Mac Genealogy Software becoming Ubiquitous

With the introduction of Ancestry.com's Family Tree Maker 3 for the Mac, genealogy software on the Apple OS X machines in moving into the mainstream. This introduction comes close on the heels of the upgraded Heredis 2014 for the Mac. There is still the Reunion 10 program that has been around since 1984, probably putting it into a category all its own. I am not aware of too many programs that have been around that long and are still selling. There is also Mac Family Tree. These are the more commercialized software products available, but there are also a number of lesser known programs including iFamily, Genealogy Pro, and Osk. 

If you counted up all of the Windows based genealogy programs, you would have dozens, especially if you included all of the shareware and free programs.

Heredis and Mac Family Tree have introduced a new aspect to Macintosh based genealogy software; promotional advertising. For too many years the OS X operating system has been treated like a stepchild as far as genealogy software is concerned. I have never seen any of the above products sponsor any genealogy conference with the exception of Ancestry.com's participation in the very large conferences. I get questioned all the time about whether there is genealogy software on the Mac. Many of the people asking the question have been told that there is not. Most Mac users end up running the Windows genealogy software in emulation.

This low level of visibility, coupled with few (up until now) offerings, have made the Mac genealogy software all but invisible. For this reason, I see the recent ads by Heredis, Family Tree Maker and Mac Family Tree to be important steps. Now, if they would just start participating in the greater genealogical community and attend a few conferences, they might just come out of the shadows.