We have an important new update for our Legacy Family Tree 9 users (free) to download. It adds the SourceWriter templates for the new 1921 UK census and the new 1950 U.S. census. It also provides fixes to minor issues you have reported to us. So download the update to get the best Legacy ever!

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

What's Been Fixed

View the March 30, 2022 release notes here. 

How to Update

For our Deluxe Edition users, all you have to do is connect to the Internet, start Legacy 9, 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 9, 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.

The hottest topic in genealogy right now: the 1950 U.S. census

The hottest new census tool: MyHeritage's Census Helper™

Combine the two and we're going to have fun in the new census, released on April 1, 2022.

The Census Helper™ scans your family tree (upload your GEDCOM if you don't yet have a tree at MyHeritage) and compiles a list of your relatives who are very likely to be found in the 1950 U.S. census. This enables you to focus your research: armed with the list it creates, you’ll know exactly which family members to search for in the newly released census records. You can export this list to use it anywhere.

I personally found it very easy to use and amazingly accurate.

Under the Research menu, I clicked on Census Helper. Waiting for me was a list of 1,133 individuals who are likely to be found in this census. It also showed that there are another 518 lower-confidence results that I could look at if I wanted to.

In the upper right is a Download button where I can then open the list in a spreadsheet, like Excel, and manipulate the data any way I want.

Now I'm armed with a very useful report for my use in researching the new 1950 census.

Use it for any census year!

It gets even better. Click on the "1950 U.S. Census" heading and it pops up a list for every U.S. federal census. Fantastic!

Reading MyHeritage's blog article about this, the Census Helper™ will soon support nationwide censuses in other countries found on MyHeritage, such as Canada, England and Wales, Scotland, Ireland, France, Denmark, Norway and more.

How to access

This tool is available immediately for all MyHeritage users. If you are not using MyHeritage yet, now’s a perfect time to sign up and upload your GEDCOM from Legacy and benefit from this useful tool, which will save you time and give direction to your research.

Get started at www.myheritage.com/census-helper

Learn more about census records

Our webinar library has 26 unique classes about using census records in our genealogical research including our upcoming class by Lisa Louise Cooke, "Everything You Need to Know About the 1950 Census" and our recent class by DearMYRTLE and Russ Worthington, "CensusGenie: Down to the Wire 1950 Census Prep".

 

Test Your Webinar Connection

To ensure that your webinar connection is ready to go, click here.

Can't make it to the live event?

No worries. Its recording will be available for a limited time. Webinar Subscribers have unlimited access to all webinar recordings for the duration of their membership.

About the presenter

Renate Yarborough Sanders has been engaged in genealogy research for two decades. She is the descendant of formerly enslaved ancestors, as well as enslavers and free people of color. Renate is the author of two blogs: “Into the LIGHT”, which focuses on her own family history; and, “Genea-Related”, which is a platform for presenting a variety of information of genealogical interest. Renate also produces a “(Mostly) African-American Funeral Programs” online database, in which she publishes vital data extracted from funeral programs. Renate is a member of the National Genealogical Society, the North Carolina Genealogical Society, the Afro-American Genealogical and Historical Society (AAHGS), the Virtual Genealogical Association, and the Tyrrell County (NC) Genealogical and Historical Society. She is a panelist on BlackProGen LIVE and has recently partnered with Taneya Koonce to produce a summer series of webinars called “Let’s Talk North Carolina Genealogy!” She has published articles in genealogical newsletters, as well as in the Franklin County (NC) Heritage Book (Vol. 1) and is engaged in a number of volunteer activities in the genealogical community. Renate is the Newsletter Editor for the Hampton Roads Chapter of AAHGS, a member of the AAHGS National Editorial Board, and a volunteer photographer for Find-A-Grave. She retired in July 2017 from a 32-year career as elementary educator. Renate enjoys presenting genealogy lectures on a variety of topics but specializes in sharing knowledge and techniques for researching ancestors of color – both pre- and post- Emancipation: free people of color, or enslaved. When possible, presentations are fine-tuned to include information specific to the participants and/or location of her audiences.

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 Friday, April 1, 2022 at:

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

Or use this Time Zone Converter.

Here's how to attend:

1. Register at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com today. It's free!
2. You will receive a confirmation email containing a link to the webinar.
3. You will receive a reminder email both 1 day and 1 hour prior to the live webinar.
4. Calculate your time zone by clicking here.
5. Check your GoToWebinar connection here.
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 recording of today's webinar by Brenda Hudson, Ph.D., "Family Stories in 30 Minutes or Less" is now available to view at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com for free for a limited time.

 

Test Your Webinar Connection

To ensure that your webinar connection is ready to go, click here.

Can't make it to the live event?

No worries. Its recording will be available for a limited time. Webinar Subscribers have unlimited access to all webinar recordings for the duration of their membership.

About the presenter

Brenda Hudson, Ph.D., is an award-winning teacher and writer who loves helping families capture their stories across generations. In her writing workshops and in her how-to book Story by Story: 15 Projects to Write Your Family Legacy, Brenda shows even reluctant writers how easy and fun it is to record their stories, for current and future generations. In her “story project” approach, each project results in a different kind of family story—a single memory, pivotal moments, lessons learned, family sayings, and more.

In addition to presenting at RootsTech, Brenda is a frequent teaching artist at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis, where she has received its Excellence in Teaching Fellowship multiple times, and at the Madeline Island School of the Arts, where she teaches legacy writing.

Brenda has a Master’s degree in journalism from Boston University and obtained her PhD from the University of Minnesota’s Department of Writing Studies. She is also a credentialed journal facilitator through the Therapeutic Writing Institute.
Learn more at VoicedLife.com.

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, March30, 2022 at:

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

Or use this Time Zone Converter.

Here's how to attend:

1. Register at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com today. It's free!
2. You will receive a confirmation email containing a link to the webinar.
3. You will receive a reminder email both 1 day and 1 hour prior to the live webinar.
4. Calculate your time zone by clicking here.
5. Check your GoToWebinar connection here.
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!

I have a confession to make. I am one of those people. You know. The people who have thousands of photos stored on their phones. Embarrassingly I will admit that almost 15,000 photos dating back to 2015 are on my phone. They run the gamut of vacations, research trips, family gatherings, and books. Oh yes, lots of books. One day my son told someone that I have more photos of books and food than of my kids. Well, I don’t think it’s true, but I’ll admit it’s probably a close tie.

Books and Quilts...that's about normal for me.

What do you take photos of? The options are endless with a cell phone or mobile device. As genealogists, we have the opportunity to take photos of documents, books, microfilm, and heritage travel. That’s wonderful and it’s such a great research tool. But it isn’t enough to take the photos, you need to get them off your phone.

This is a concern I’ve had for a few years. Those photos might “disappear” if they aren’t backed up by the time I get a new phone or this phone breaks. What happens if I shake off this mortal coil? Will my family take the time to go through 15,000 photos and retrieve the ones that are family memories? (That answer is no and I don’t blame them. So don't forget to share what's important.) I’ve spent some time reading about organizing the photos one collects on their phone and considering what I need to do to organize and focus my rather large phone photo collection. Some of what I have learned might help you.

Not every photo is a masterpiece. I don’t know about you but there are the photos I took to remember where I parked at the airport. There are the photos I took of who knows what that came out blurred. Or the one photo I thought I took that ended up being a burst of 20. Those photos that should be deleted end up being “hidden” by the countless other photos I take in the days after. So that is why it’s important to Delete.

You can delete photos while watching TV or waiting for an appointment. Go through and delete the ones that no longer serve a purpose (like the parking lot photo) or that aren’t worthy of saving to a more permanent solution (like the cloud). Keep deleting and remember to go back and delete every so often so you aren’t cluttering your storage with photos you don’t need. 

Save to something that’s not your phone. One way I solved my photo issue was to pay for a cloud backup. Now, every so often my iPhone is backed up to my Apple storage. I pay a few dollars a month and I no longer worry that those photos of loved ones or trips I took will disappear if my phone dies or If I accidentally delete too much. You will replace your phone at some point. Don’t leave your photos on it!

Organize those research trip photos. Research trip photos need to be downloaded and organized. Update your research log, save the photos to the appropriate folder. It’s too easy to leave them on your phone and forget. And there is never enough time in the far-off land of “I’ll do it later.”

Use Other Apps. I take a LOT of books photos. Or at least I did. Now before I start taking photos of the latest book I want, a little voice in my head says “Use GoodReads.” So I stop, open my GoodReads app and add the book to my list of books I want to read. I don’t need to take a photo and all my books are organized there.

It doesn’t matter what you use. Evernote, Dropbox, GoodReads, or a genealogy app, but there are some photos that might be better off as data in an app and not a photo on your phone.

What’s on your phone?

Your photos are important so why keep them on your phone? Take some time to organize, delete, and upload your photos to another storage device, app, or even print them (gasp!, remember when we did that?!) Make sure that your photos live on by getting them off your phone.

Gena Philibert-Ortega is an author, instructor, and researcher. She blogs at Gena's Genealogy and Food.Family.Ephemera. You can find her presentations on the Legacy Family Tree Webinars website.

The recording of today's webinar by Elizabeth Swanay O'Neal, "Get ‘Grammin’! How to Instagram Your Family History" is now available to view at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com for free for a limited time.

The recording of today's webinar by Masha Novak, "A Deep Dive into Deep Nostalgia™" is now available to view at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com for free.

 

Test Your Webinar Connection

To ensure that your webinar connection is ready to go, click here.

Can't make it to the live event?

No worries. Its recording will be available for a limited time. Webinar Subscribers have unlimited access to all webinar recordings for the duration of their membership.

About the presenter

Elizabeth O’Neal is a professional genealogist who writes, lectures, and consults on a variety of topics. Her passion is using technology and social media to enrich the experience of genealogy research and family history storytelling. A genealogist for more than 33 years, Elizabeth is the owner of Swan Genealogy Services and author of the family history blog Heart of the Family™. She is a regular contributor to online genealogy publications. Professional memberships include the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG), the Genealogical Speakers Guild, and she is an active member of the public speaking club Toastmasters International. Additionally, Elizabeth serves as the 1st Vice President, Programs, of the Santa Barbara County Genealogical Society, Vice President of the GeneaBloggers Organization, and coordinator of the NGSQ Study Groups. She is a member of numerous lineage societies, including the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) and the National Society United States Daughters of 1812.

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, March 23, 2022 at:

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

Or use this Time Zone Converter.

Here's how to attend:

1. Register at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com today. It's free!
2. You will receive a confirmation email containing a link to the webinar.
3. You will receive a reminder email both 1 day and 1 hour prior to the live webinar.
4. Calculate your time zone by clicking here.
5. Check your GoToWebinar connection here.
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!

 

Test Your Webinar Connection

To ensure that your webinar connection is ready to go, click here.

Can't make it to the live event?

No worries. Its recording will be available for a limited time. Webinar Subscribers have unlimited access to all webinar recordings for the duration of their membership.

About the presenter

Masha is responsible for both the Android and iOS platforms of the MyHeritage mobile app. She leads a great team of developers, QA engineers, and a designer to create the best features and user experience for our users.

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 Tuesday, March 22, 2022 at:

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

Or use this Time Zone Converter.

Here's how to attend:

1. Register at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com today. It's free!
2. You will receive a confirmation email containing a link to the webinar.
3. You will receive a reminder email both 1 day and 1 hour prior to the live webinar.
4. Calculate your time zone by clicking here.
5. Check your GoToWebinar connection here.
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!