I have spent the entire day playing around with Family Historian. It is Just Fine. I even ran a few reports, to see how the source citations looked, and they are Just Fine, too. But, it’s still not the program I love with all my heart, and it is going to cost me $60 when the free trial is over.
Sooooo. I tried one last time to track down the problem with Cumberland Family Tree and Vista. Apparently, it’s something to do with CFT changing file names and Vista being a big meanypants about it. I found a message board post from the guy who wrote the program, written in early 2008, saying that he’d released an updated version for Vista. Huzzah! Except, he’s taken down his website and is no longer selling the program. But, I now had a reason to think that there might be a version out there, somewhere, that’d work. A couple of hours of trolling through message boards and I found a saintly soul who was hosting the new version on his own website
I win!
It took me all damned weekend, but I now have CFT back up and running. I feel like a three year old who just found her security blanket. Now I just have to get the back-up databases off my other machine.
Oh! I did actually get something accomplished, though. I found a bunch of census records for Esther’s family (1900-1930). Apparently they were living in Ohio in 1910. I had no idea! Asa’s mother, Emma, was supposedly born in Ohio, so that might help narrow down the search. Or it could just be a coincidence. I also found Asa’s family in the 1860-1880 census, living in Massachusetts. Still no trace of Robert Cooper, because it’s such a common name, and I don’t have a starting point. I expect I could get info on him from Ball State’s archives, though. Surely they’d know something about him, since they named a building after him!
And now, I’m going to go watch mindless teevee, eat ice cream, and maybe even have an adult beverage, because my brain has turned to mush.
red paper boat 