Do you have duplicated files and folders on your Mac?

I have a problem.  I am quite pedantic about backups and keeping things safe to the point my Mac was over run with duplicates without me realising it.

Over the past week I backed up to Time Machine, reformatted the drive, installed El Capitan and restored my files.

Now came the time to tidy them up as I upgraded to 2016 Microsoft Office which included 1TB of storage on OneDrive.  Whilst moving files and folders around I realised there were duplicates that had crept in.

I found the BEST app!  The Duplicate Finder (normally $9.99 but free at the moment, so even better).

Over the years I have tried a few duplicate finders but none were comparable to this one.  Easy to use and accurate as all get out.  The only thing I could wish for is that you could set the parameters to exclude certain file extensions.  It does have a filter once searched, but it would be easier to tell it not to search for example .mp3 and .wav files.

I do highly recommend it, go grab it for yourself and give it a whirl, I'll be surprised if you didn't find it useful.

If you are interested, in my genealogy folder alone there were 976 duplicates!  That freed up 21gb of space and I'll be tackling the rest progressively.  And yes, everything will ultimately be moved to the "cloud" and synced back to Mac.  Then I will be able to access anything on my iPad when away from home.  Chuckling here, I can't help myself, Time Machine backups stay, and so does a synced copy of the essential stuff to an external drive where "older" non essential's and the dubious reside. :D

https://itunes.apple.com/app/the-duplicate-finder/id654667344?mt=12

Seeking James Warren Patterson 1908-1974

Seeking information on descendants of James Warren Patterson b. abt 1908 died 14 Feb 1974, Sydney, late of 59 Cooks Ave, Canterbury and Mary Feeney Brown b. 14 Jan 1911, Sydney and died 3 Oct 2008, Sydney.

What is an .iso file and how can it be used for genealogy?

I don't presume to be an expert around computers but I do like to educate myself and learn when I am challenged.  This happened to me over the past week when my 2010 MacBook Pro started to have real problems when my available space dropped to less than 40gb out of a 500gb drive.

Updated, a few people have asked for complete instructions so I have added them, scroll straight to the bottom.

Kitty Cooper's: Organizing DNA results with your Genealogy: WikiTree.com

Here is a really great blog post by Kitty Cooper about why and how we use WikiTree for the purpose of displaying our family tree's and connecting our DNA.  Have a read and if you haven't started using WikiTree yet it is an option worth considering.
http://blog.kittycooper.com/2015/01/organizing-dna-results-with-your-genealogy-wikitree-com/

Here is my own tree, and if you click through to my profile you can follow the confirmed DNA lines that I have entered so far, still working on them :)

embeddable family tree updated live from WikiTree

RIP ~ Heather Irene Craft nee Johnson

Johnson/Lancaster Line

Heather Irene Craft

nee Johnson

29th July 1920, Paddington, NSW

20th May 2015, Maryborough, Qld

Aged 94 years, 9 months, 20 days

Heather Irene (Johnson) Craft, 94, died Tuesday, 19 May 2015.

Born on Thursday, 29 July 1920, she was the daughter of the late John Joseph (James) Johnson formerly of Gunnedah, New South Wales, Australia and the late Jessie Aileen (Lancaster).

On Friday, 30 November 1984 she was preceded in death by her husband of 38 years, Andrew John Craft, son of the late Andrew Australia Craft, and the late Elizabeth Magdalena Mary (Goodwin).

Heather Irene is survived by one son, John Graham; (and possibly) one sister, Norma Dorothy (Patsy) (Johnson) Preen; three granddaughters, Jacqueline (Wadey) Fanto and her husband Larry Fanto, Tina (Wadey) Rouchotas and her husband Peter Rouchotas, and Georgina; five great grandchildren, Liam, Benjamin, and Noah Fanto, Elan and Olivia Rouchotas.

Heather Irene was preceded in death by one daughter, Suzanne Maree; two siblings, Jean Mary (Johnson) O'Brien, and John (Jack) William Johnson; four grandparents, William Lancaster, Emily Jane (Hatch) Lancaster, William Caleb Johnson, and Mary Ellen (Reeves) Johnson.

She is deeply mourned and lovingly remembered by her family.

Introducing Patrick John 'Paddy' Cummin's youngest son

Last night, Thursday 19th February was an interesting night.  Whilst sitting here waiting for severe TC Marcia to cross the Coast of Queensland a few hundred kilometers up the road being and being hammered with sheets of wind and rain I decided to log into FamilyTreeDNA and check the status again of 'Uncle's' Family Finder test.  Results for batch 606 were initially due 11 Feb, then 18th, then 25th.  Once your myOrigins results load you know you are getting close to receiving full results.  SURPRISE, his myOrigins results were loaded!  Yippee!