Shannon M. Thomas | Mostly Genealogy

Sometimes the fonts that we use in our database can make it hard to see.  In the individual information screen if you go to options and then zoom you can change your font size to make it easier for you to see it.   You can also find in under options on the index view, descendant view, and the Legacy home tab.  I'm sure there are other locations to use this zoom feature; if find others please let me know. Thank you for hanging out here at my blog for the A to Z Challenge!  I hope you learned something new along the way!

You can decide if you want the years a person was alive displayed in legacy.  This can be adjusted under Options > Customize > #8 View.  In 8.1 if you uncheck the check boxes the years will not be displayed in Legacy. The image below shows the years displayed on the family tab. The years are displayed in the family view, the pedigree view and on the name list.  The image below shows section 8.1 where you can make your changes. Up next is my last post, letter Z, for the A to Z challenge.  It has been lots of fun sharing my Legacy database and a little of Evernote with all of you.  See you for letter Z!

To get to the Potential Problems Report I go to My Toolbar > Report Menu > Other > Potential Problems. The first tab, Records, allows you to choose what you want to search.  All records, records with previous errors along with new records, etc. and you can also check records with a certain tag# and tag all problems records with a certain tag#.  Tagging your records with potential problems is beneficial because it makes it easier to work with the records to make corrections.  On the warnings tab you can select when Legacy will warn you of potential problems in you database.  You can adjust the warnings to fit your needs. Under the problems tab you can select what problems you want to be notified of.  The warnings und the standardization tab help keep your database consistent.  Under the gaps tab you are able to adjust the gaps that you get a warning for a potential problem. I have a note in Evernote in my B...

I found George's second wife {my 2nd great grandmother}.  She is already in my database and now I need to link him to her.  Click on the first icon, shown in red circle above, to add another spouse.  {You would follow the same process for adding another husband as well.} Click on the add new wife button in the next window.  Clicking on this brings up another box where you can add a new person or link to an existing person.  {image below} This time I am going to link to an existing person because Florence is already in my database.  Clicking on add a new person will open the individual information screen where you can all of her information then clicking on save will add her to the spouse list. When you choose to link to an existing person you are taken to the name list window to select the person to add as George's wife.  I found Florence and selected her. Here are George and Florence. The letter X is next up on t...

In old newspapers there are many social outings mentioned.  You never know what you might find while reading them. The Democratic Sentinel was a paper from Bloomsburg(Pennsylvania) and the surrounding area. While looking for an obituary or even mention of the death of John Henry Welsh I found this : "Miss Lillian Everett and Mrs Effie Jane Remley, of Watsontown, drove over to Greenwood Thursday to attend the funeral of John Welsh.  From there they came to this town, where they were entertained by relatives until Sunday morning." From the information above I was able to figure out his burial date.  I have also added two new people to my database, although I do not know who they are. It is recorded in my database under John Henry Welsh as a newspaper event / fact. I noticed that I have not shared this event so I will share it with Effie Jane Remley and Lillian Everett. Look at old newspapers; you never know what clues you may find! Stay tu...

The weekend seems to mess up my posting!  I will be playing catch-up for the next few days. The image below shows the relationship between myself and my grandmother.  {look close...you can see how OLD I am.} The first relationship shows her as my grandmother...nothing new there.  {This is my mom's mom.} If you look close there are actually two relationships!  What?!  It says she is also my 2nd cousin twice removed.  How can that be??  The right side of the screen below is my information going through my dad back to my 3rd great-grandfather.  The information on the right is my grandmother {my moms mom} and that also goes back to the same 3rd great-grandfather.  So my grandmother is my grandmother and my 2nd cousin twice removed.  What?  Unbelievable!!  If you notice the last name is the same but spelled differently.  There is a story that my 2nd great-grandfather and his brother got in a fight so Alon...

In L is for To Do List  I showed you how to access the to do list; this time I want to show you my to do list. The to do list in Legacy really helps to keep me on track and remember where my train of thought was when I was doing research. {My screen shots look a little different today; I had to reinstall Legacy again!} The image below shows what the to do list looks like when you first open it from the family view; it shows both open and close to dos. By going to the sort order tab you can choose how your to dos are displayed. Clicking on the filter options tab will let you filter your to do list.  The one I use most often is under status to show all of the open to do items. The image below shows a to do item for the 1870 Census.  I did not find the family where I thought they would be so I made a note of that and where to search next.  I will continue this process until I can close this to do. In the image above you will see that I use...

I record a story event / fact for stories that I find in text and that are told to me from others. Alvah Rutan has two story events related to his arrest and imprisonment at For Mifflin in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. They are marked with a red arrow in the image below. The image below is the transcription of the story in the story event / fact.  I added my source citation just like I normally would. If it is a story from a family member that added the same way. Do you add stories to your database?? See you back here tomorrow.

 I use a Residence Event / Fact anytime there is an address listed that is not from a Census.  The residence can be found on any number of documents.  The one shown below from 4 Nov 1945 is from Harold's WWII Army discharge papers {shown in the image below.} Individual Information screen showing Harold Elwood Seigfreid {my great grandfather.}  In his Event / Fact list you can see his two residence facts at the bottom {I see I need to add a source to the 2nd one.} This is Harold's chronology view.  You can see where the two Residence Facts / Events fall in with the rest of the Events / Facts in his lifetime {in green above.}  How do you record the Residence Fact / Event in your database? See you back here for letter S tomorrow or later on today!

 {shhh....I'm a little behind but hopefully I can get caught up in the next few days.} Today's A to Z Challenge is all about questions.  When you are researching where do you put your questions??  Do you take notes on paper, do put them in the research notes in your database, do you use Evernote, or something entirely different? I'm an Evernote lover and I use it for all kinds of things {sometimes I still write notes on paper though.}  Event the handwritten notes make there was in to Evernote. The image below is some notes I was taking while going through an obituary.  This note makes sense to me now but if I found it in a few weeks would it still make sense?  What about in a year or two? I used the  Cam Scanner App  on my Android phone and I also have it for my ipad.  Cam Scanner has great editing tools to crop and tune the image.  It took about 2 minuets to snap my pic and make a quick note about the notes and questions that...

  So far I have only found one ancestor {he is on my husband's side}that has gone to prison.  Alvah Rutan  {who I write about often} was arrested on 31 Aug 1864 and then later released and then arrested again in October of 1864.  The October arrest resulted in a trial where he was found guilty of making disloyal comments about the president of the United States.  On 1 Mar 1865 Alvah Rutan was released from prison by the president of the United States. I have several accounts of his arrests and trial and imprisonment from newspapers and a book about the area.  Recently, I got the trial records from NARA and I am working on transcribing them. Alvah's individual information window.  

Obituaries hold a lot of great information in them. I have an Obituary Event/Fact in Legacy.  I record the information from the newspaper and transcribe the obituary in the event. Here is the transcription of the obituary from the Benton Argus on 13 Jan 1927: Death of Miss Hannah Rutan Miss Hannah Rutan died at the home of her nephew, Mr. Ward Vandine, in Bloomsburg on Friday evening at 8 o'clock after an illness of one week.  She was first attacked by a heavy cold but it is thought she sustained a stroke of paralysis on Thursday night that was the direct cause of her death. She was 80 years of age last October and was a godly woman; more than 60 years of her life she has been a Sunday School Teacher and worker in the the church.  She was a member of the Christian church.  For several years past she was the teacher of the Mother's Bible Class of the Bloomsburg Church of Christ. Miss Rutan spent many years of her life as a resident of this Boroug...

 Not only can you find birth, death, and marriage information in newspapers but you can find articles about your ancestors and their families. Alvah Rutan's family held a reunion in 1928 {51 years after his death} but I found the article when I was searching a database for his name. The following article was in the Benton Argus in Benton, Pennsylvania on 20 September 1928. For easier reading here is what the article says :  Rutan Family Holds Meeting The descendants of Elder A. R. Rutan and their families met in the grove at Stillwater, Sept 3.  Two birthdays were celebrated: Enos A. Hartman, aged 76, and David Wenner, aged 81. It was decided to make this reunion an annual affair.  As the children of A. R. and Abigail Smith Rutan were all girls there are no descendants having the family name.  There are two girls still living and were in attendance at this reunion, Mrs. R. W. Lemons and Mrs. David Wenner. Those in attendance were: Bend...