Charts - Individual and Comparative charts are now fully customizable, including options to add Event Category Bars and Life Bars, remove events, and much more, all after chart creation!

* Symbol Eraser - Remove unwanted marriage and child symbols with this handy symbol erasing tool.

* Color - Change the outline, fill, and text color for any chart component, including life bars, events, categories, and links.

* Font - Choose your own default font for charts, or change the font for individual pieces of your chart after
creation. * Footer - Include a chart title, author information, or any other interesting facts at the bottom of
your chart.

* Symbols - You can customize the symbol shape for marriage & child symbols on your chart.

* Borders - Choose any of 15 border options for your chart.Genelines 2.0 requires Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000 or XP; a Pentium processor or equivalent; at least 32 megabytes of RAM memory; at least 10 megabytes of free disk space, and a Windows- compatible printer. Adobe(r) Acrobat(r) Reader(r) (a free program) is also required in order to preview and publish to PDF files.

All in all, Genelines is a great program for showing timelines, fan charts, lineage charts, and more. Very few genealogy programs display timelines, and none that I know of create timelines with all the various options of Genelines. In addition, the combined "fan chart with timelines" is unique, to my knowledge. Best of all, these charts are visually attractive. You will be proud to take these charts to a family reunion, as I did. Progeny Software
has a winner with this program!

Genelines 2.0 Universal Edition will read information directly from Family Tree Maker(r), Personal Ancestral File(r), Legacy Family Tree, Ancestry Family Tree(tm) and Ancestral Quest(tm). It sells for $29.95 (U.S. funds) if you download it directly online.If you want a CD-ROM containing the same software, the price is $34.95.

In addition to the "Universal Edition" that I have been describing, Genelines 2.0 is also available in three program-
specific versions. The three lower-priced versions are Genelines 2.0 for Ancestral Quest, Genelines 2.0 for Ancestry Family Tree, and Genelines 2.0 for Legacy. Each of these programs will read data only from the one program mentioned. All other functions, including all the reports, are the same in the program-specific versions as in the Universal Edition. Each of the three program- specific versions of Genelines 2.0 sells for $19.95 (U.S. funds) as a download or $24.95 on CD-ROM disk.

For more information about Genelines 2.0 or to safely order the program via a secure Web shopping cart, go to
http://www.progenygenealogy.com/genelines.html

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Genelines 2.0 review by Jim Byram
Family Chronicle September/October 2002 p. 29-30

Genelines Software
Jim Byram reviews Progeny Software’s unique charting program.

On 29 June, 2002, Progeny Software released version 2.0 of Genelines, a companion charting program that combines data from several genealogy database programs or from GEDCOM files with history files to produce seven different types of color charts. This combination of “time, historical events and family relationships” allows you to examine your data from new and unique perspectives.

Genelines requires Microsoft Windows 95 or higher, 10 megabytes of hard disk space and a minimum of 32 megabytes of memory. The program comes in a Universal Edition that reads database formats from PAF, Family Tree Maker, Legacy Ancestral Quest, Ancestral Family Tree and GEDCOM. Program-specific versions are also available that read GEDCOM files and either Legacy, Ancestral Quest or AFT database files. The Universal Edition costs $29.95 US for download or $34.95 US with a CD-ROM. The program-specific versions cost $10 US less respectively for download or with CD-ROM.

I tested Genelines under Windows XP Pro and opened PAF5, FTM9, Legacy 4 and AFT databases and several GEDCOM 5.5 files produced by TMG4. A list file is produced whenever a GEDCOM is opened by Genelines and the only listed errors resulted from non-standard dates.

Home Screen
You can select the focus person from a list box showing all individuals in the open database. Two Display buttons let you view the individual or family data for the focus person.

Event Categories
Five buttons let you review, edit and add data for the default Event Categories — Health, Occupation, Relationships, Religion and Residence. You can add as many additional event categories as you wish, importing data from the current open database or using data that you add. For each added category, a new button will be added to the home screen. Each event has fields for Name, Start Date, End Date, Place and Description/Note.

Historical Events
Genelines includes several history files (timelines) each of which contains a series of historical events. Many additional history files are available for download from the Timeline Exchange on the Progeny Software website. You can create your own history files and contribute them to the Progeny site for download by other users.
The Historical Events button opens a screen where you can import, edit or add and delete historical events. Each event consists of five fields – Name, Start Date, End Date, Place and Note. You essentially start from a clean slate and either add events or import events from a pre-existing history file. When you import from a file, you can use selected events or all events and merge the new events into or replace the existing events.

You can create your own history files by entering data on this screen and using the Export History option on the File menu. It’s easy to build up a collection of special purpose history files to support specific charts.

The Genelines Charts
Seven prominent buttons on the home screen are used to create charts for the focus person. The available charts are Individual Biographical, Comparative Biographical, Family Group, Pedigree, Direct Line, Full Descendant and Fan. The comparative chart consists of the combined individual charts for two or more individuals.

To make a chart, you first select a focus person in the list box and prepare the event categories and historical events that you plan to use. You then click one of the chart buttons and select the options for that chart.

For example, for the individual chart, you select one or more event categories (including relationships and history) and check ‘Show dates?’ if you wish. All events for the selected categories are selected by default. An Events button allows you to review the events and to deselect any individual event. Clicking the OK button generates the chart.

The chart will now be displayed. You have various options using your mouse on the chart and using the Format menu to revise the details and layout of the chart. Each event category is a horizontal bar and you can drag these bars to arrange them vertically as you please. There are numerous formatting options for color, font, footer, timeline and borders. You can delete data from the chart. You can choose whether to show dates in the event categories. If you see that the historical events need revision or thinning, you can go directly to that screen from the View menu. You can add ‘Life Bars’ for other individuals. The charts visually estimate unknown dates such as the lifespan of a spouse or child.

The ‘relationship’ charts can be merged. For example, you could create a pedigree chart and a descendant chart for a person and save each. You can then open one and merge the other. This new chart can be saved, printed or published. The two original charts are not changed by the merge.

You can save the chart for future recall, print or print preview it, or publish it to a Genelines chart file or to a .PDF file. Printed charts can be sized as appropriate for the output medium.

The options for the other charts differ as is appropriate for a given chart type. The chart footer can be used to document and date your chart. The Full Descendant chart has an option to ‘Color by Child Line’ so that each family line is color coded. The ‘relationship’ charts allow each person’s marriages and children to be represented by symbols. A ‘Symbol Eraser’ lets you selectively remove unwanted marriage and child symbols. Toolbar buttons allow you to fit or to zoom the chart display, return to the home screen from a chart and replicate many of the buttons on the home screen.

Text View
When viewing a chart that you have created, you can switch to Text View from the View menu. This is a table with every event from your chart. Each event is on a row arranged in chronological order with five columns — Start Date, End Date, Event, Place & Note/Source. The Note/Source field will include multiple sources for the event but a portion of the citation detail was omitted from some sources using data from a GEDCOM [fixed in version 2.0.1 – jeb]. The Text View table can be printed or saved in HTML. For a web site, your .PDF charts can be documented with in detail using Text View HTML tables.

Genelines is a wonderful and unique charting program. The charts not only make attractive additions to your website and published genealogy but also provide you with new ways to view and analyze your data. The visual estimated dates show you where additional research is needed. The comparative bibliographic chart lets you compare two individuals who are candidates for being merged in your database. Everyone should consider adding Genelines to his or her genealogy toolkit.

Genelines information, download and support are available from www.progenygenealogy.com.

Illustrations

– The Genelines home screen showing the default selection options.

– A Genelines individual chart for James Losey with added census events and simplified US historical events.

– A Genelines three-generation pedigree for Minnie Wheeler with simplified Texas historical events. The symbols show marriages and children for each person.

Family Chronicle Software Rating

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Genelines Review by Dick Eastman
Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter, Vol. 6 No. 24 - June 11, 2001

Genelines 1.3

Genelines for Windows is a great timeline charting companion for use with almost any genealogy program. It reads information directly from Family Tree Maker and from Personal Ancestral File. It will also read information from a GEDCOM file created by any modern genealogy program. Genelines lets you place the names and lives of your family's past into historical context. Now Progeny Software has announced the release of Genelines version 1.3. The new version adds compatibility with Personal Ancestral File version 5.0.

I wrote a review of Genelines in 1998 when it was a brand-new program. This week I re-wrote that review a bit to "modernize" it and to include the newer features added since the original release. Here is my updated review:

Genelines is described as "a charting companion" for use directly with Family Tree Maker or with Personal Ancestral File versions 3, 4 or 5. It also will read data from GEDCOM files so that you can use it with any other modern genealogy program. Genelines will read your data and then create some very interesting charts, both on-screen and on your printer. All of the charts are well done, and two of them are new to genealogy software. I have not seen anything to match the "Individual Geneline Chart" or the "Comparative Geneline Chart" in any other genealogy program. A few other programs do have timeline charts, but none of them approach the two new ones in Genelines. In addition, Genelines also produces great pedigree charts, direct descendant charts, and family group charts. These last three charts are available in other genealogy programs; Genelines simply produces better-looking charts than most other programs.

Genelines produces charts on any Windows-compatible printing device. It will print on dot matrix, inkjet or laser printers. It will even print on large plotters to make wall-sized charts in full color. Some of the examples that Progeny Software has exhibited at genealogical conferences are spectacular. They have displayed charts as large as three feet by eight feet and they can produce even larger charts if the hardware is available. If you do not have a $5,000 plotter in your living room, you can still produce large charts in Genelines and save them to a disk file. You can then copy the file to a floppy disk and take it to a commercial service, such as Kinko's, and have the charts printed there.

Genelines will also copy any of the charts to the Windows Clipboard. You can then insert the charts into almost any Windows program, such as a word processor or a spreadsheet.

Trying to describe these visual charts in a text-only newsletter is a bit of a challenge; I would suggest that you look at the examples on Progeny Software's Web site.

Quoting from the information supplied with Genelines:

The Individual Geneline Chart is a biographical chart depicting one person's life as a chronological life bar including a variety of customizable categories such as occupation, health, residence, etc.

This statement is true, but it doesn't do justice to the charts. An example that I looked at was based upon the life of John Alden of Mayflower fame. The name John Alden was in a large red bar that covered the entire chart. The left side of the bar signified his birth in 1599 in Southampton, England. The right side was labeled "Died Sep 12, 1687 Plymouth, MA." Three divisions under the red bar illustrated the events of his life. The three were labeled Political, Relationship and Residential.

The Political section had blue bars and text signifying the events in which John Alden participated. It showed that he signed the Mayflower Compact in 1620, helped found Duxbury, Massachusetts, then served as Governor's Assistant from the 1630s through the 1670s. He also had to pay a fine at one time, and he was a member of the Council of War. All of these events are shown on the chart; each one starts and ends below the appropriate years.

In the Relationship section you can see the date of his marriage to Priscilla Mullins (the example had no mention of Myles Standish, but I know you could add that, if you wished) and the dates of birth of each of their children.

The Residential section shows the day John Alden left England, the time of his residence in Plymouth, and the dates of his later residence in Duxbury, Massachusetts.

The above describes just one example. The dates and the sections are fully customizable. The user can add any events or titles as desired. When I have a chance, I hope to create a similar chart for my great-great-grandfather, showing not only the events I just described, but also the year when New England had frost in the summer that destroyed crops and caused bankruptcies, the dates he bought and sold land, the dates the local church was established and later merged with another, the date the railroad opened in his town, etc.

The Comparative Geneline Chart is loosely similar but normally depicts the lives and events of multiple people. Again, quoting from the Genelines advertising:

Comparative Geneline Chart - An age-based biographical chart displaying several chosen individuals' life bars and events.

A very different Comparative Geneline Chart I have seen illustrates the lives of all the U.S. Presidents. It shows on one page those men who took office at an early age or in their senior years. Again, the charts can be customized in many different ways.

Genelines is a 32-bit program for Windows. It requires Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT or Windows 2000. The requirements for disk space and memory seem very modest. If your computer is capable of running one of those operating systems, it should easily handle
Genelines.

The installation of Genelines was about the same as any other Windows program. Installation required about a minute to complete. The use of Genelines seemed easy and intuitive most of the time. The online Help information seemed complete the few times that I looked at it. The printouts were great. Take a look at Progeny Software's Web site to see examples.

Genelines sells for $29.95 (U.S. funds). Users of earlier versions can upgrade to Genelines 1.3 at no charge. You can download a trial version of the program online and take it for a "test drive" before deciding whether or not you want to spend money for it. You can also take a "guided tour" of the program at the same Web site.

To learn more about Genelines, to take the "guided tour," to download the trial program, or to purchase Genelines on a secure Web server, go to: http://www.progenygenealogy.com.

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"It's About Time" by Rick Crume
Family Tree Magazine, April 2001

Genelines helps you plot your family's place in history.

Traditional pedigree charts and family group sheets present a rather dry summary of names, dates and places. To top it off, these charts can be quite a challenge for non-genealogists to understand. Your family is bound to have a few unfortunate souls who still don't share your passion for genealogy—and "boring" charts aren't likely to help them see the light. Enter Genelines from Progeny Software (www.progenygenealogy.com).

Genelines creates eye-catching timeline charts that highlight important events in your family history and put them in a broader historical context. Drawing on data you've already compiled using Personal Ancestral File, Family Tree Maker or other genealogy software, a Genelines chart can show not only personal events such as marriages, occupations and places of residence, but also how history unfolded during your ancestors' lives—cultural milestones, wars and technological developments, for example. A quick glance at the chart lets you easily answer questions such as "Which of my ancestors were alive during the Civil War?" "Could my grandparents have known any of their grandparents?" or "Were any of my great-great-grandparents still living when the telephone was invented?"

The program is a utility that complements your full-featured Windows genealogy program. Version 1.2P offers a selection of five timeline charts:
· The Individual Life Bar chart shows a timeline and events over the course of one person's lifetime.
· The Comparative Life Bar chart shows timelines and events in the lifetimes of two or more people. This format lets you compare relatives' ages when certain events took place and how long those events lasted, perhaps indicating family trends or genetic traits.
· The Direct Descendant chart shows an individual's descent from an ancestor.
· The Family Group chart displays an individual's parents, spouse and children.
· The Pedigree chart shows all of a person's ancestors for a specified number of generations.

All of these charts are well-designed and feature pleasing color combinations. They can be infinitely customized, too: You can change a chart's size and colors, select how many generations to display and add or remove individuals.

Genelines comes with a wide selection of historical events covering everything from the Gutenberg Bible, the Mayflower's voyage and the Salem witch trials to more modern milestones such as the Great Depression and the invention of color television. You can also add your forebears' own important events: immigration, change of residence, military service and educational or career achievements. Users can share their history files through Progeny Software's Web site, where you can download customized history files, including Acadian, Jewish and LDS timelines.

Once your on-screen chart looks just right, you can print it out or save the image for insertion in a graphic or word processing document. A chart can extend up to 25 feet long—that's sure to be an attention-getter at your next family reunion.
Genelines is a cinch to use and features an outstanding printed manual and on-screen help. The program reads Personal Ancestral File and Family Tree Maker files directly so you don't have to re-enter any information. If you use other genealogy software, you just have to create a GEDCOM file for use with Genelines. To operate Genelines, you need a 486 66MHz PC with Windows 95 or higher and 8 MB RAM. It costs $29.95 plus $5 shipping from Progeny; call (800) 565-0018 or order directly from the Web site.

Too often history is taught as a long succession of wars and presidents, without any discussion of how average people lived. Likewise, genealogists too often tell their family histories without mentioning how their ancestors' lives were shaped by national and international events.

Genelines makes it easy to put your family history in historical context.

Reprinted with permission from the April 2001 Family Tree Magazine (www.familytreemagazine.com). Copyright 2001 F&W Publications Inc.; all rights reserved.

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