Upgrade to Legacy 10 to continue using Legacy's FamilySearch tool

For years, Legacy Family Tree software users have enjoyed using Legacy's FamilySearch tool.  This tool lets you optionally sync and share your tree in Legacy with the tree at FamilySearch. To improve security, FamilySearch recently made significant changes to their login procedures. These changes will affect how Legacy users login using the tool, beginning July 1, 2024. To continue using Legacy's FamilySearch tools, you must upgrade to Legacy version 10.

Upgrade to v10 for free

Visit www.LegacyFamilyTree.com to download Legacy 10. It's free.

After you've installed v10 and opened your family file, you'll notice that the FamilySearch tool appears in the same place that you're used to. Everything about this tool, except for the login screen, remains the same.

You won't be able to use the FamilySearch tool in Legacy 9 or earlier beginning July 1, 2024 (earlier versions will not be updated with the new login tool).

Learn about Legacy's FamilySearch app

Watch the webinar here about how Legacy interacts with FamilySearch.

Remember, sharing data with FamilySearch is a manual, optional process. Legacy does not automatically share anything between it and FamilySearch. But some people enjoy the functionality between the two. You might too. Just enable option 1.8 at Options > Customize.

"So you do genealogy, right?" How a Legacy Hint and MyHeritage solved the case

This really happened.

After talking about our cows and gardens, my neighbor asked, "so you do genealogy, right?" While I didn't know where he was going with this, I liked what he was thinking. He told me about a distant cousin of his that went to high school with him in the 1960s, and that he lost contact with her shortly thereafter. She hadn't shown up for their 50th school reunion the week earlier. He knew that she married, but had no idea to whom.  He asked, "can you find her?"

My wife responded, "but you only find dead people though, right?" After 25 years, I guess she doesn't know me as well as I thought....

My neighbor told me what he knew of his family tree and noted that his great-grandfather was once the county sheriff. He remembered that his grandmother and his cousin's grandmother were siblings.

I told him I'd get started right away.

So I opened up my Legacy Family Tree software, created his 3-generation tree, and started sleuthing. The clue about the sheriff made his great-grandfather easy to find. I then worked my way down to his cousin. According to Legacy's Relationship Chart report, they were indeed second cousins.

This is where it got difficult. I had no clue what his cousin's married name was. Or if she was still alive. However, I did know when and where her parents died. If I could locate their obituaries, I bet they would mention the survivors' names, including her married name and residence at the time. I scoured the online newspapers but none had the issues for the time span that I needed.

And then I saw it. The beautiful orange "hint" icon appeared in Legacy's Pedigree View.

Legacy found 3 hints for his cousin's mother.

MyHeritage.com found three matches to something on the site that provided information about his cousin's parents and burial place. But I needed info on his cousin - not her grandparents.

I clicked. And there she was.

The left side of the screen displayed what I already have in my Legacy software. The right side of the screen displayed what MyHeritage had about the same family. Even though the cousin was living, because the information I knew about her was identical to the information that MyHeritage had about her from a user's tree, it displayed the match to me. (More information about this is here.) But it added one additional piece of information - her married name!

I know enough about "hints" to know that they should be scrutinized, explored, evaluated and researched. I even recently published these members-only webinars about online hinting:

• How I Debunked an Online Tree Hint (6 minutes)
• and its follow-up webinar How a City Directory worked for me again which put a final nail in the hint's coffin from the previous webinar (8 minutes)

So, using what I learned in our Finding the Living webinars, and now that I had her married name, I purchased a background search of his cousin  (searches public records), In minutes I had a 40+ page report of possible relatives, current and previous addresses, phone numbers, property she owned, and much more. Again, all of this is publicly available so there's no privacy issues here. Everything looked like it fit perfectly...as long as the match at MyHeritage had the right info about her married name.

Back to the obituaries. Remember how I couldn't locate the right edition of the needed newspapers online? Well, I went to the bank and took out a new loan so I could put gas in my car. Then I drove to the Idaho Historical Society in downtown Boise. In less than 5 minutes I found the obituary. The staff there was impressed. :) Again, I was predicting that the obituary of the cousin's mother would list the survivors' names and places of residences.

And it sure did!

The name of my neighbor's cousin exactly matched the hint that MyHeritage gave me. Well done Legacy Hints and MyHeritage! Well done. Case closed. I now know the cousin's identity and where she lives.

For two days now I've been calling my neighbor to give him the good news. He hasn't answered the phone. Either he's nervous to learn what I've discovered, or he's visiting his cabin in the beautiful Idaho mountains which has no cell phone reception. If I were visiting the mountains this weekend, I just might leave my phone home as well.

Genealogy competition leads to ice cream party

Desperate for something new to do at home this afternoon, three of my four kids were excited when I announced a contest. I gave them each the same "puzzle" and promised a deluxe ice cream party if they could fill in the blanks. And then I left the room.

With my office door open, it was interesting and hilarious to hear what they were saying:

"...but he wasn't born in 1905..."

"Dad? Do you want her maiden name or the one she got when she married her husband?"

"I'm just going to guess."

"Evan, do you have any information about Irma?"

"Ancestry is stupid!"

"What ancestors are these to us?"

"Dad???"

"I won, suckers!"

I was astonished when my 11-year-old, Kaitlyn, asked "where am I in this tree Daddy?" She was at MyHeritage.com looking at our family tree. I helped her navigate up, over, and down the tree until we found this family. She clicked on each child, clicked on the "Research This Person" link, and I became a proud father once again. She found death certificates, tombstone images, census records, and more. We evaluated each record together so we would know if the record was for the right person. 

She even found the yearbook photographs of both Clarence and Irma! Thank you Kaitlyn and MyHeritage! This was way more than I expected to find.

One reason that the "contest" was so successful was due to one of my favorite features in my Legacy Family Tree software. I started by choosing the Descendant Book report:

Then I added check marks for the underlines:

This produced the report with blank lines for the unknown vital events. And it worked! They knew immediately what information was missing and the competition began.

Braden found Clarence's birth date (but he didn't cite his source so we talked about that):

Evan started enthusiastically, but then he disappeared. Probably to make another sandwich.

I looked at Kaitlyn's browser history and learned that her first step was a Google search, "Where did Zachariah N. McCall die?" I never thought to use a complete sentence at Google before.

The contest was successful, and I guess we'll be having an ice cream party tonight!

Tuesday's Tip - Ancestor and Descendant Interest (Beginner)

Tuesday's Tips provide brief how-to's to help you learn to use the Legacy Family Tree software with new tricks and techniques.

Ancestor and Descendant Interest (Beginner)

The ancestor and descendant interest option allows you to set a rating for how interested you are in any particular ancestor or descendant.

To use this feature you have to first turn it on. Go to Options > Customize > Data Entry > Options 2.7 Ancestor/Descendant Interest (ff). 

(click image to enlarge)

 

Notice the (ff). This means this setting is Family File specific and you will have to set it for every file you have, if you have more than one.

 

You will now see two new options on the Individual's Information screen.

(click image to enlarge)

 

You can set these numbers from 0-3. These number represent how interested you are in this person's Ancestors and/or Descendants. Even though it is represents this person's ancestors and descendants, those ancestors and descendants will not have their numbers filled in. Why? Because you set them for each person individually to show how interested you are in THEIR ancestors and descendants. 

For my James Simmons I have set his Anc to 3 and his Des to 1. This means that I am VERY interested in his ancestors but not as interested in his descendants. 

(click image to enlarge)

 

So what will this do for you? This gives you an additional level of search criteria. If you go to Search > Find > Detailed Search you will see that you now have options for the Anc. Interest and the Desc. Interest and you can choose 0-3. 

(click image to enlarge)

 

Doing searches is more of an intermediate skill but I wanted to at least introduce this. This particular criterion works best (in my opinion) when you couple it with other criteria. For example, I can find all my Simmons relatives that I have a particular interest in. This will significantly reduce the numbers on my Search List considering I have 552 Simmons in the file. You can combine this with any of the different criterion on any of the different search windows and with as many as you need.  Another example, I could do a search for every Simmons, who I have an interest in, that has birth information but does not have death information. 

Searching is one of the most powerful tools in Legacy and this gives you another layer to work with. 

 

Find tech tips every day in the Facebook Legacy User Group. The group is free and is available to anyone with a Facebook account.

For video tech tips check out the Legacy Quick Tips page.  These short videos will make it easy for you to learn all sort of fun and interesting ways to look at your genealogy research.

 

Michele Simmons Lewis, CG^® is part of the Legacy Family Tree team at MyHeritage. She handles the enhancement suggestions that come in from our users as well as writing for Legacy News. You can usually find her hanging out on the Legacy User Group Facebook page answering questions and posting tips.

 

 

Tuesday's Tip - Exporting a Gedcom (Advanced)

Tuesday's Tips provide brief how-to's to help you learn to use the Legacy Family Tree software with new tricks and techniques.

Exporting a Gedcom (Advanced)

Exporting a gedcom is pretty straightforward for most gedcoms. You simply go to File > Export > GEDCOM file > Enter File Name and START EXPORT. However, you can customize your gedcom in so many ways that it is a shame not to take advantage of the options. When you open the GEDCOM Export screen this is what you will see:

(click image to enlarge)

 

OPTIONS TAB

Producing a GEDCOM file for...

Legacy -  A Legacy GEDCOM file contains ALL the information that can be entered into a Legacy family file. This includes all individual field information; all notes; all sources; all events; LDS ordinance dates and temples; pictures; sound; video; list ordering and tags; as well as preferred children; spouses; and parents. This GEDCOM file conforms to the GEDCOM 5.5 specification (with some extensions) and contains the most information. If you are exporting a GEDCOM file to be imported into Legacy you should choose this option.

GEDCOM 5.5 Only -  Many other programs do not have a place to put all the information that Legacy handles and an error file is generated. If you would like to limit the export fields to mostly those accepted by other programs, choose this option.

PAF 2.31 and PAF 3.0 / 4.0  - Since Personal Ancestral File is now used in three different flavors, 2.x, 3.x and 4.0 and since they each handle notes, sources, and repositories in radically different ways, it is necessary for Legacy to produce three special GEDCOM formats to satisfy the special needs of these programs.

PAF 2.31  - Sources that are included in Legacy are tagged and inserted into the Notes field. Medical and Research notes are also tagged and combined into the standard Notes field. Note fields are broken into smaller lines between words.

This type of GEDCOM files contains:
Name, sex, birth, christened, death, buried, marriage
Ancestral File Number and User Reference Number
Notes
Sources embedded in the Notes fields
All LDS ordinance information

PAF 3.0  - Sources are exported as separate records with citations pointing to them where needed. Note fields are broken into shorter lines by breaking in the middle of a word.

This type of GEDCOM file contains:
Name, sex, birth, christened, death, buried, marriage
Ancestral File Number and User Reference Number
Notes
Sources as separate records
All LDS ordinance information

PAF 4.0  - PAF 4.0 contains some additional information that 3.0 does not.

PAF 5.0  - PAF 5.0 contains some additional information that 3.0 and 4.0 do not.

Pedigree Resource File - This format is used when contributing your information for inclusion in the LDS Church's new Pedigree Resource File. This file is similar to the Ancestral File but the contributed files are left as received, and no attempt is made to link multiple files together. Submission can only be done through the Internet.

Basic - A Basic GEDCOM file contains only the vital statistics.

This type of GEDCOM file contains:
Name, sex, birth, christened, death, buried, marriage
Generic A Generic GEDCOM file contains:
Name, sex, birth, christened, death, buried, marriage
User Reference Number
Notes
Sources
Events
Baptism
Marriage Status

Ancestry Online Family Tree  - This file contains individuals and marriages to be exported for uploading to Ancestry Online Family Tree.

MyTrees.com  - This file contains individuals to be exported for uploading to MyTrees.com.

OneGreatFamily.com - This file contains individuals to be exported for uploading to OneGreatFamily.com.

 

Character Set
Because there is a need to share genealogical information in different languages, Legacy offers three separate character sets when exporting a GEDCOM file:

ANSI - This character set corresponds to the Windows character set on a one-for-one basis, including characters with diacritics. (This is the program default.)

ANSEL - This character set represents certain characters with diacritics as two-character combinations.

Some genealogy programs require the ANSEL character set. Most others will read both character sets but there are some that will not read the ANSEL set.

UTF-8 -  This character set represents certain characters as two-character combinations.

Changing the Default Character Set
If you want to change the default character set to something other than ANSI, choose the set you want to use in the combo box and then click the small blue button to the right of the combo box.

Length of the Note Lines
Note lines in Legacy Note fields are continuous until a carriage return is entered. If you increase or decrease the width of the note window, all the text is reformatted within the new width. Other programs, such as Personal Ancestral File, have fixed lengths for each line in the note field and each of these lines is exported to a separate line in the GEDCOM file. As Legacy is exporting a GEDCOM file it breaks the long continuous lines into smaller pieces. You can control how long these segments are by entering a number to indicate their length. (When a GEDCOM file is imported by Legacy, the line segments are recombined to their original state.)

Suppress <Estimated Dates> and <Places>
Does not export dates and place that have been estimated from other, surrounding information. Estimated dates and places can result from importing from other sources. Dates and places with surrounding angle brackets are considered to be estimated.

Keep embedded formatting codes within text
Keeps any formatting codes that you have embedded in note fields. These are codes that let you print portions of the notes italicized, bolded, underlined, and superscripted. (If you are exporting to a program other than Legacy, these formatting codes may not be recognized and formatted as desired.)

Convert Formatting Codes to HTML Style
Converts any text style codes you have inserted into notes or other fields from the codes Legacy uses to codes that are used in HTML files for display in a browser. This option should only be used if the resulting GEDCOM file is to be imported into a web-publishing program (like The Next Generation).

Make space strings in notes fields web friendly
Converts strings of multiple spaces in note fields into non-breaking spaces so that the output will appear as you entered it in Legacy. Browsers convert multiple spaces into a single space. If you have used multiple spaces in Legacy to line up columns on sucessive lines, you can use this option to keep that spacing when the information is displayed in a browser. This option should only be used if the resulting GEDCOM file is to be imported into a web-publishing program (like The Next Generation).

Export General To-Do Items
If you would like the GEDCOM file to include all General To-Do items (as opposed to Individual To-Do items), select this option. Clear the option to exclude the items.

Show Double Dates
If double dating is turned off in your family file but you would like to include double dates in the GEDCOM file, you can do so using this option. See Calendar History for more information on double dating.

Use Short Locations
Use this option to export all the short location names (as opposed to the long location names). The short location names often have abbreviated state, province, and country parts.

Export Shared Events as regular events
If you are exporting your family file to a GEDCOM file that will be imported into another program that does not support shared events, you can choose to have any shared events exported as regular events. This, of course, will duplicate the event information for everyone who shares each event but it is a way to make sure it is included and not lost.

Export Stories as Events
Not all genealogy programs or website building software supports stories attached to people. If you are exporting a GEDCOM file to be imported into another program that doesn't support stories, you can have the stories exported as events. This will ensure that the information is not lost.

Export AFNs and User IDs as Events
Some genealogy programs and websites do not recognize Ancestral File Numbers and User IDs when exported using the AFN and REFN tags. If you are exporting to one of these types of places, you can tell Legacy to export this numbers as Events instead. This way the information will be imported and attached to the person's record.

Export all other ID numbers as Events
Some genealogy programs and websites do not recognize FamilySearch IDs, FindAGrave Memorial Numbers, or BillionGrave Record numbers when exported using the _FSFTID, _FGRAVE, and _BGRAVE tags that Legacy uses. If you are exporting to one of these types of places, you can tell Legacy to export this numbers as Events instead. This way the information will be imported and attached to the person's record.

 

Record Selection 

(click image to enlarge)

 

All Records in the Entire Family File
Select this option if you want to include every individual and family in your Family File. Selecting this option causes all subsequent options to be ignored.

Selected Records Contained in the Focus Group
You can select specific individuals, families and entire family lines to export by placing them in a Focus Group. 

All Individual Records with a Certain Tag Level
Select this option if you want to include individuals who have been tagged. Be sure to set the tag level you want to use by using the up and down arrow.

Export all Spouses of Tagged Individuals - Check this option to include all the spouses for each individual exported.

Export all Children of Tagged Individuals - Check this option if you want all the children of each tagged individual exported.

Export all Parents of Tagged Individuals - Check this option if you want to export the parents of each tagged individual.

All Marriage Records with a Certain Tag Level
This option exports those individuals who are part of tagged marriages. Be sure to set the tag level you want to use by using the up and down arrows.

Export Children of Tagged Marriages - Check this option if you want to export the children from each tagged marriage.

Note: If an event for one of the individuals being exported is shared from an individual who is not in the group, the person who shared the event will be included in the export. This has to be done in order for the event to be included for the people in the group who use it.

 

OTHER OPTIONS TAB

 

Override Source options - include all source information
With this option selected, all the information from each source citation detail is exported to the GEDCOM file. If unselected, the information that is suppressed, according to the source detail options, is excluded from the GEDCOM export.

Export Dates in English
If you are using a non-english version of Legacy, you can choose to have all dates exported in either English or in the language you are using. Note: If you are using Legacy in English, this option will be invisible.

Export All Master Event Definitions
Normally Legacy only exports to the GEDCOM file the Master Event Definitions that are used by the individuals and marriages that will also be exported. If you want to include all the master event definitions from your current family file, choose this option.

Export All Master Locations
By default, only the master locations that are used somewhere in the resulting GEDCOM file will be exported. If you want to include all the master locations from your current family file, choose this option.

Include Tag Descriptions
If you would like to include your individual and marriage tag descriptions in the GEDCOM export file, select this option.

 

Privacy Options

Legacy provides many options so that you can suppress and eliminate sensitive information, individuals, and marriages. To open the Privacy Options screen, click the Privacy Options button on the right side of the main GEDCOM Export screen. The options are pretty self-explanatory. If you need additional information, click the Help button on this screen. 

Suppression of Living Individuals and Their Families:

Suppress Details for Living People
Exclude Living People Totally
Suppress Details for Deceased Spouses of Living Individuals
Suppress Details for Deceased Children of Living Individuals

Override Privacy Settings:

Include Private Individuals
Include Invisible Individuals
Include Private Marriages
Include Private Child-Parent Relationships
Include [[ Private ]] Notes
Include Events Marked "Private"
Include Master Events Marked "Private"

Changing Your Compiler Information

If you want to change the name, address, phone number and comment lines of previously entered information, or if you want to enter this information for the first time, click Compiler. The Compiler Information window appears where you can add or edit the entries. If I send someone a gedcom I ALWAYS include the compiler information.

(click image to enlarge)

 

AutoSource

(click image to enlarge)

The AutoSource feature of Legacy lets you automatically attach a master source to each individual when you are doing an export. This is great way to let others know that you are the author of the information contained in the file. It can also indicate to others that you would like to be contacted if they find additional information or changes concerning "your" people. You can select an existing source or you can add a new one by clicking the same button (Select a Master Source). This will be IN ADDITION TO your regular sources if you have chosen to export those as well (next screen). This source will appear in the Unspecified field.

 

Customize

The middle row of buttons has several presets to save you time. For example, you can click PAF 5 and Legacy will only export those items that PAF 5 can accept. The top two buttons are to customize what you export. These are based on gedcom tags which are listed. You can add or remove items from the Export these Items box using those buttons.  The Save List and Load List buttons allow you to save all of your custom settings and reuse them without have to go through all of this again. You can save as many different custom exports as you need to. 

The Groups of Items to EXCLUDE from Export is self-explanatory. 

Break Note lines Between Words (old style)
GEDCOM files break long notes lines into shorter segments. The points at which the lines are broken is supposed to be in the middle of words so that when the lines are put back together they can just be concatenated. Older GEDCOM files used to break lines between words. This made it necessary to put the lines back together with a space between them. Importing a newer GEDCOM file into an older program often results in words with blank spaces in the middle of them. If you know that you are producing a GEDCOM file to be read into an older program that is expecting a space between lines, check this option.

Don't Convert British Quarter Dates to a Date Range
British Quarter dates (e.g.: Mar Q 1872) are not recognized by most other genealogy programs on the market. By default, Legacy converts these types of dates to a date range when they are exported to a GEDCOM file. Mar Q 1872 becomes Bet 1 Jan 1872 and 31 Mar 1872. If you don't want to convert the Quarter dates to a range, put a check in the Don't convert British Quarter dates to a range checkbox.

 

You are now done customizing your gedcom for export!  All that is left is exporting the file. Click Enter File Name and START EXPORT. Legacy prompts for a file name and then a .GED extension will be added. Legacy then creates the file and exports the specified information.

You have full control over your data when you export. Different situations call for different export options so now you can give people or websites exactly what you want them to have.

 

Find tech tips every day in the Facebook Legacy User Group. The group is free and is available to anyone with a Facebook account.

For video tech tips check out the Legacy Quick Tips page.  These short videos will make it easy for you to learn all sort of fun and interesting ways to look at your genealogy research.

 

Michele Simmons Lewis, CG^® is part of the Legacy Family Tree team at MyHeritage. She handles the enhancement suggestions that come in from our users as well as writing for Legacy News. You can usually find her hanging out on the Legacy User Group Facebook page answering questions and posting tips.

Tuesday's Tip - Importing a Gedcom (Advanced)

Tuesday's Tips provide brief how-to's to help you learn to use the Legacy Family Tree software with new tricks and techniques.

Importing a Gedcom (Advanced)

A GEDCOM file is formatted so that family history information can be shared between different types of genealogy software programs. You can export a GEDCOM file from your online trees and also from your deskstop software programs. You can use these files to move your family history data around to different programs or to share data with your family members or collaborators.

Normally importing a gedcom is straightforward. You go to File > Import > GEDCOM file and you follow the prompts. However, there are actually quite a few options on these screens that will make a difference with how your gedcom imports. In addition, there are some gedcoms that are just a mess. Legacy has a lot of built in "fixes" for the known issues but there are so many that it just can't catch them all. You need to know how to deal with these yourself. The worst offenders are web-based family trees. There are also some resident genealogy programs that do not follow the set rules in the gedcom protocol. The gedcom protocol itself is quite old so there can be some problems when importing gedcoms created by advanced programs. 

File > Import > GEDCOM file. The first couple of screens are self-explanatory. You will navigate to the gedcom file using a Windows dialog box, you will select the file that you want to import, you will tell Legacy you want to import it into a new file (recommended), and you will name the file. Legacy will do a preliminary analysis.

Legacy analyzes the GEDCOM file to make sure it is valid and recognizable. This analysis pass also shows you how many individuals and families are contained in the file. If Legacy finds information that it does not know what to do with, a message is displayed. You can then tell Legacy where to put the information. You can map it to an event or to the notes. The submitter's name, address, and comments are also displayed along with the name of the program that created the file. If there is no compiler information in the family file you are importing into, a button will appear to the left of the incoming compiler information: Import Compiler Information. You can click this button to import the incoming information into the compiler information of the family file. (If there is already compiler information in the family file, this option button is not shown.)

Now that the preliminaries have been completed, you are now looking at this screen. 

(click image to enlarge)

 

Record Numbering
Most GEDCOM files are encoded with the record identification numbers (RINs) that were used in the exporting program that created them. Often users come to identify particular individuals within their files as much with this number as with their names. If you are importing into a new, empty family file, these numbers can be kept. As an alternative, you can have the incoming records renumbered. If renumbering, you can select the beginning number. As an example let's say you have 2,582 individuals in your current family file and are about to import a new batch. You might want to start numbering the new individuals at 3000, later making it easy to see which people were imported. Of course, if you select a starting number that is already being used in the current file, Legacy will have to jump up to a number higher than the current batch.

Check for Valid Temple Names during this import
(not shown in the above screenshot because I have LDS Options turned off)

If you are using the LDS options in Legacy, this option checks for valid temple names and abbreviations during the import.

Check for Valid Date Formats during this import
Legacy uses consistent, logical formatting rules when it comes to dates. Other programs allow free-form dates that can include unrelated text, making the dates unusable for sorting and date arithmetic. During the import process, Legacy checks each date for a proper format and presents any unrecognized dates for you to correct or accept. If you would like to accept all dates, regardless of their format, uncheck this option. (Using the search engine in Legacy, you can produce a list showing the names and record numbers of all individuals who have unrecognized dates. This list lets you quickly jump to each individual and make corrections later.)

The Dates in the GEDCOM file are in English
The dates in almost all GEDCOM files are in English, even if the GEDCOM files were produced by programs from non-English speaking countries. This is the default standard. If, however, you find that the dates are not in English, uncheck this option. This would be important, for example, if you had a GEDCOM file with abbreviated Finnish dates. The abbreviation for November in Finnish is Mar. If Legacy thought that the dates were being imported in English, all the November dates would be recognized as March. Unchecking this options tells Legacy to analyze the dates in the currently selected language instead of English.

Put Unrecognized Items into Notes Field
This option puts any unrecognized information into the Notes of the individual being read at the time. For example, a line such as "OCCUP Bricklayer" would be put into the Notes because OCCUP it is not a standard GEDCOM tag. (You can also re-map unrecognized tags to standard tags before you start the import.)

Re-wordwrap the Contents of All Notes Fields
If the notes you are importing have hard carriage returns at the end of each line, such as notes from PAF 2.31 (or PAF 3.0 notes imported from PAF 2.31), you can have them reformatted into continuous lines by choosing this option. Paragraphs breaks formed by two consecutive carriage returns are left alone.

Format Names and Places
Formats all incoming names and places to the format currently set in the Customize section. These formatting options include putting initial capital letters on given names, putting initial caps or upper casing on surnames, and formatting location names so there is a space after each comma.

Show Combine Options When Event Definitions or Locations are Different
With this option selected, if an incoming event definition or location definition is different from the current family file, the Combine Event Definition or Combine Master Locations screens are shown so that you can merge them together.

AutoSource
The AutoSource feature of Legacy lets you automatically assign a master source to each incoming individual when you are doing an import. This is often very useful as documentation of where you received the information and is much easier to do and use than making an entry in the Note field.

When you are about to import a Legacy, GEDCOM (or PAF file), you can select a master source to cite for each person by clicking AutoSource on the Import window. You can also add a new source.

Customize - click the button and that will open a secondary dialog box. This particular gedcom does not have any unrecognized "tags." 

(click image to enlarge)

 

Items to be Imported
During the Analysis pass, Legacy gathers all the recognizable GEDCOM tags and places them in the Import these Items box.

Items Not to be Imported
If you find a tag you don't want to have imported, highlight the tag and click Remove, or just drag the tag from the Import these Items box to the Items not to be imported box. You can move all but the first five, basic fields. If you want to only import the five basic fields, Name, Sex, Birth, Death and Marriage, click Basic 5. All the other tags will be moved to the Items not to be imported box. (You can move any tag item back by highlighting it and clicking Include, or by dragging it back to the right window.)

Unrecognized Items
Any tags that are not recognized by Legacy during the Analysis pass are placed in the Unrecognized Items box. These are usually odd, non-standard pieces of information that another program supports. If you can recognize the tag, you can map it to a standard field tag in Legacy. Or, you can always have the information placed in the Notes field so you don't lose it.

Defining an Unrecognized Item
The Unrecognized Items list contains nonstandard GEDCOM tags that were found in the file you want to import. Often, these tags are slight variations invented by another program that are easily recognizable and can be mapped to a standard tag supported by Legacy. To start the definition process, highlight the tag you want to remap and click Map to a Recognized Tag and then choose the GEDCOM tag you want to map it to.

Creating Events from Unrecognized Tags
Some GEDCOM tags are obviously names for events such as GRAD for Graduation. To convert these tags to events and have them placed in the event list for the individual involved, highlight the tag and click Create an Event for this Tag. Legacy then prompts you for an event name (up to 30 characters). During the import, all occurrences of this tag will be changed to the defined event name.

Unrecognized tags that have been mapped to existing tags, or mapped to an event name and moved to the Import these items list, can now be removed from the Import these items list by dragging them back to the Unrecognized items list or the Items not to be imported list.

Baptism versus Christening
Some genealogy programs export christening information into a GEDCOM file using the BAPM tag instead of CHR. You can have Legacy put this information into the Christening fields during the import rather than having a Baptism event created in the Event List by selecting this option.

Note Options: How Notes Are Formatted in a GEDCOM File
In a GEDCOM file, multiple-line notes are supposed to be broken in the middle of a word at the end of each line. For example, this is how a small note might look in the file:

Aunt Mary spent most of her ti
me knitting. When she wasn't kni
tting something, she was cooking.

In the past, however, most programs would break the lines between words instead of in the middle of words. For example:

Aunt Mary spent most of her time
knitting. When she wasn't knitting
something, she was cooking.

A problem arises if the old style is imported with the new rules. This results in some words being put together without any space between them. For example, the note might look like this:

Aunt Mary spent most of her timeknitting. When she wasn't knittingsomething,she was cooking.

Or, if the new style is imported with the old rules you end up with spaces in the middle of words:

Aunt Mary spent most of her ti me knitting. When she wasn't kni tting something, she was cooking.

Legacy keeps an internal list of how all genealogy programs export note blocks into GEDCOM files. This allows Legacy to decide how to put the line back together again when the notes are imported. Sometimes a GEDCOM file comes along that came from a program that Legacy never heard of. In this case, Legacy might guess incorrectly as to how the note lines are formatted. If, after importing a GEDCOM file, you find that the notes either have spaces in the middle of some of the words, or that some words don't have a space between them, you can tell Legacy to change the method it is using. You can choose between:

• Let Legacy decide how lines are broken
• Lines are broken in the middle of words
• Lines are broken between words

Optional Text Preceding Notes
When Legacy comes across something in a GEDCOM file that it doesn't recognize, it generates an error message in the Error.log file and then puts the unrecognized items into the General Notes field for the individual or marriage. You can have some optional text added to the beginning of these entries in the notes to make them easier to search for after the import is completed. For example, you might add "ZZZZZ" to the beginning. Later you can then search for "ZZZZZ" in General Notes to find the individuals and marriages to check these entries to see if you want to keep them or move the information to a different place.

Import Notes into Research Notes
If you are transferring a family file from a previous genealogy program where you have kept research notes in the Notes field, you can have Legacy put these notes into Research Notes instead of General Notes by selecting this option.

Saving Your Settings
If you would like to save a particular import tag list, click Save List after you have selected the tags you want to import. Legacy prompts for a file name and then saves the list to disk.

Loading Your Saved Settings
You can load a previously saved import tag list by clicking Load List and then selecting the desired list to be loaded.

Once you have addressed all of the options you will click OK and then Start the Import. If you are importing from Family Tree Maker, you will likely see this error screen after you start the import:

(click image to enlarge)

 

Knowing what to select here depends greatly on how well you know the incoming data. You can automatically send all of the PLAC tagged information to the Event Description field, the Event Notes field, or you can leave them in the Place field. You can also work with all of the PLAC comments in the same way if they are all the same Event type (all Residence events for example) or you can deal with them one at a time. If you want to analyze each one and decide where the information should go individually you can do that but if it is a very large gedcom you can expect to spend a lot of time sitting at your computer. Family Tree Maker used the PLAC tag for every location that has comments attached to it. If you chose one of the last two options, this is what you will see:

(click image to enlarge)

 

In the above example you can see that in this case moving the information to the Description field make sense. If you see an actual place name along with the comment that's when you would use the Split Apart button.

 

I hope this information will help you do cleaner gedcom imports so that you have less cleanup to do afterwards.

 

Find tech tips every day in the Facebook Legacy User Group. The group is free and is available to anyone with a Facebook account.

For video tech tips check out the Legacy Quick Tips page. These short videos will make it easy for you to learn all sort of fun and interesting ways to look at your genealogy research.

Michele Simmons Lewis, CG^® is part of the Legacy Family Tree team at MyHeritage. She handles the enhancement suggestions that come in from our users as well as writing for Legacy News. You can usually find her hanging out on the Legacy User Group Facebook page answering questions and posting tips.

Tuesday's Tip - Tags and Hashtags (Intermediate)

Tuesday's Tips provide brief how-to's to help you learn to use the Legacy Family Tree software with new tricks and techniques.

Tags and Hashtags (Intermediate)

One of the most frequent questions we get on the Legacy User Group on Facebook is how to use Tags and Hashtags. Both are there for you to use any way you want but I thought I would explain how I use them to give you some ideas. 

Tags and Hashtags are different. You only have 9 Individual Tags and 9 Marriage Tags. There is no limit on the number of Hashtags you can have. There is an Advanced Tagging screen where you can tag groups of people at one time and there is an Advanced Marriage Tagging screen. As of right now there is no Advanced Hashtagging screen. You can bulk tag AND hashtag from a Search List in the Options menu.

 

Tools > Advanced Tagging

(click image to enlarge)

 

Advanced Marriage Tagging (Right click any of the Marriage Tags on the Family View)
I don't have any Marriage Tags right now but I wanted to show you the screen. Normally I use the Marriage Tags for short term projects.

(click image to enlarge)

 

View > Master Lists > Hashtag

(click image to enlarge)

I use Tagging for things that are of a more temporary nature. I normally tag from a Search List. I will search for a group of people I need to deal with in some way and after I am done with them they will be untagged. I also use tagging to isolate parts of my file for exporting. 

I use Hashtagging for things that are more permanent, especially DNA. I also use it for FAN research. I have Hashtags for all my MRCAs (Most Recent Common Ancestors) and then I hashtag all of the DNA testers in my file that share that MRCA with me. Quite a few people in my file share more than one MRCA with me. 

I have a Simmons brick wall and I am using the FAN principle to try and solve it. I have 17 hashtags putting all of the Simmones that were in the right place at the right time in group by location, known kin, military units, etc. The hope is to see some sort of pattern (who was associated with whom). 

Again, how you use these is totally up to you but sometimes knowing how others do things will spark some ideas of your own.

 

Find tech tips every day in the Facebook Legacy User Group. The group is free and is available to anyone with a Facebook account.

For video tech tips check out the Legacy Quick Tips page.  These short videos will make it easy for you to learn all sort of fun and interesting ways to look at your genealogy research.

 

Michele Simmons Lewis, CG^® is part of the Legacy Family Tree team at MyHeritage. She handles the enhancement suggestions that come in from our users as well as writing for Legacy News. You can usually find her hanging out on the Legacy User Group Facebook page answering questions and posting tips.

 

 

Tuesday's Tip - Using Multiple Locations (Intermediate)

Tuesday's Tips provide brief how-to's to help you learn to use the Legacy Family Tree software with new tricks and techniques.

Using Multiple Locations (Intermediate)

This article assumes you are comfortable using basic Windows commands

This will be another short and sweet Tuesday's Tip. Users soon figure out that you can select multiple locations on the Master Location List by using the Windows Ctrl Key. 

(click image to enlarge)

 

The list of people to the right only shows you the people attached to the LAST location on your list of selected locations and not everyone combined. In this case that would be Potsdam and there are only three. If you were to click the List Options button that you see below the list you would only be working with this subset of people. 

If you want to work with all of the combined people from the selected locations you need to use Options > Show List. 

You can now see that I have 14 people and it specifically says that this list is coming from multiple locations.

(click image to enlarge)

 

Now you can work with the complete list of people from the multiple locations you selected.

Another important tidbit... If you select Create Search List you will have a choice of Create New Search List or Add to Existing List. You will not actually see the Search List until you make your selection here and then click Close and then Close again. Now you will get a popup asking if you want to see the Search List. 

You can Tag but you can't Hashtag people from the dialog box in the above screenshot but you can Hashtag once you are on a Search List.

I use this feature all of the time both to create Search Lists and to Hashtag groups of people that have a common location. I hope this tip helps you in your research.

 

Find tech tips every day in the Facebook Legacy User Group. The group is free and is available to anyone with a Facebook account.

For video tech tips check out the Legacy Quick Tips page.  These short videos will make it easy for you to learn all sort of fun and interesting ways to look at your genealogy research.

Michele Simmons Lewis, CG^® is part of the Legacy Family Tree team at MyHeritage. She handles the enhancement suggestions that come in from our users as well as writing for Legacy News. You can usually find her hanging out on the Legacy User Group Facebook page answering questions and posting tips.

Tuesday's Tip - Drag and Drop Photos (Intermediate)

Tuesday's Tips provide brief how-to's to help you learn to use the Legacy Family Tree software with new tricks and techniques.

Drag and Drop Photos (Intermediate)

This article assumes you are comfortable using the Windows File Explorer and basic Windows commands

This is a really short Tuesday's Tip but we get questions about this all the time. There are two drag and drop issues, dragging and dropping from a Windows folder and dragging and dropping from within a Media Gallery to reorder photos. 

You can drag and drop (or copy and paste) a media item from an open Windows folder to an open Media Gallery. The drag and drop is very straightforward but the copy and paste isn't as intuitive.

You will use the normal Windows command (such as right-click > copy or CTRL-C) to copy the media but in the open Media Gallery you will need to right click on an EXISTING photo and then select Paste from Windows Clipboard. Copy and Paste will not work if you don't already have at least one item in the Media Gallery. There is no such restriction when you simply drag and drop. Don't forget that you will still need to edit the photo to add the caption, date, and description. 

There is also a trick when you are reordering photos within a Media Gallery. When you drag a photo you need to drop it on an existing photo to change the order. You do not drop the photo on an empty space. This is what seems to trip users up. This does not swap the two photos but rather it inserts the dragged photo BEFORE the photo you dropped it on. The rest of the photos do not change their order. 

I hope these two little tips will save you some time when you are working with media.

 

Find tech tips every day in the Facebook Legacy User Group. The group is free and is available to anyone with a Facebook account.

For video tech tips check out the Legacy Quick Tips page.  These short videos will make it easy for you to learn all sort of fun and interesting ways to look at your genealogy research.

 

Michele Simmons Lewis, CG^® is part of the Legacy Family Tree team at MyHeritage. She handles the enhancement suggestions that come in from our users as well as writing for Legacy News. You can usually find her hanging out on the Legacy User Group Facebook page answering questions and posting tips.

Tuesday's Tip - Working With the Marriage List (Intermediate)

Tuesday's Tips provide brief how-to's to help you learn to use the Legacy Family Tree software with new tricks and techniques.

Working with the Marriage List (Intermediate)

In last Tuesday's Tip I showed you How I Work with a Search List. Now we will take a look at the Marriage List. I think the Marriage List is underused. There are some helpful things you can do here. To access it go to View > Marriage List and this is what you will see:

(click image to enlarge)

 

I want to talk about displaying the names in different ways. Using the big buttons at the top, you can sort by MRIN, by the Husband's surname, or by the Wife's surname. After you have done that first sort you can add another level of sorting by going to Options > Sort by Given Name Surname. If you have already sorted this way, the option will read Sort by Surname, Given Name. If you plan on printing or exporting the list you will want to set up your sort first.

The MRIN is the Marriage RIN and not the Indvidual's RIN. However, you can display their Individual RIN after their name as I have. This is in the main options menu (not the Marriage Options) and you will find it at Options > Customize > View > Option 8.2 Display Numbers on Names. Choose Show RINs on all Name Lists.

Next I want to look at the Marriage Tags. These are a totally different set of Tags than the Individual Tags. To turn the Individual Tags on and off you use the main options menu but to turn the Marriage Tags on and off you do it right from this screen, Options > Display Tag Columns. 

Right now I am not using any Marriage Tags but I use them often when I am working with family groups. You can tag marriages on this screen by double clicking the tag you want to use. You can also tag marriages on the Family View and Pedigree View by single clicking the tag.

(click image to enlarge)

(click image to enlarge)

 

There is an Advanced Marriage Tagging screen. To get to it right click any tag on the Family View or Pedigree View. If you are on the Marriage List itself you will go to Options > Advanced Tagging.

I told you that I wasn't using any Marriage Tags right now but when I pulled up the Advanced Marriage Tagging screen I got a bit of a surprise. I am going to show you what I found because I will demonstrate what you shouldn't do (oops!)

(click image to enlarge)

 

First mistake... Tag 4, Tag 6 and Tag 8 are being used but the Tags are not labeled. Since there is only one marriage on each I am guessing that I thought I was finished with them. I have no idea what I was working on. Always label your tags! This goes for Individual Tags too. You will be happy to know that all of my Individual Tags ARE labeled. 

Second mistake... Tag 5 and 9 have labels but no marriages. I finished what I was doing and I forgot to remove the label. Bad Michele!  I remember what I was doing with Tag 5. Tom is my dad. I wanted to make sure everyone in his direct line (not including siblings) had every available census recorded and that I hadn't missed any. I also wanted to note every census that I couldn't find and write a blurb stating where I had looked and my search criteria. I am not sure why I was looking for marriages with attached documents (Tag 9). I have fixed my Advanced Marriage Tagging screen. 

 

The Set and Go To: buttons at the bottom allow you to set one Marriage Bookmark.  Once you set it, the couple's name will be on the Go To: button

(click image to enlarge)

 

If you look at the first screenshot you will the Marriage Anniversary Reminder check box. You can highlight a couple and then check the box if you want a reminder on your Legacy Home tab. You will also find this on any couple's Marriage Information screen. 

(click image to enlarge)

 

If I had an anniversary within the next 14 days this is where I would see the reminder. I can change the number of days out that I get the reminders by clicking Options > Options > Reminder Options on this screen.

(click image to enlarge)

 

I am going to show you one more thing in the Options menu, Options > Remove the Marriage Link. The rest of the Options are pretty self-explanatory. The Remove the Marriage Link is an important tool when you are trying to get rid of "ghost" marriages. Please read Ghost Marriages for a full explanation and instructions.

I hope you have learned something new today and that this will help you in your research.

 

Find tech tips every day in the Facebook Legacy User Group. The group is free and is available to anyone with a Facebook account.

For video tech tips check out the Legacy Quick Tips page.  These short videos will make it easy for you to learn all sort of fun and interesting ways to look at your genealogy research.

 

Michele Simmons Lewis, CG^® is part of the Legacy Family Tree team at MyHeritage. She handles the enhancement suggestions that come in from our users as well as writing for Legacy News. You can usually find her hanging out on the Legacy User Group Facebook page answering questions and posting tips.