Potential Problems Report - I just printed one and 3/4 of my potential problems are that my surnames are in all CAPS. Is this not the standard any longer?

I would think you could use either; just be consistent and have all caps or lower case. Those potential problem reports are great, I think as a recent one I printed out picked up on some simple errors I overlooked. I don't know how most handle the situation of unknown names but I put in "unknown" for a lot of people and it doesn't like that.

Go to REPORTS - Potential Problems - Standardization and uncheck the last box (surname entered as all uppercase). Then rerun the report. Legacy is programmed to initial caps as correct and will actually display names entered that way as ALL CAPS if you set it to do so. Had the same problem when I first started.

That's cool. Good tip. I didn't know that probably because I use lowercase anyway.

I have created a "Genealogy" folder in which I keep all my Genealogy related stuff...Photos, Documents, etc. grouped by Families and then by Individuals. Makes it much easier for me to find things. I use Sync Toy (Microsoft) to sync these files between my desktop and laptop. I also use Sync Toy to sync my Legacy files.
PROBLEM (Suggestion for Legacy): When syncing Legacy, the photos don't show up on the other computer because I am using the Genealogy folder to link the files. I know it would work if all the photos/documents were in the Legacy files, but it would be much harder for me to keep up with. I haven't figured a way around this other than to manually correct the photo locations. Anyone have any suggestions? It would be great if Legacy did a search for the file on the whole computer!

Florence: I presume you have you genealogy folder in your documents. You can move that folder to just your c: drive and correct the locations then all you need do is put a shortcut on your desktop to that folder so you can get to it very quickly. When you syn the folders it will be on your laptop on the c: drive so its in the same place and Legacy will find the pics. Does this make sense to you.

Rick, this makes sense! I will put the Genealogy folder on c: drive on both computers so it will work back and forth.
I am in the middle of a defrag on my laptop...will let you know if this works.

Rick, it didn't work. I think it is because of the multiple folders and subfolders I have for various branches in "Genealogy" folder. I don't think the program looks for photos for documents beyond the main folder. That's why I think a more complex search by Legacy would work. I did adjust the file locations in "Options/Locations". Thanks for your suggestion...I was hoping that was the answer.

What Rick describes should work as long as the folder structure is exactly the same on both computers. I face the same thing setting up my new computer. My old computer has four hard drives. Almost all my photos [linked to Legacy] are on X:\Genealogy\Family Folders\[surnames]. The Legacy program and my family file both live on Y:\Legacy. The problem with a laptop is that, with rare exception, it only has one hard drive. However, I can create partitions that would emulate my desktop computer. Legacy doesn't know the difference if it is living on Computer A or Computer B. If the folder structure is exactly the same it will work. The only other option is the one Florence chose.

I think the problem is how Sync Toy identifies the network locations. If Legacy on the Laptop knows the photos' path is on the PC, it can't access that location. But, all of the photo names and info are shown with a big "?", just not the photo. Bob, the folder structures are exactly the same. Thanks for your input. F. I would love it if Legacy could just search for the photo name in all the files.

The easiest way is to store your genealogy images in c:Legacy/Pictures That is where it looks automatically. Also Documents in C:Legacy/Documents. I have never had a problem doing that (and am sure my backups always include all subfolders in Legacy).

Keith, can the photos and documents be left in their various sub-folders or do they need to be individual?

You can have subfolders - but need to tell LEGACY where to look. Look in View - Master Lists - picture location. You can add other folders. (I keep everything in the Pictures folder simply so I do not forget to tell LEGACY if I move them around. My hard Drive is big enough - I just have copies in C:Legacy/Pictures.

Carrying on with Keith McKain's comment.

Let's say you have Computer A setup as drive C: with your pictures in C:\LEGACY\PICTURES and Computer B's drive is Drive F, then in Legacy go to Options, Locations, View Current List of Multimedia Locations

Here you can add paths, so add paths that match the ones that already exist, but change the drive to F:

So if C:\LEGACY\PICTURES is there then add F:\LEGACY\PICTURES and so on. I have 10 members of my family who use Legacy (I'm the only Deluxe user)

I carry the Master file on my flash drive which is sync'd to my main PC, will comment on this later. The main Legacy file has all the drive paths for all 10 of my family members and so Pics always appear unless that family member doesn't possess it, so it actually helps me to know who has what.

Hope this is not too confusing, I could do a class on this, if I could ever afford to join the cruise, LOL

Don't know why people are going on about SyncToy as the standard Windows Briefcase did the same job. If you understand what either of these options do then it's easy. All my data files reside in c:\research

Each family has it's own subdirectory of research, i.e. dixon, then within that subs for census images, births, deaths etc.

When I use the data file on my flash drive at another location Briefcase or SyncToy knows there are changes when I come back to my main PC and wallah they sync!

I have a question. In the Location area you have 4 lines to enter a name:
Location Master
Location Geo.
Then Short Location with both choices again.

When entering the information, where county, state, etc. lines have changed over time. I have been entering it as it was when the event happened but then it doesn't always map correctly. So do you enter the information as it was on the master lines, but enter the modern / current location on the Geo. lines? I have been using the historical on all lines and then manually mapping.

Also a suggeestion - add a discussion forum so that each new topic and the following comments are grouped.

Thanks
Carol

I enter the location as it was when the event happened (I have some in Lebanon County, PA that went from Chester to Lancaster to Dauphin to Lebanon). I then call up the LOCATIONS Master list (With show map clicked). I find the place name I entered (probably in the wrong place) - explore the map until I find the correct location and RIGHT-CLICK to reset it to the correct location. You might want to check all of your locations as you find time - the automatic system is not very good!

Keith,
Thanks, that is what I do. But I had one of those random thoughts that maybe entering the correct historical name as location but on the Geo line [ I understand that line maps it] putting the currect location might help with the mapping.

Carol

Keith, thanks, I will get that changed!

I will be installing my first copy of Legacy tomorrow.I was wondering if this program allow you to site more than one source for a event?thanks for the help!

Tina - yes, you can install as many sources for each event as you'd like.

I would like to know how to merge separate trees into one group and then still have all my separate groups intact.

When I 'joined' my files into one, I opened my main file then imported a GEDCOM of each group into it and gave the new combined file a different name. Then when I open up Legacy I have a choice of either the combined file or one of the groups (which all have their separate file names). Importing GEDCOMS merely copies, not removes, so the groups remain intact. You may have to do some merging if you have the same people in some of the files, but that's not much of a hardship with Legacy. Happy combining!

Well,I made the jump and got my Legacy 7.0!so far I am enjoying the many features it has to customize it.I do have one problem I don't understand and can't seem to fix.One side of my family is primarily Spanish,so I have names like,San Carlos de Monterey,Villa de Branciforte.In every case the "de" is capitalized!Not just the d but the e as well and it looks horrible! the program will not allow me to correct it!Can I turn this off?Help!

Hi Tina,
It has been my experience that most things in Legacy can be controlled by the user. If you don't want the "de" to be capitalized, you would go under Options, then Customize, then under the tab, Data Format, change the Letter Case of Surnames from Initial Caps to Don't change what I enter. I hope this helps.

Sue Burk

Thanks Sue, but this is not helping with location name in Born field.I will keep looking for the place to change that!

I've been following this group for awhile now. I am a brand new user of Legacy 7 Deluxe and really like it. However, I feel like I am having to enter in all my information twice because I enter my ancestor's information into FamilySearch and then I have to re-enter it into Legacy so I can store photos, etc. I know there must be a better way to do this.

Has anyone used the Gensmarts software program?

I'm a Gensmarts user. It is a good program and were I more disciplined I'm sure I could have leveraged it to deliver tremendous results. It's certainly worth the few bucks they ask for it.

Hi Richard
My research is based in the UK and Australia and I wondered if Gensmarts was more suitable for America

I installed Family Tree Maker 2010 yesterday and it's interesting to compare it with Legacy. It is a bit of a hog on your computer but offers a lot and as promised I had no trouble downloading my large file from Ancestry.com. With Legacy the only option is a GED file which I do regularly when I update my Ancestry.com files. The feature I want most was to be able to download all my photos and stories and it delivers. I have checked out the reports and Legacy does have some that FTM does not have so I will continue to use it. FTM also offers a very good check on place names and has a spell check. I also like it's mapping features. I think that Legacy will have to upgrade their software to keep up with this new FTM 2010 to keep pace. So far; so good with this new software and the price was right!

I never found FTM to be anywhere near as user friendly as Legacy. I love the customizations on 7.0 deluxe too. When I saw that I could open Legacy with the index instead of family view, I was faster at getting started too. My only problem is transferring from my old Mac to a new Dell. I'm just not that computer techie. I've never gone back to FTM, but I'm sure Legacy is doing everything possible to stay ahead of everyone else. FTM never gave me updates between new versions either. I LOVE Legacy!!!

Each to his own, I suppose. I do not like FTM. I found it clumsy to use, took up too much space, and many of its bells and whistles I would not have needed to use in a thousand years.
That latter also applies to some extent with Legacy, but of all the programmes that I have tried, I still think it is the best and will continue to use and promote it.

Ok I cannot get legacy to convert my family file to a gedcom. What am I doing wrong? I followed the directions but it says that there is nothing there that matches. Help please.

Denise: Did you open your file and then go to file export to and just follow the promps. On the Gedcom export page and use the drop down menu to select produce file for I use gedcom 5.5 for online uploads. Remember to check the privacy tab as it will remove livng people if you prefer. Hope this helps
Rick

I am thinking about changing from Family Tree Maker to Legacy, but read some where that you can't transfer your pictures from FTM to Legacy. Is that true? So then what - I'd have to re-enter every picture? Help - really need to know. Thanks.

Congratulations ! ! ! Official certification received from FamilySearch are EXCELLENT news for us.

I don't see any answers to Karen Dill's question 14 hours ago. FTM imbeds the photos in your family file. That is great when you want to move it to another computer. The problem is that your file grows so large so quickly that it makes it difficult to share with others [other than a gedcom]. Legacy creates a link to the photo so your family file stays small but if you move your photos your link is lost.
Bottom line is yes, you would have to link all those photos in Legacy. I went through this when I changed over to Legacy. Fortunately I only had about 100 photos to linkup. Legacy is so much better that I would do it again in a heartbeat.
BTW, the default folder is C:\Legacy\Pictures if you want to first copy your photos to that folder. Legacy is cool, however, and you can have them anywhere on your computer and change the default location in Options > Customize > Locations.
I hope you don’t find this too daunting and become a Legacy fan.

Rick thanks for the help but it is still not working. When I hit select file name and start export the next window that comes up says No items match your search. I am using the newsiest version of Legacy so a few of the things that you told me to look for have different names but I still think that I did it correctly. I am getting very frustrated. I want to be able to up load the gedcom to my ipod to make research trips easier. grrrrrr

Denise - Lets try Step-By-Step

Click File - Export - to GEDCOM
Under Produce FIle for: - you pick - I took GEDCOM 5.5 only
Under Char Set: I took ANSI
ONLY CHECK was on Override Source Options - include all
Record Selection - ALL RECORDS

ON PRIVACY TAB--
CHECK Suppress details for living people
CHECK Change name to living

I got a .ged with 4827 Individuals and 1686 Families

Remember not everything goes out with a .gedcom!

Keith

Thanks for your helpful info about getting pictures from FTM to Legacy.
Karen

This is a little problem but it is causing me much hair pulling. I had families with two sets of children set so that all the children appeared on the screen and said they were half siblings, but have changed computers and can not get that feature, again. Help someone, how did I do it before?

Hey Evelyn, it is in the View section when you right click on the Childred. Click on 'Show 1/2 kids'.

Hopefully someone can help me with this. Normally when I receive a genealogy related email, I copy it to my forum (making sure to say it's from an email) and use the forum as the source. I only do it for simplicity sake as it's easier to keep track of the forum than emails.

My question: Is it okay to do this? If not, please explain something that would work better.

Thanks.

oops, I see that my fingers didn't cooperate when I was typing 'children'.

Thanks Bob, that is the second time you have rescued me.

Hello Bernard.

I'm not sure I completely understand your situation, but in general, I would use the person who sent me the email as the source (ie - personal knowledge of...). The rule of thumb for sourcing is that it should make it possible for you and others to find the information again. You may want to post this question as a discussion.

Also, check the group Sourcing Your Genealogy (http://www.genealogywise.com/group/sourcingyourgenealogy) - we've had some discussions there that might help, or you could post a discussion there yourself.

Hope that helps,
Kathleen

I have been using the search facilty in Legacy Deluxe 7.0. and I can use it fairly well now after watching the Legacy DVDs. However I am having trouble compiling a list of individuals with various details missing. At present they are left blank and I don't seem to be able to find a way to search for it. I have wondered about placing "unkown" there so I can search for that. e.g. if unknown was in a birth date field I could search: Individual, birth date, contains, unknown. Seems a drastic way to do it though. Any ideas?

Hello John-

When you open the search box in Legacy, the 5th and last tab should be for "Missing Information." That should do what you want. Unless I misunderstood.

-Kathleen

Hi Kathleen.

That is exactly what I wanted and I am embarrased to learn that I had not found it. Thank you for pointing it out.