HISTARCHers:

I promised a review on the ease of use of the new set of 18 CD's just
produced by the Church of Latter Day Saints. These CD's contain the entire
U. S. national census for 1880.

For background, I have chosen to use the database at home, as my primary
interest is genealogical rather than archeological. Hower, I do indeed
intent to use it for historical research connected with a project I'm
working on in Alaska. While I have already created a database for the 1900
census for the community I'm interested in, I would dearly love to know
where a number of critical people were in 1880, and this database from the
LDS has tremendous potential.

In trying to install the reader software that came with the set of CD's, I
ran out of memory. In trying to uninstall some children's game's software
(which run very high on memory and don't get played with that much), I
inadvertantly corrupted an essential file needed to load Windows95.

I spent two hours on the phone getting technical support; was told I've
have to reload Windows and all my other software; then spent 10 hours
backing up my files before I could start the reload. I have not yet started
the reload process, but have been told it could take 3 to 8 hours. In the
meantime, my dog kept vomitting and I spent a few hours at the emergency
animal clinic.

Needless to say, I am not yet in a position to let you know how well it
works.

I am not yet ready, either, to blame the LDS software on this problem.
However, the software package does NOT come with specifications about
system requirements. These specifications DO appear on the LDS Family
History website, so starting without enough memory was probably my fault,
and I should have checked that out first.

I will be fully informed on both the specifications and the ease of use
before I report back to all of you. Wish me luck!!!


Cathy Spude
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