Legacy LVUG Community

Photo by Erik Dungan on Unsplash An update on the migration of our LVUG community posts, comments and recordings or images to Blogger. 1. I have exported the Google+ community - there are 1,080 posts and over 5,000 comments. 2. I used both the service provided by Google and another service (just to be on the safe side). 3. I set up a blog - lvugcommunity.blogger.com  (you are here!) and started importing the export (yes it is an interesting process!). 4. Blog post titles are slightly wonky or nonexistent and so I have been going through and doing a bit of cleanup. 5. Noticed that not all of the comments were coming through and checked it against some posts in the LVUG community, also asked the question of Google+ Exporter - of course they had a "newer & better" update (never do your homework early!). That did the trick - a few more posts but lots more comments in the latest export! So had to delete earlier import, and start again - glad I had not got...

Photo by Szucs Laszlo on Unsplash For those of you concerned that this will all disappear - if everything goes according to plan - all the posts, comments and images in our LVUG community will be in the blog I'm setting up over the next two weekends. So no worries, those of you who don't use Facebook - you won't need to go there. The blog will be in Google Blogger (don't want to have to learn wordpress just to move this information) and the blog WILL be found at lvugcommunity.blogger.com (right now it is just a blank space but by April 15th (fingers crossed) the previous posts will be there and between Shannon Thomas we can curate. Wish me luck! And if you are seeing this in the blog - it worked! Right now, it is tick tock but we will beat the Google deadline to get this done.

I have a quick question for those in this group - we plan to move all the posts and comments into a blog, but I am just wondering where our members are at online. Do you use only our LVUG Google+ community or do you also use Facebook and/or Legacy News. Feel free to comment about how you get your Legacy news, tips and how-tos. Thanks

GOOGLE+ UPDATE You have probably seen that Google has moved up the shutdown date for Google+ from August to April 2019! Last week I mentioned that Shannon Thomas and I were working out how to move all the content from our Legacy Virtual Users' Group Community to a blog. Cousin Russ and a few other genealogists with Google+ groups have recently done this AND it seems to work for them. So I went through the download process last weekend and read up on best ways to export the data, maintain it, and import it in to a blog format. There are some good articles online about how to move data seamlessly and how to plan the move to a blog. Shannon and I will chat and play around with the blog format - we want posts and comments to be easy to find and we want to make sure that you will be able to find it and, most importantly, we want to make sure that it works before we "go live." More to follow ...

Update of how we continue the spirit of Legacy Virtual Users' Group Community now that Google is closing down Google+ and apologies that I have been missing in action - spent the last two months helping parents move from their home to an "aging in place" residence (a really nice high rise with lots of benefits) and then moved my aunt up from San Francisco to be with family as she enters hospice - what a couple of months! But I DID NOT FORGET THAT GOOGLE+ IS CLOSING DOWN AND WE NEED TO MOVE (as well). What's with all this moving? Shannon and I have been looking at what Cousin Russ did with his Google+ Community - he moved all the data over to a blog and it will "house" previous posts and comments. It seems to be working a treat AND SO our project over the next three weeks is to export the Community data and then set up on blog (on either WordPress or Blogger - probably Blogger). There are a few ways to do it and so it might take a few days once we ge...

Thanksgiving is a little over a week away. In the USA that means many of us will make a trip - either across town or across country - to be with family and friends. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because it focuses on family, giving thanks (we go to mass), lots of great food, and just visiting all day with everyone. There is usually a football game on in one room, a puzzle in another, family members who arrive from a distance (this year Minnesota is the most distant state represented in our gathering), siblings catching up, nieces and nephews filling us in on school and activities, and pies by Chuck (my brother-in-law). We make a weekend out of it and get together for breakfast (usually only the adults make it!), go to the movies, and walk the lake (4 miles the day after Thanksgiving eating). The other thing we do as a family is the StoryCorps Day of Listening. This year it is so simple and such a great opportunity to be part of history. Visit StoryCorps website to le...

Quick Question for All - HOW MUCH TIME PER WEEK (on average) DO YOU SPEND WORKING ON YOUR GENEALOGY (not classes, webinars, volunteer work, etc. - but doing research on your extended family, working with records & resources, working in Legacy, etc.). And if you want to comment and explain what types of things you do and time, great - otherwise you can just take the poll. Thanks

Tuesday's Tip - 2 things today 1. US National Archives hosts a virtual genealogy fair in October and this Wednesday is the day. The schedule is shown at their website and you can catch the talks live or watch the recordings (they will be archived at YouTube). In years past, it has been a two day fair, but it looks like the budget cuts I heard about this summer are taking their toll. To check Wednesdays's schedule visit their website here https://www.archives.gov/calendar/genealogy-fair . AT THE LEAST, download their handouts! 2. Now that we have all had some time to play with Version 9 of Legacy (if you upgraded), what are your thoughts - the good and the bad. What do you have questions about or are having a tough time navigating? If you have remained with Version 8 of Legacy - what are your issues? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below and over the next few months, we will give it a go to help each other navigate the features of Legacy. ...

It seems that every so often we get an influx of people who want to join the Legacy Virtual Users' Group Community. We moderators do our best to check the individuals before we accept or reject them. Reasons to reject : (1) clearly appear to be bots - no information, no posts, no other communities followed. (2) clearly in sales - we don't sell anything on this site and are not interested in our Community being targeted for sales. (3) blue heads with no information posted that we can see relates to family history or genealogy - I know some don't include avatars but if there is nothing that indicates a person has an interest in genealogy we question why they want to join. BUT sometimes an individual gets past that first check (although our moderators are great) and if that happens, we usually catch it by their posts. Every so often I go through the list of members to make sure we don't have bots. If you are here for genealogy and Legacy Family Tree disc...

This past week all of us learned that Legacy/Millennia was sold to MyHeritage. It is and will be uncharted territory for most of us as we have enjoyed Legacy's independent small shop nature. Many of us of most familiar with Ancestry and FindMyPast as far as subscription sites and, of course, FamilySearch as a free site for our genealogy records research. Personally I have only had interactions with MyHeritage at conferences and seminars and everyone has been professional. I have placed my dad's Ancestry DNA on their website and have had no issues with unwanted contacts. I follow the posts by in the know genealogists such as Pat Richley-Erickson Judy G. Russell and Randy Seaver - they always provide unbiased and insightful thoughts on changes in the #genealogy and #familyhistory landscape. If they haven't yet, I am sure there will be some discussion in the coming days. The most important thing for all of us to keep in mind is that Legacy Family Tree Software is sta...

For some interesting genealogy education, why not watch one or more of the sessions that were live-streamed during the recent Southern California Genealogy Society #scgs2017 Jamboree. Lots to choose from and all the big players were there in the Exhibit Hall - including +Legacy Family Tree Software. Although lots of buzz was about #DNA, there were sessions on a variety of topics and DNA had it's own day on Thursday. Check out the schedule and sign up for the sessions - you will receive an email with instructions and be able to watch the live-streamed/recorded sessions for free until July 10. Thanks to +Ancestry for sponsoring and handling the recordings. http://www.genealogyjamboree.com/ http://streaming.webcastandbeyond.com/jamboree/

Will you be in Burbank, California this weekend? Lots of genealogists and family historians will be attending #SCGSJamboree, one of the best conferences out there with great speakers, interesting topics, and an Exhibit Hall (all under one very manageable roof). Legacy Family Tree Software will be there. And if you can't make it to Burbank, #SCGS will come to you with live-streaming of several presentations. Why not put a little genealogy education on your calendar this weekend?

Okay Legacy Users time for a question! Legacy 9 is flying off the shelves (the real ones and the internet shelves!) and Geoff Rasmussen teased us with more than a few of the new features over the past year (and he did a great presentation on using Legacy 9 recently - look or it in the Legacy Video Archives). I am wondering how many in our Legacy Virtual Users' Group Community are using Legacy 8 (in any of its iterations) AND how many have made the leap to Legacy 9. Also if you are using the Free Version of Legacy or a Pre-Legacy 8 version be sure to check that. Pretty easy Tuesday for all of us!

If the last week has taught us anything, it is that we need to be smart and savvy with our computers. We need to pay attention to our operating systems, be sure to install the updates we receive, make a system restore of our computers, back up to an external drive (or two) or an external drive and the cloud, and pay attention when we open email attachments or click on links. This is a variation on the theme "buyer beware" - it is "computer user beware." The recent ransomware hack involves computer systems that continue to operate Windows XP. Now you may have a good reason to be using XP but be aware that XP is 4 generations removed from the most recent Windows 10 (Vista, 7, 8, 8.1). There is a patch for this security flaw but we do know that Microsoft is no longer supporting XP. Geoff Rasmussen recently shared the story of his hard drive failure (and I am sure Geoff is someone who updates his operating system regularly). He makes backups and he also uses a...

So I was planning to discuss the importance of spring cleaning (no not the house!) - before Legacy 9.0 was released because it sounded like they were getting close. And of course today Legacy released version 9.0! Now keep in mind you can purchase the upgrade and take your time - don't feel the need to rush. Why do I say that? Because you want to make sure you backup your Legacy 8 program and files and have that in case you have any issues. If you are like me, something is bound to go glitchy. I also tend to read a bit about people's experiences & I make sure I understand the instructions. Is the new version going to override the old version? Can we go back once we go to 9.0? Any other issues we should be aware of? Take your time, read all about the release and know that just like the 1940 US Census release - we don't need to rush, it will be there tomorrow, we can take our time and not get ahead of ourselves. So my Tuesday's Tip - wonderful news about Lega...

Tuesday's Tip - a great way to learn is to watch how others do something. A good example is one of my favorite genealogy shows TLC's Who Do You Think You Are? The first episode of this season is now online (you can watch without commercials). What to watch out for - references to the Great Migration (for all of you whose ancestors came to the colonies early on) and to research in English records (those go way back and it helps to read Latin!). A great resource for the Great Migration is the New England Historic Genealogical Society NEHGS (they have a wonderful website at AmericanAncestors.org). Watch the show for some family and social history, a bit of treachery, and all kinds of ideas for records you might want to include with your research if your roots are British. Of course - then you could add all that information into the events/facts section of your Legacy family file. How I wish one of the WDYTYA shows would follow one lucky "regular person" doing th...

Just One Thing - JOT this down - FamilySearch has released its schedule of webinars/seminars for March (yes it is March!). So if you are in Salt Lake City you can attend in person OR if you are not you can attend from home. 36 classes that cover several countries research and some research methodology. If you haven't settled on a research log yet, learn more about them (Mar 9). If you are working on your Irish ancestors, 4 sessions (Mar 17 - of course!), just starting with Revolutionary War Records, join the session (Mar 23). And that is just a sampling. Information about registration and how to attend is found at the AncestryInsider site. http://tinyurl.com/z53n4nb And, of course, all the information you gather on your ancestors can go right into your Legacy family files! So JOT that down and see if there is something at the Family History Library webinar/seminar series to help you.

Tuesday's Tip - Today is the last day of February - where did the month go? Here is a quick tip that many of us forget to take the time to do. It is time to backup our Legacy files (whether you do it on the last day of the month or first day of the month - the key is to DO IT!). No matter if you back up regularly when you work in your Legacy files, I think it is a good idea to backup each month. Then every six months go ahead and delete backups you no longer need. You never know when something will happen - either a hard drive crash, a cloud glitch, or a jump drive lost. Backup to 2 different places (I use the cloud and an external hard drive). Let's be safe rather than sorry.

This one is short but sweet - do you keep Legacy up-to-date? Do you know why it is a good reason to update? Do you know where Updates is located? Let me show you. https://youtu.be/ckI2yAb6VM0

Tuesday's Tip - another quick video to show you a little bit about using Facebook with Friends, Groups & Messages. Once again I found a message that had been "filtered" for me which I had not seen. Now I have some more family information to use with my Legacy Family File. Hope you find a new genealogy friend or some groups of interest in Facebook in 2017. https://youtu.be/36C02zbfzpM