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Showing posts from June, 2014

Is there a way to find each shared event in my database?

How do I find each shared event? A report or some way to find these events to tag them? I've looked but am not seeing anything..... it's probably right in front of my nose,but ......

Printing a pedigree chart and have questions.

Looking for some ideas to help a fellow Legacy user who is going on a research trip. Here is the gist of her question "I am going to be travelling a bit in Germany in about a month and I have one day set aside to research in an archive that has previously yielded a wealth of information on this particular family (I hired a researcher who went to the archive on my behalf).  Since the archive is only open for 6 hours, two days a week, this one day is my only chance so I want to maximize my results in any way that I can by the best preparation possible. I will not have help from the staff there and they don't speak any English anyway.  I am supposed to just bring a pedigree chart with me and can't bring very much into the archive. I am printing a pedigree chart and family group sheets (I am interested in all siblings, spouses, etc. and will likely copy/save anything with any of my surnames if I can - they make the copies for you and I can't take digital photo

Tuesday's Tip - Thoughts on starting over or do-over with databases.

There has been lots of discussion online about "starting over" with a database. There are several reasons why a genealogist might choose to do this, perhaps s/he:  (1) inherited a database and wants to "do the work" themselves, (2) downloaded a GEDCOM into their database and now has trouble determining what is good information and what needs to be re-checked, (3) failed to cite sources and/or perform some critical thinking about data when s/he originally entered it, or perhaps (4) switched database programs and found that much of the data did not make the trip successfully I would suggest that genealogists who are thinking about  starting their Legacy database over - give it a bit more thought . Why? Because Legacy offers some very good ways to check your data, look for errors, missing pieces and missing sources, and make a note of what to clean up . If you are unfamiliar with advanced tagging, take the time to learn more about it (the help section of

Question about SourceWriter with BMD certificates

Hi everyone, I'm new here so please bear with me :-) I've just decided to buy Legacy Version 8 as whilst testing several programs I much preferred Legacy. Until I am able to obtain an actual copy of any BMD Certificates, I have used Free BMD to locate the index numbers and wish to enter these as Source Citations - probably like many newbies I'm struggling to get used to doing this correctly. In Source Writer I'm searching for BMD Index and then choosing:- Birth records> Birth certificate>England>Birth certificate, index> Online images. Once I complete the Sourcewriter wizard the citation does not give the Volume and page number from the index even tho I have entered this :-( Could anyone pass on some advice please as to if this is correct or what / if I need to change anything :-) http://www.freebmd.org.uk/

Temporary glitch with FamilySearch.

Legacy News says there's a temporary glitch with FamilySearch. The same Legacy News inside my v.7 database says FamilySearch no longer works with v.7 and the link to the article takes me straight to a download page for v.8 instead of the actual article of which I though there might be more. In the meantime, I opened FamilySearch from Legacy and it's doing searches just fine. Well, sort of, and then freezes. And if I click on anything with arrows the arrows disappear.. I guess Geoff will get through the panic soon and tell us what's really going on.

Shannon weighs in on "do-over" in genealogy software.

I've been reading a lot about people starting their database over and I have been thinking about doing the same.  When I switched from FTM to Legacy I ended up with a bunch of Events with no sources and not a whole lot of information.  So today I tagged everyone on tag #9 and I started going through each person getting rid of the Events that make no sense.  When I am satisfied with them I then remove the #9 tag.  The thought of starting over gives me a headache!  I figured by using this method I can still keep the good information and weed out the bad over time.  During this process I am not looking at fixing citations; I'm just getting rid of events.  Baby steps!   Has anyone else thought about starting over or have you done it??

Backups missing - what happened?

A first for me.  Tried to open my Legacy today and asked if I had code, and if starting with GEDCOM etc!  I had lost everything.  I do backup every time I close Legacy and all my backed up trees are on a flash drive.  All the back-ups on my hard drive are gone.  I lost all my colors and all my settings, so will have to try to do all that.  I might drop potential problems as that will take hours and all the important ones were fixed.

Tuesday's Tip - Legacy's advanced tagging feature.

Continuing on with our marriage theme this month, I have found that the search feature and advanced tagging are my friends as I am working through marriages in my Legacy database. I would not suggest anyone work with Ancestry.com today (it has suffered a service glitch and is having "issues" - saw an apology for the service glitch during one of the few times it was up and running for me today). So what's a gal to do? Well I know that I have several marriages in two States that have great online records - Minnesota and Washington . I decided to run a search focusing on marriages in each of those States and used the advanced tagging feature to check if I need a source (or a better source) for those marriages. I printed off PDFs for each State and am slowly but surely working my way through the list. Lucky for me, the Washington Digital Archives has great search capabilities and provides lots of detail. Oftentimes, you can download a jpeg or pdf of the marriage re

Summer vacation - hangouts on break, so how will you play?

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Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash I don't know about where you live, but here in the USA school has let out for the summer. Now for many summer school and sports or church camps start up their programs in a few weeks. And that gave me an idea - we are going to take a break for JUNE from our monthly hangout . Don't worry, we are coming right back in July, but since the bell rung to take a short break I thought we would get in on the vacation. No worries as you will see our Tuesday's Tips for the remainder of the month (and perhaps even a few video tips!) and you can always go to TessaWatch (my YouTube Channel) and watch any of our previous hangouts (they are all recorded and archived) that you may have missed or want to get a bit of a refresher on. And, of course, keep the questions and comments coming here in the discussion area - we have had some really interesting questions this month already. So next Thursday - take that hour that you spend watching our

PDF printer for computers.

Got this from Kim Komando. Do PDF is a free program that installs another printer to your system. When you go File / Print and select it you can save a browser page to a PDF. My mind is spinning with the possibilities of using this. After download when you install the program seems to work in the background for a long time before it starts to indicate progress. Here is the site: http://dopdf-free-pdf-converter.soft112.com/

Tuesday's Tip - June is marriage month - get your marriages cleaned up in Legacy.

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Photo by Beatriz Perez Moya on Unsplash The month of June is the favorite month for marriages (at least in the United States). How many marriages do you have in your Legacy database ? I have 2,168 marriages. Now how many of those marriages have all the necessary information (spouse's name, date of marriage, place of marriage, source for your information)? How would you go about finding out about missing information (hint - the search feature). I am taking a look at my marriages, and right away I have 55 individuals with an unknown spouse - so I know the first bit of research I am going to focus on! I plan to use the month of June to clean up my "marriages" information in Legacy. How is your database in regard to marriages - all clean and tidy or could it use a little clean up? Why not share your marriage stats and tell us how you keep track of any work to be done in regard to marriages .

Gender reassignment - how to show in Legacy?

Hi, I have an interesting problem - well interesting to me I guess. I have a nephew who is now a niece.  He/She was born a male and has gender reassignment surgery etc.   How do I record this in Legacy?  At the moment I have him recorded as a male by his birth name, date etc. Cannot work out how to record this individual in my database. I am sorry if there are members in our Community are not comfortable with me bringing up a discussion on this topic, but for me it is a genuine genealogical dilemma. Am hoping someone out there may have a idea about how to record this.

What are your plans for genealogy during the summer vacation?

I know it is not officially Summer but when the calendar turns to June, we know school days are coming to an end. With that in mind, I thought I would turn the tables (so to speak) for this week's Tuesday's Tip . What are your genealogy and family history plans for Summer 2014 ? Are you attending any conferences (like SCGS Jamboree 2014 in Burbank, California this weekend)? Are you going to your ancestors' homes (either in your own country or crossing the pond) to do some research? Are you enjoying a staycation and doing some research right in your own town or city? Whatever your Summer plans are - how do you prepare for research trips, conferences or seminars? And how do you use any of the Legacy features to help you plan your workflow ?   Tuesday's Tip is going in the other direction today! (I'm knocking on that monitor and trying to get your attention!) We have 630 members (welcome to any new members!). It is time for our LVUG Community members to "