Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada, January 5, 2006 - Progeny Software has announced it will be giving away the Social Security Death Index research CD and World Place Finder program for free. Customers only pay the cost of shipping and handling.
Valued at $45US, these products will be available for free until February 28, 2006.
Customers can order these free products at: http://www.progenysoftware.com.
Progeny's SSDI CD is unique because all 61-million names fit on a single CD, saving family researchers the trouble of flipping back and forth between multiple CDs. As well, because all of the data is stored on the CD, so no Internet connection is required. Regularly priced at $29.95US, Progeny's SSDI is described in more detail at: http://www.progenysoftware.com/socialsecuritydeathindex.html
World Place Finder is Progeny's easy-to-use, place-name lookup program with over 3.3-million place names from around the world. Users can quickly find the correct spelling of their ancestors' home towns and even see them on a map with the MapQuest.com link. Regularly priced at $14.95US, World Place Finder is described in more detail at: http://www.progenysoftware.com/placefinder.html
Progeny's single shipping and handling charge of $6US ($10US for international orders) covers up to two CDs so genealogists can order both free products for a single shipping charge.
Progeny's SSDI is an index to basic information about persons with US Social Security numbers who are deceased as of June 1999. An essential resource for novice and experienced genealogists alike, the SSDI helps genealogists find information such as: Social Security number, surname, given name, date of birth, date of death, last known residence, date and place of issuance and location of last benefit.
With an SSDI number, genealogists may be able to obtain a copy of an individual's Social Security application or claims form. Instructions on how to obtain a copy of this claims form, called the SS-5, along with a sample letter of request are both included on Progeny's SSDI CD.
The World Place Finder program is a gazetteer, or database, that consists of over 3.3-million place names from around the world plus over 100,000 US churches and cemeteries. Too large to download from the Internet, the World Place Finder program is available only on CD-ROM.
With World Place Finder family historians can quickly look-up towns and cities, counties and countries of where their ancestors lived. World Place Finder will provide the correct and complete placename spelling including the county name.
World Place Finder will also identify the exact latitude and longitude for each place, and the built-in link to Mapquest.com will instantly show the location on a map.
I've ordered my copies - Thanks for the heads up.
I've used the World Place Finder v1.0 quite extensively as I struggle through a 67,000 name database I inherited sorting out and standardising the place names. Hopefully v1.1 will fix some of the glitches that 1.0 had, like identifying England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland as United Kingdom.
My main gripe about this database is that it won't run on my Macintosh - heck it's only a database, so I don't see why it can't be distributed as say a FileMaker Pro file, but it runs OK under Virtual PC.
Roger
Posted by: theKiwi | January 05, 2006 at 02:04 PM
Progeny's SSDI data-on-CD is over 5 YEARS OLD. If their World Place Finder is also an antique, I'd say that they've hit on a pretty good way to make a couple bucks getting rid of their obsolete CD's.
Shame on you, Dick Eastman, for mongering this junk to your readers.
Posted by: Speedy-0 | January 05, 2006 at 02:22 PM
I have used both and like them. I keep the World Place Finder on my hard drive all the time.
I'd say the two combined are worth a lot more than $6.00.
- Dick Eastman
Posted by: Dick Eastman | January 05, 2006 at 02:42 PM