How to enter events in Legacy - a question.
I'm sure someone has addressed these questions before but I can't seem to find anything on them. I am having a problem deciding how to enter events. I have done a lot of research using Polk Directories. My father's family lived in one city for most of their lives and many at the same address for years. If I want to enter just one line for the Polk Directory for someone with the same address for twenty years, should I just enter 1920 -1940? But, if you had a tax or voter event that fell within that time bracket, the placement would be off. The other question is regarding occupation. I would like to record that in the event but can't seem to find a proper place for it. Right now occupations are with the addresses and employers in the Desc/Place/Notes. So my Master Location list looks a little odd. I guess there is no harm in that. John Smith (Mary), carpenter, Brown Lumber, 100 West Main, Topeka, Kansas If anyone has any suggestions, I would welcome them.
It depends on your focus. If you want a very detailed timeline of your ancestor, then make Poke Directories a master source, add it to your source clipboard, and enter a separate event for each year and add the source from you clipboard very easily. If you focus does not need that leve of detail in your timelines, then just enter one residency event and enter 1920-1940. I think both ways are acceptable but is entirely dependent on what your focus is. On a related matter, my parents lived in the same house for seveal years, but because of the changing of ruarl mail routes, and city boundiers, they have had, over the years five different addresses. The only way to make that situation understandable is to put a new event in for each time their address changed, and describe the truth in a note.
ReplyDeleteI create different events - I have one "City Directory" that reflects anything I found in city directories. Since the address is the same, I would do the 1920-1940. I would also create different events for the tax or voter ones.
ReplyDeleteI separate occupation from employer but that is just me. Part of that is for the old ones, I have a lot of farmers or people that worked for the railroad or coal mines and I did not have the names of the actual employer. I do add employer name with the city/county/state but don't add the street address for them.
Kelly, I think that the header in the event "Desc/Place/Notes" led me along my path of placing all the information for one year under "Polk Directory -
ReplyDelete1932 - John Smith (Mary), carpenter, Brown Lumber, 100 West Main, Topeka, Kansas." I realize that I could have listed the same Polk Directory multiple times with different information - occupation, etc.
Curt, I will consider using your source suggestion. That might be a better way to handle this information. FYI, Polk Directories are a go-to source for me as I discovered that my Father had been previously married through an entry in a Polk Directory. It was a very brief union but my parents didn't want that disclosed to my brother and I so we never told them that we knew. However, when my parents died, we found a copy of the divorce decree in their papers. I'm glad we already knew about the first marriage. Thus, my fascination with the directories and getting the information right. Thanks for your suggestion.
ReplyDeleteWhat is a Polk Directory?
ReplyDeleteTodd, Polk is the name of the company that produced city directories for many years. I just looked and they have been in business since 1870. I just refer to any directory as "Polk" simply to differentiate them from a telephone directory. The Polk directories allow you to look up an address to see who lives there. If you do a look up by telephone number, they tell you who has the number. I don't know if the current Polk company offers that information now. But, the directories I have seen into the 1980's can be used in that manner. If you haven't used them before, you may find them very useful.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the explanation. I think I've used them before without knowing that was what they were called. I always just called them city directories.
ReplyDeleteTood, Polk was one of the big ones but it wasn't the only one - other companies also put out city directories. That is why I use the city directory for my event and then put the company in the source. It depends on what area of the country as to which directory you find, but if you have a lot of people scattered, I think the term city directory is a lot easier to use.
ReplyDeletePolk Directories are much more than just phone numbers and addresses. I used to go them back in the 80's to find information about home ownership, home values, how long did the current owner live there. Great demographic info for the times. I had to go to the public libraries to see them in the reference section so I would assume local libraries still have them on their shelves. They are great sources for info about your ancestors. Nowadays you can dig that info out online. I wonder if the libraries still have them in their reference section?
ReplyDelete