Got Pennsylvania ancestors? Sign up for our free webinar, presented by Lisa Alzo. She will help you:

• discover what records are available
• where they are located
• and how to utilize them to trace your roots in the Keystone state.

The live webinar is scheduled for Wednesday, May 2, 2012 at 2PM Eastern U.S., so register today to reserve your virtual seat. Registration is free but space is limited to the first 1,000 people to join that day. Join at least 15-20 minutes early (maybe 30-40 minutes early due to the popularity of this webinar) to ensure your virtual seat. When you join, if you receive a message that the webinar is full, you know we've reached the 1,000 limit, so we invite you to view the recording which should be published to the webinar archives within an hour or two of the event's conclusion.

About the presenter

Lisa A. Alzo, M.F.A. is a freelance writer, instructor, and internationally recognized lecturer, specializing in Slovak/Eastern European genealogical research, writing your family history, and using the Internet to trace female and immigrant ancestors. She is the author of nine books, including the award-winning Three Slovak Women, and hundreds of magazine articles, and writes the blog, The Accidental Genealogist.

She is the author of:

• Ready, Set, Write! Share Your Family's Story webinar-on-CD
• Tracing Immigrant Ancestors webinar-on-CD
• Digital Writing Tools for Genealogists webinar-on-CD

 Upcoming webinars by Lisa:

• Beyond the Arrival Date: Extracting More from Passenger Lists, Wednesday, September 5, 2012. Click here to register.

Add it to your Google Calendar

With our Google Calendar button, you will never forget our upcoming webinars. Simply click the button to add it to your calendar. You can then optionally embed the webinar events (and even turn them on and off) into your own personal calendar. If you have already added the calendar, you do not have to do it again - the new webinar events will automatically appear.

Webinar time

The webinar will be live on Wednesday, May 2, 2012 at:

• 2pm Eastern (U.S.)
• 1pm Central
• 12pm Mountain
• 11am Pacific/Arizona

Or use this Time Zone Converter.

Here's how to attend:

1. Register at www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/webinars.asp today. It's free!
2. You will receive a confirmation email containing a link to the webinar.
3. You will receive a reminder email during the week prior to the webinar.
4. Calculate your time zone by clicking here.
5. Make sure you have the latest version of Java installed on your computer. Check at www.java.com.
6. Click on the webinar link (found in confirmation and reminder emails) prior to the start of the webinar. Arrive early as the room size is limited to the first 1,000 arrivals that day.
7. Listen via headset (USB headsets work best), your computer speakers, or by phone.

We look forward to seeing you all there!

The best way to spend an hour and a half - listen to Megan Smolenyak! In her first webinar ever, genealogy's icon spoke to a capacity webinar audience - all 1,000 webinar seats were taken. Using fascinating case studies she taught the eight proven strategies to finding our living relatives. One viewer commented, "she is so professional, witty, and charming and really knows her stuff! I would have listened for hours." I was thinking the same thing. Thanks Megan!

View the recording

If you could not make it to the live event or just want to watch it again, the 1 hour 45 minute recording of Reverse Genealogy: Finding the Living is now available to view in our webinar archives. Visit www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/webinars.asp to watch. It is available for free until May 7, 2012.

Pre-order the webinar-on-CD or the Megan Smolenyak Bundle

Own your own copy of Reverse Genealogy: Finding the Living by purchasing the webinar-on-CD for just $9.95. It includes the 1 hour 45 minute recording of the class, the complete Q/A session, and 4 pages of handouts. Click here for more information or to purchase.

Or...purchase the Megan Smolenyak Bundle which includes:

• Who Do You Think You Are: The Essential Guide to Tracing Your Family History (224 pages)
• Hey, America, Your Roots Are Showing (288 pages)
• Reverse Genealogy: Finding the Living webinar-on-CD

Click here to purchase the bundle for just $32.95 (savings of $10.95).

Special discount coupon

The special discount coupon of megan that was announced during the webinar is valid for 10% off anything in our online store through Monday, April 30, 2012.

Follow Megan:

• http://megansmolenyak.com
• https://twitter.com/#!/megansmolenyak
• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/megan-smolenyak-smolenyak
• http://www.youtube.com/user/MeganSmolenyak
• https://plus.google.com/118360375753126381346
• http://www.facebook.com/megansmolenyak

Register for our upcoming webinars (free)

• Researching Your Pennsylvania Ancestors with Lisa Alzo, May 2.
• Researching Your New York Ancestors with Thomas MacEntee, May 30.
• Researching Your German Ancestors with Kory Meyerink, June 6.
• Putting Flesh on the Bones with Ron Arons, June 13.
• Marriages and Anniversaries. Mining newspapers for engagements, marriages, anniversaries, and divorce records with Tom Kemp, June 20.
• Staying Safe with Social Media with Thomas MacEntee, June 22.
• Digital Images for Genealogists and Technologists: scanning, digitizing, editing, and preserving your photos with Geoff Rasmussen. June 27.
• The Quest for your English Ancestors with Claire V. Brisson-Banks. July 11.
• Plan Your Way to Research Success with Marian Pierre-Louis, July 18.
• Neglected History by Megan Smolenyak, August 1.
• Wikis for Genealogists with Thomas MacEntee. August 8.
• The 5 C's for Success in Genealogy Today with Barbara Renick. August 22.
• Beyond the Arrival Date: Extracting More from Passenger Lists with Lisa Alzo. September 5.
• What is a 'Reasonably Exhaustive Search'? with Michael Hait. September 12.
• Use Your Digital Camera to Copy Records with Mary Hill. September 19.
• Digital Research Guidance, Research Logs, and To Do Lists: FamilySearch, Research Wiki, and Legacy Family Tree with Geoff Rasmussen. September 26.
• Privacy and our Ancestors with Thomas MacEntee. October 3.
• Researching Your Irish Ancestors: Beyond the Basics with Judy Wight. October 10.
• Ten Brick Wall Tips for Intermediate Researchers with Marian Pierre-Louis, October 17.
• Your Civil War Ancestors: Beginning Your Research with Michael Hait. October 24.
• Breaking Down Your Irish Brick Wall with Judy Wight. October 31.
• Genealogy for Novices: Where Do We Begin with Linda Geiger. November 14.
• The Big 4 U.S. Record Sources with Mary Hill. November 28.

Click here to register.

See you online!

Although genealogy is at its heart the study of long-deceased ancestors, connecting with living relatives has become almost as important to many family historians. Some seek living kin in an effort to track down family photos; others do it to find family history playmates, plan reunions or identify DNA project participants. Whatever the motivation, one of the most addicting aspects of genealogy is the thrill of finding distant cousins, or in some cases, parents, children or siblings. But this "reverse genealogy" (working from the past to the present) has its own special challenges and requires the researcher to be part genealogist and part private investigator. This presentation covers proven techniques for tracing 20th and 21st century friends and relatives from the past to the present.

The live webinar is scheduled for Wednesday, April 25, 2012 at 2PM Eastern U.S., so register today to reserve your virtual seat. Registration is free but space is limited to the first 1,000 people to join that day. Join at least 15-20 minutes early (maybe 30-40 minutes early due to the popularity of this webinar) to ensure your virtual seat. When you join, if you receive a message that the webinar is full, you know we've reached the 1,000 limit, so we invite you to view the recording which should be published to the webinar archives within an hour or two of the event's conclusion.

About the presenter

Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak (yes, that's her real name) is a genealogical adventurer who loves solving mysteries, making unexpected discoveries and pushing the boundaries of conventional genealogy.

A popular writer, speaker and TV guest, Megan has appeared on Good Morning America, the Today Show, the Early Show, CNN, NPR and BBC. In addition to consulting on shows ranging from Who Do You Think You Are? to Top Chef, she is the author of six books, a Huffington Post contributor, a cold case researcher for the Army, NCIS and the FBI, and former Chief Family Historian and spokesperson for Ancestry.com.

Upcoming webinars by Megan

• Neglected History, Wednesday, August 1, 2012. Click here to register.

Megan's books

• Hey, America, Your Roots Are Showing
• Who Do You Think You Are?: The Essential Guide to Tracing Your Family History

Add it to your Google Calendar

With our Google Calendar button, you will never forget our upcoming webinars. Simply click the button to add it to your calendar. You can then optionally embed the webinar events (and even turn them on and off) into your own personal calendar. If you have already added the calendar, you do not have to do it again - the new webinar events will automatically appear.

Webinar time

The webinar will be live on Wednesday, April 25, 2012 at:

• 2pm Eastern (U.S.)
• 1pm Central
• 12pm Mountain
• 11am Pacific/Arizona

Or use this Time Zone Converter.

Here's how to attend:

1. Register at www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/webinars.asp today. It's free!
2. You will receive a confirmation email containing a link to the webinar.
3. You will receive a reminder email during the week prior to the webinar.
4. Calculate your time zone by clicking here.
5. Make sure you have the latest version of Java installed on your computer. Check at www.java.com.
6. Click on the webinar link (found in confirmation and reminder emails) prior to the start of the webinar. Arrive early as the room size is limited to the first 1,000 arrivals that day.
7. Listen via headset (USB headsets work best), your computer speakers, or by phone.

We look forward to seeing you all there!

We have another great new Legacy Family Tree update (free) for you to download. After the recent release of our new Census List Tool, we have had a flood of ideas from you to make the new feature even better. Today's free update adds several of your suggestions.

See the download instructions below for step-by-step instructions on installing this update.

What's New

In our last update we released the genealogy industry's first-ever Census List Tool, which will tell you who was alive on any date in any location. Watch the webinar here. Many of you have figured out that it does much more than just helping you find who was alive during a census. You can use it to help you find who was alive on any date in history.

Today's update adds some fantastic options for excluding individuals from the report or search list.

Exclude individuals from the Report who appear to have already been found in this census - With this option turned on, Legacy looks in several places to see if the current census has already been referenced for a particular person:

• Event names and descriptions
• individual and event source citations
• and individual notes.

If the current census is mentioned in any of these places, you can have the person excluded from the census report. No need to fill up valuable report space with the names of those you have already found. But if you still want to include their names, you can turn on the option to italicize their names. Now it's easy to know who you have found and who you still need to find.

Exclude individuals from the Report with location percentages less than  X % - On the report, Legacy suggests where each person would be living in the census year dependent upon the location's date and how close it was to the census date. Locations with low percentages can be excluded from the census report by selecting a percentage value as the minimum acceptable.

The report also now considers the birth places of the children to help determine where the person may have been living on a certain date.

What's Been Fixed

View the April 16, April 6 and March 29, 2012 release notes here. 

How to Update

For our Deluxe Edition users, all you have to do is connect to the Internet, start Legacy 7, and click on the "Install and Download Now" link on the Legacy Home tab. (If you're reading this from within the Legacy Home tab inside of Legacy 7, you'll first need to click on the Home button in the top left of the Legacy Home tab which looks like the following picture:

If you are a Standard Edition Legacy user, you will need to visit our website. Go to http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/DownloadUpdate.asp and follow the instructions.

If you have Scottish ancestry (or even if you don't) you need to watch the recording of today's webinar, "Researching Your Scottish Ancestors" by Marie Dougan. She shared an enormous amount of knowledge on researching our Scottish ancestors, and did it with her beautiful Scottish accent (she was broadcasting live from Linlithgow, Scotland)! I had no idea Scotland's records are so voluminous and organized. Can't wait to pursue my Alexander Hill line now.

View the recording

If you could not make it to the live event or just want to watch it again, the 1 hour 27 minute recording of Researching Your Scottish Ancestors is now available to view in our webinar archives. Visit www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/webinars.asp to watch. It is available for free until April 30, 2012.

Pre-order the webinar-on-CD

Own your own copy of Researching Your Scottish Ancestors by purchasing the webinar-on-CD for just $9.95. It includes the 1 hour 27 minute recording of the class, the complete Q/A session, and 3 pages of handouts. Click here for more information or to purchase.

Special discount coupon

The special discount coupon of scotland that was announced during the webinar is valid for 10% off anything in our online store through Monday, April 23, 2012.

Register for our upcoming webinars (free)

• Reverse Genealogy: Finding the Living with Megan Smolenyak, April 25.
• Researching Your Pennsylvania Ancestors with Lisa Alzo, May 2.
• Researching Your New York Ancestors with Thomas MacEntee, May 30.
• Researching Your German Ancestors with Kory Meyerink, June 6.
• Putting Flesh on the Bones with Ron Arons, June 13.
• Marriages and Anniversaries. Mining newspapers for engagements, marriages, anniversaries, and divorce records with Tom Kemp, June 20.
• Staying Safe with Social Media with Thomas MacEntee, June 22.
• Digital Images for Genealogists and Technologists: scanning, digitizing, editing, and preserving your photos with Geoff Rasmussen. June 27.
• The Quest for your English Ancestors with Claire V. Brisson-Banks. July 11.
• Plan Your Way to Research Success with Marian Pierre-Louis, July 18.
• Neglected History by Megan Smolenyak, August 1.
• Wikis for Genealogists with Thomas MacEntee. August 8.
• The 5 C's for Success in Genealogy Today with Barbara Renick. August 22.
• Beyond the Arrival Date: Extracting More from Passenger Lists with Lisa Alzo. September 5.
• What is a 'Reasonably Exhaustive Search'? with Michael Hait. September 12.
• Use Your Digital Camera to Copy Records with Mary Hill. September 19.
• Digital Research Guidance, Research Logs, and To Do Lists: FamilySearch, Research Wiki, and Legacy Family Tree with Geoff Rasmussen. September 26.
• Privacy and our Ancestors with Thomas MacEntee. October 3.
• Researching Your Irish Ancestors: Beyond the Basics with Judy Wight. October 10.
• Ten Brick Wall Tips for Intermediate Researchers with Marian Pierre-Louis, October 17.
• Your Civil War Ancestors: Beginning Your Research with Michael Hait. October 24.
• Breaking Down Your Irish Brick Wall with Judy Wight. October 31.
• Genealogy for Novices: Where Do We Begin with Linda Geiger. November 14.
• The Big 4 U.S. Record Sources with Mary Hill. November 28.

Click here to register.

See you online!

Surprise, Arizona, April 16, 2012 -- Millennia Corporation, a leader in family history software, today announced that its software, Legacy Family Tree, is now available in the Afrikaans language.

The software, used by beginners and professionals to record, plan, and share their family trees, is now the premier choice for Afrikaans researchers. Legacy is also available in Czech, Danish, German, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, and English languages.

"Making genealogy software available to researchers in their native language is a big step in helping the world trace their family trees," said Dave Berdan, president of Millennia Corporation. "This is a big day for Afrikaans researchers."

Key Features

• entire user interface and help system - all in Afrikaans
• over 100 reports and charts - all in Afrikaans
• creates web pages and To Do Lists
• same excellent features as the regular edition including over 100 reports, calendars, expert tips/advice, statistics, web site searches, and much more...

Price and Availability

Legacy Family Tree 7 is now available for US $29.95:

Afrikaans - http://www.legacyafrikaans.com/

Other languages

Legacy is also currently available in the following languages:

• Czech
• Dansk (Danish)
• Deutsch (German)
• English (Australia)
• English (Canada)
• English (United Kingdom)
• English (USA)
• Nederlands (Dutch)
• Norsk - Bokmål (Norwegian)
• Norsk - Nynorsk (Norwegian)
• Svenska (Swedish)

Translation is in progress for the following languages: Chinese, Eesti (Estonian), Español (Spanish), Français (French), Italiano (Italian), Português (Brasil), Português (Portugal), and Suomi (Finnish).

More information about the translations is available at http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/InternationalLegacyVersions.asp

About Millennia Corporation
Founded in 1984, Millennia Corporation publishes the award-winning Legacy Family Tree genealogy software program, with headquarters in Surprise, Arizona. More information can be found at www.LegacyFamilyTree.com.

Without a simple-to-use digital genealogy filing system and a knowledge of how to properly resize an image, responding to this email request I received this morning would have taken a lot longer than it did.

Geoff:  I am looking for a copy of the Marriage license of Edwin and Annie Beevers in 1877.  Any chance you might be able to send me a digital copy?  Thanks much.

Here's what I did....

First, I opened Legacy and located the couple - Edwin Hague and Annie Beevers (my wife's great-great-grandparents).

I noticed that their Marriage Source button was blue, so I knew I had entered a source for their marriage. My hope was that I had also linked a copy of the digital image to the source detail (I didn't want to have to retrieve the actual paper document and scan it). So I clicked on the Source button, then clicked on the Pictures tab. A small preview of their marriage certificate appeared. Great!

I made a mental note of the marriage location (Wentworth, Yorkshire, England) and opened my Windows Explorer (shortcut: Windows button + E) in preparation for emailing the image to my new correspondant. Although I have tens of thousands of digitized images on my computer, locating the digtial image of this marriage certificate was easy because of how I have set up my digital genealogy filing system. I navigated to C:\Genealogy Photos Pictures\England\Yorkshire\Wentworth where I found ten digitized documents. The marriage certificate was one of them.

I noticed, however, that the marriage certificate's file size was way too big to send in an email - 25MB and in the .tif format. For some original documents that are either irreplaceable or very expensive to replace, after digitizing, I save them as a .tif instead of the usual .jpg. Saving an image as a .tif takes up more space on my hard drive, but they do not use the same "lossy compression" that a .jpg might and gives me a better-quality digital image.

So to email this certificate, I first had to resize it. I right-clicked on it, then clicked on 'Open With Adobe Photoshop Elements', my preferred picture editing software.

Next, I resized the image by going to Image > Resize > Image Size and modified the pixel dimensions from 3504 x 2436 to 1000 x 695 (I simply changed the width to 1000 and the height adjusted proportionally).

Finally, since I did not want to make these changes to the original digital file, I made a copy of it by going to File > Save for Web, clicked OK after reviewing the image's adjusted quality, and gave it a new name.

The resulting file was 790kb, less than 1MB. My email software (gmail) would have no problem with this file size, and with the dimensions of 1000 x 695, the recipient wouldn't have a problem viewing the smaller image either.

The entire process took about a minute to do. Because I had linked the image to the couple in Legacy, I could quickly locate where I had stored it in my digital genealogy filing system. You can learn more about organizing and sharing digital photos in my recent webinar here. In a couple of months I will be presenting a webinar on digitizing your images, including editing, preserving, resolution and more. Register for it here.

I received the email request this morning at 7:34, didn't look at it until 8:20, and had replied by 8:23. Typing the response to him took longer than anything else. While most of my emails don't have such a good response time, I hope he was impressed.

Update: at 9:08am I received the following reply:

Wow! Thanks for the quick response....

Amazing. This process would have taken weeks, or even months in the B.C. days (Before Computers).

Got Scottish ancestors? Join our free webinar on Wednesday, April 18, presented by Marie Dougan, to learn how to find them.

Scotland has a wealth of records available to assist you in researching your Scottish ancestry. Scottish statutory records of births, marriages and deaths began in 1855 and are available online together with census returns from 1841-1911. Other online records include Old Parish Records of baptisms, marriages and burials, records from Catholic archives and Scottish wills and testaments. Join our webinar to find out about these records and strategies to help you use these and other useful sources effectively in your research.

The live webinar is scheduled for Wednesday, April 18, 2012 at 2PM Eastern U.S., so register today to reserve your virtual seat. Registration is free but space is limited to the first 1,000 people to join that day. Join at least 15-20 minutes early to ensure your virtual seat.

About the presenter

Marie Dougan is a professional genealogist based in Scotland who holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Genealogical Studies from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. She has been involved in researching genealogy for over 12 years. Marie has an extensive background in education and provides a variety of training courses in genealogy, as well as speaking at a number of events. She has a particular interest in the applications of technologies to assist in genealogical research. Marie is the owner of Ancestral Consultants which provides a range of professional genealogy services.

Add it to your Google Calendar

With our Google Calendar button, you will never forget our upcoming webinars. Simply click the button to add it to your calendar. You can then optionally embed the webinar events (and even turn them on and off) into your own personal calendar. If you have already added the calendar, you do not have to do it again - the new webinar events will automatically appear.

Webinar time

The webinar will be live on Wednesday, April 18, 2012 at:

• 2pm Eastern (U.S.)
• 1pm Central
• 12pm Mountain
• 11am Pacific/Arizona
• 6pm GMT
• 7pm Glasgow

Or use this Time Zone Converter.

Here's how to attend:

1. Register at www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/webinars.asp today. It's free!
2. You will receive a confirmation email containing a link to the webinar.
3. You will receive a reminder email during the week prior to the webinar.
4. Calculate your time zone by clicking here.
5. Make sure you have the latest version of Java installed on your computer. Check at www.java.com.
6. Click on the webinar link (found in confirmation and reminder emails) prior to the start of the webinar. Arrive early as the room size is limited to the first 1,000 arrivals that day.
7. Listen via headset (USB headsets work best), your computer speakers, or by phone.

We look forward to seeing you all there!

If you are considering going "mobile" with your genealogy, Legacy Family Tree has the perfect solution. The Families App lets you take your Legacy data, pictures, sources, To Do List and more with you on your iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, or Android phone or tablet (which also includes the Kindle Fire, Nook, etc.). In today's webinar, presented by the Families developer, Malcolm Green gave a demonstration of using the app and provided step-by-step instructions for getting it all set up. He also showed how to synchronize your Legacy family file with your mobile device.

Links

Purchase Families for Android devices here or from the Market/Google Play via your tablet/phone.

Purchase Families for iSeries devices here or from the App Store via your iSeries device.

After purchasing and installing Families, you also need to download the Families Sync software to transfer your Legacy file to your mobile device. Download it here.

Visit http://www.telgen.co.uk/families/ for screenshots, the user forum, and step-by-step instructions.

View the recording

If you could not make it to the live event or just want to watch it again, the 1 hour 40 minute recording of Genealogy on the Go: the Families App for Legacy is now available to view in our webinar archives. Visit www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/webinars.asp to watch.

Special discount coupon

The special discount coupon of families that was announced during the webinar is valid for 10% off anything in our online store (excluding the Families app) through Monday, April 16, 2012.

Register for our upcoming webinars (free)

• Using Legacy Family Tree to Support Family Groups/Organizations with Geoff Rasmussen and Ken McGinnis, April 14.
• Researching Your Scottish Ancestors with Marie Dougan, April 18.
• Reverse Genealogy: Finding the Living with Megan Smolenyak, April 25.
• Researching Your Pennsylvania Ancestors with Lisa Alzo, May 2.
• Researching Your New York Ancestors with Thomas MacEntee, May 30.
• Researching Your German Ancestors with Kory Meyerink, June 6.
• Putting Flesh on the Bones with Ron Arons, June 13.
• Marriages and Anniversaries. Mining newspapers for engagements, marriages, anniversaries, and divorce records with Tom Kemp, June 20.
• Staying Safe with Social Media with Thomas MacEntee, June 22.
• Digital Images for Genealogists and Technologists: scanning, digitizing, editing, and preserving your photos with Geoff Rasmussen. June 27.
• The Quest for your English Ancestors with Claire V. Brisson-Banks. July 11.
• Plan Your Way to Research Success with Marian Pierre-Louis, July 18.
• Neglected History by Megan Smolenyak, August 1.
• Wikis for Genealogists with Thomas MacEntee. August 8.
• The 5 C's for Success in Genealogy Today with Barbara Renick. August 22.
• Beyond the Arrival Date: Extracting More from Passenger Lists with Lisa Alzo. September 5.
• What is a 'Reasonably Exhaustive Search'? with Michael Hait. September 12.
• Use Your Digital Camera to Copy Records with Mary Hill. September 19.
• Digital Research Guidance, Research Logs, and To Do Lists: FamilySearch, Research Wiki, and Legacy Family Tree with Geoff Rasmussen. September 26.
• Privacy and our Ancestors with Thomas MacEntee. October 3.
• Researching Your Irish Ancestors: Beyond the Basics with Judy Wight. October 10.
• Ten Brick Wall Tips for Intermediate Researchers with Marian Pierre-Louis, October 17.
• Your Civil War Ancestors: Beginning Your Research with Michael Hait. October 24.
• Breaking Down Your Irish Brick Wall with Judy Wight. October 31.
• Genealogy for Novices: Where Do We Begin with Linda Geiger. November 14.
• The Big 4 U.S. Record Sources with Mary Hill. November 28.

Click here to register.

See you online!

I can't wait to purchase Google Glasses when they are available later this year or early next year. Watch the brief video below. The future is here.