FHS Software - Jan 1993 Update

The Jan 93 Update to the Family History System was the last in what might be called "Version 1" of the software. Just as all preceding updates of FHS going back to the first in March 1985, the Jan 93 update was based upon programs written for the "interpreted" version of Basic that was provided for early models of the IBM PC. Called BASICA or "Advanced Basic", a similar program, named GWBASIC, was subsequently provided for compatible PC's running MS DOS. All versions of FHS thru Jan 93 (and modifications to that update thru 1996) were first written and tested using BASICA or GWBASIC (with some nice enhancements created by Beta Tool Systems). They were then compiled (since 1986) using Microsoft QuickBasic to produce programs which would run faster and not require either BASICA or GWBASIC.

Originally the programs were written to run on PC's with 64k of memory and a single 320k diskette drive. The Jan 93 update still requires only 256k of RAM and a single diskette drive, and it runs on all models of IBM compatible PC's. While some changes have been made to the FHS family file format over the years, family files created using any version of FHS can be used with all subsequent updates without conversion.

Although there is a later update to the Family History System available at this site, I am providing this page as a source of corrections to the Jan 93 update for three groups of users: