Tuesday's Tip - Location reports to help in a search.

I subscribe to the Legacy User Group email forum (I hope I have that right!). Anyway, it is the place where a number of Legacy users ask questions or try to get their Legacy problems solved. It is moderated by Legacy and the messages are archived. Some of the questions posed are jumping off points for me- I try to figure out the answer (sometimes I even post my response). A recent one was interesting in a couple of ways. Why not read the question, follow along with my suggestion, and then think about (and share) how you would answer the question.

A person is going to research in a particular place and wants a list of surnames that occur in that place (although they would like cities and counties, if possible, they really need the State and the surnames that occur there). The person has not been consistent in their data entry for locations and does not have the time to clean up their database. They are aware of the location report option but because their data entry is inconsistent it is not all in one place. They played with the detailed search function, but it asked for tags which they don't use. How should they go about finding every instance of that place and is there any easy way to do so?

I had two thoughts.

The first was a detailed search that included the parameters of 

individual, birth place, contains, STATE or

individual, death place, contains, STATE or

individual, marriage place, contains, STATE

and check clear list before this search

when they got that list, they could do a continued search

individual, burial place, contains, STATE, or

individual, baptism place, contains, STATE, or

individual, event place, contains, STATE 

and check the add the results to existing list button

I thought that list would give them individuals with a birth, baptism, marriage, death, burial or event in that STATE. They would then be able to review their list for surnames. However, that does not get this person the cities or counties, only the State (and hopefully they spelled out the name of the State).

The second thought (and much easier I think) - I went back and ran a location report (this person had done that as well). I ran the location report and printed it to PDF (so it is on my computer - NOT paper). Then I opened the PDF and used the Find function to look for the STATE - spelled out and in any short form. When you do that, you get all instances and can scroll through and note which pages of the location report you need - this way you have not only the surnames (actually the entire name of the individual) but also the city/town, county, etc. 

So, how would you suggest the person approach their project/question? I certainly don't claim to be an expert (probably am an intermediate user) and I am sure there are a few ways to approach this question.

It certainly reminds us why it is a good idea to spring clean our master location list (once or twice a year) so that it is always in good order. Our genealogy database program is a great tool to work with it to manipulate our data BUT as the users of this tool, we have to spend the time and effort to consistently input information so we can get the best use out of it. 

Do you have any suggestions on how to get this type of list generated? Why not share them in the comment section below.