Learn all about the brand new Legacy Family Tree 8 by viewing the recording of today's webinar, "What's New in Legacy 8." After meeting Legacy's developers, Geoff Rasmussen (that's me!) presented an insider's view of Legacy 8's new features. Don't miss the question/answer session either - other new Legacy features were unveiled then (including the new web links). A few comments from our viewers:

• Excellent presentation Geoff, very many thanks. I'm using Legacy 8 and am amazed at the professional and user-friendly system - WELL DONE TO ALL AT LEGACY FOR REACHING SUCH A HIGH STANDARD.
• I had become pretty bored with family history work, but this new version has sparked my interest again and, as always, the webinar was fantastic - interesting, fun, and funny. Can't wait to see how many 300-year old ancestors I have by using the new problem detection feature. :-)
• I really enjoyed seeing all the great things I can do with my new Legacy - now have to find lots of time to do some experimenting! Geoff presented everything very clearly - great webinar!

View the Recording at FamilyTreeWebinars.com

If you could not make it to the live event or just want to watch it again, the 1 hour 49 minute recording of "What's New in Legacy Family Tree 8?" is now available to view in our webinar archives for free. It is also available to our monthly or annual Webinar Members for the duration of your membership. Visit www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com to watch. The 2 pages of handouts are also available for annual/monthly webinar subscribers.

Special Discount Coupon

The special discount coupon of legacy8 that was announced during the webinar is valid for 10% off anything at both www.LegacyFamilyTreeStore.com and www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com through Tuesday, January 7, 2014.

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Webinar Members get:

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Register for our upcoming webinars (free)

• Are You a GOON? What is a One-Name Study and Why Do One? by Kirsty Gray. January 8.
• Too Many with the Same Surname by Karen Clifford. January 15.
• Irish Research 101: Learning the Research Process by Judy Wight. January 22.
• Ten Reasons Your Ancestor Was in Canada by Kathryn Lake Hogan. January 29.
• Family Stories: Using Newspapers to Reconnect with the Stories of Your Family's Past by Tom Kemp. February 12.
• The Ties That Bond by Judy Russell. February 19.
• Searching for Surnames: Challenges, Pitfalls and the Downright Ridiculous by Kirsty Gray. February 26.
• Genealogy and Technology - State of the Union by Barbara Renick. March 1.
• Using Google Earth for Genealogy by Lisa Louise Cooke. March 5.
• Sources and Citations Made Simple, Standard, and Powerful by Geoff Rasmussen. March 7.
• Some Lesser Known Irish Resources by Judy Wight. March 12.
• 50 Most Popular Genealogy Websites by Kory Meyerink. March 19.
• 7 Habits of Highly Frugal Genealogists by Thomas MacEntee. April 2.
• Get Organized Using the FamilyRoots Organizer Color-Coding System by Mary Hill. April 9.
• Estate Records - More Than Just Wills by Linda Woodward Geiger. April 11.
• Genealogy Evidence and Online Family Trees by Karen Clifford. April 16.
• The Homestead Act of 1862 by Thomas MacEntee. April 23.
• Google Glass and Family History by Devin Ashby. April 30.
• Legacy Family Tree - Virtual User's Group Meeting by Legacy Family Tree Panel. May 2.
• 50 Year View - What I've Learned Climbing My Family Tree by Tom Kemp. May 7.
• Photo Apps for Android, iPhones or iPads by Maureen Taylor. May 14.
• I Had My DNA Tested - Now What? by Ugo Perego. May 21.
• Using Tax Lists to Solve Genealogical Problems by Linda Woodward Geiger. May 28.
• German Internet Research: A Launching Place for Your Research. June 11.
• 10 Ways to Jumpstart Your Family History Narrative by Lisa Alzo. June 13.
• Copyright Mythconceptions by Judy Russell. June 18.
• Documenting Native American Families in 19th and 20th Century Records by Angela Walton-Raji. June 25.
• Thinking About Becoming a Board-certified Genealogist? by Elissa Scalise Powell. July 9.
• Legacy Family Tree - Virtual User's Group Meeting by Legacy Family Tree Panel. July 11.
• When Freedom Came - Documenting the Family's Freedom Story by Angela Walton-Raji. July 16.
• Researching Your Illinois Ancestors by Thomas MacEntee. July 23.
• Researching Your Tennessee Ancestors by J. Mark Lowe. August 6.
• Research Recharge - Turning Old Clues into New Leads by Lisa Alzo. August 8.
• Find A Grave - The World's Largest Cemetery Database by Russ Worthington. August 20.
• Researching Your Italian Ancestors by Ruth Merriman. August 27.
• Researching Your Jewish Ancestors by Jennifer Alford. September 3.
• Legacy Family Tree - Virtual User's Group Meeting by Legacy Family Tree Panel. September 5.
• Success with Manuscript Sources by Barbara Renick. September 10.
• Evaluating Evidence and Resolving Discrepancies by Kory Meyerink. September 17.
• A Library at Your Fingertips - the Internet Archive by Maureen Taylor. September 24.
• The Fair Court: Records of Chancery Courts by Judy Russell. October 1.
• Overcoming Destroyed or Missing Records by Karen Clifford. October 3.
• Welcome to FamilySearch Indexing! by Devin Ashby. October 8.
• Researching Your War of 1812 Ancestor by Thomas MacEntee. October 15.
• Tracking Migration Using the Draper Manuscripts by Mary Hill. October 22.
• Legacy Family Tree - Virtual User's Group Meeting by Legacy Family Tree Panel. November 14.
• Using Evernote for Genealogy by Lisa Louise Cooke. November 19.
• Family History for Kids by Devin Ashby. December 3.
• Look Ma, No Hands! Using Dragon Naturally Speaking for Your Genealogy by Ivan Baugh. December 5.
• Researching Your North Carolina Ancestors by J. Mark Lowe. December 10.
• Bagging a Live One - Connecting with Cousins You Never Knew You Had by Mary Kircher Roddy. December 17.

Click here to register. Or click here register for multiple webinars at the same time.

Print the 2014 webinar brochure here.

See you online!

Join us this Friday, January 3, for our first webinar of the year, "What's New in Legacy Family Tree 8?" presented by FamilyTreeWebinars.com host and Legacy developer, Geoff Rasmussen. You will get the insider's view of many of version 8's new features and will learn many new tips and tricks.

Join us for the live webinar Friday, January 3, 2014 at 2pm Eastern U.S. Register today to reserve your virtual seat. Registration is free but space is limited to the first 1,000 people to join that day. Before joining, please visit www.java.com to ensure you have the latest version of Java which our webinar software requires. 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.

Download the brochure

In preparation for the webinar, download the "What's New in Legacy 8" brochure here.

Or register for multiple webinars at once by clicking here.

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 free indefinitely. Webinar Subscribers have unlimited access to all webinar recordings for the duration of their membership.

About the presenter

Geoffrey D. Rasmussen is the father of four budding genealogists. He graduated with a degree in Genealogy and Family History from Brigham Young University and has served as director and vice-president of the Utah Genealogical Association. He is a dynamic genealogy speaker on all forms of genealogy technology, and as host of the Legacy Family Tree webinar series, has spoken virtually to nearly 100 different countries. He has authored books, videos, articles, and websites, and develops the Legacy Family Tree software program. On a personal note, Geoff enjoys playing the piano, organ, cello, basketball and bowling. His favorite places are cemeteries, the ocean, and hanging out with other genealogists. He met and proposed to his wife in a Family History Center.

He is the author of the recently-released, Legacy Family Tree, Unlocked! and the popular Digital Imaging Essentials book.

Watch Geoff's previous webinars here.

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.

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The webinar will be live on Friday, January 3, 2014 at:

• 2pm Eastern (U.S.)
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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. Make sure you have the latest version of Java installed on your computer. Check at www.java.com.
6. Check your GoToWebinar connection here.
7. 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.
8. Listen via headset (USB headsets work best), your computer speakers, or by phone.

We look forward to seeing you all there!

Millennia Corporation Releases New Genealogy Software - Legacy Family Tree 8.0

New version 8.0 Continues 15-Years of Innovation and Quality; Now Offers Migration Mapping, Shared Events, Origins/Migration Reports and a Host of New Features

SURPRISE, Arizona, November 26, 2013. Millennia Corporation, a leader in family history software, today announced the release of Legacy Family Tree 8.0. The new release contains dozens of significant new features and enhancements, including migration mapping, instant duplicate checking, origins and migration reports, potential problem alerts, and shared events.

In one software package, Legacy Family Tree 8.0 provides tools to help users record their family's history, organize their pictures, perform their research, and share their findings.

"Legacy Family Tree 8.0 continues to raise the bar of family history software," said David Berdan, president of Millennia Corporation. "Its new source quality tool, source labels, citations on Pedigree Charts and shared events give serious researchers the tools they need, while the new reports, charts, and family statistics get the entire family excited about their history."

The following new and updated features add to Legacy's list of robust capabilities:

• Origins Report - See where you came from and the percentage of "blood" you have from your countries of origin with the new Origins Report.
• Migration Report - See how far and wide a person's descendants spread out in the world with the new Migration Report.
• Migration Mapping - Legacy animates the ancestor's movement through time. Watch how they migrated from place to place. View their migration in street, aerial, or 3D modes. Hover over the balloon to see what happened in each location.
• Instant Duplicate Checking - As you are adding new individuals to your tree, Legacy instantly checks to see if perhaps they are already in your family file, helping you avoid inadvertently adding duplicates.
• Potential Problem Alerts and Gaps - Typos and accidental misinterpretation of data are now a thing of the past. The warning symbol is displayed immediately next to info that contains a potential problem. Unusual gaps of time are detected that you may have not previously noticed (like too many years between the births of the children).
• Shared Events - Save time and avoid errors by sharing an event amongst all the individuals who participated in the event. You can specify each person's role in the event.
• Family Bow Tie Chart - Displays the ancestors of both the husband and wife, as well as their children.
• Descendant Chart - Now available in left-to-right formatting.
• Source Quality - Now record the quality (original vs derivative, primary vs secondary, etc., direct vs indirect) of each source as you attempt to prove your conclusions.
• Source Labels - Now print Source Labels to attach to the top of your documents. You will never again lose the citation when making a photocopy for someone else.
• Source Clipboard - The Source Clipboard has been expanded to load up to five different citations that can be assigned at the click of a button.
• Pedigree Citations - Add source citations to your Pedigree Charts, and attach the complete bibliography.
• FamilySearch Integration - Share, discuss, download and interact with FamilySearch's Family Tree (optional).
• Wall Charts - Duplicate lines can now be suppressed, saving room for more photographs and captions.
• Chronology View - Now view the parent's, grandparent's, children's, and grandchildren's vital events in your ancestor's timeline.
• User Interface - Enjoy Legacy's modernized look-and-feel, new color schemes, and new ribbon menu bar. Add two additional custom buttons on the new My Toolbar.
• Tagging - View up to 9 tags at once. Advanced Tagging now shows the counts of each tag.
• Automatic Sorting - Children, marriages, and events are now automatically chronologically sorted as they are added. New global sorting tools are also now available.
• Statistics - Understand your family in new ways with dozens of new statistics: births by era, longest living individuals, average lifespan, longest marriages, families with the most children, most popular given names, most popular surnames, most popular locations and more.
• Media Relinker - It is easier than ever to locate missing or unlinked pictures. Moving from one computer to another is simpler to do.
• Media Gatherer - Got pictures all over your computer? The new Media Gatherer will help you copy or move your genealogy pictures to one common folder, making it easier to share your family file with another computer or family member.
• Web Links - Found evidence of your ancestor online? Easily add a web link to their media gallery to organize a list of their online presence.
• Color Coding - You can now color code from two starting points (one for you and one for your spouse, for example) and track the eight great-grandparents' lines.

Watch the What's New Video here.

Pricing and Availability

Legacy 8.0 is now available at www.LegacyFamilyTree.com, for just US $29.95 for the download-only version or US $39.95 version which includes the 336-page printed user’s guide, installation CD, and beginner’s training video. Discounted upgrade pricing is also available for users of previous editions of Legacy Deluxe. The free, Standard edition can also be downloaded from www.LegacyFamilyTree.com.

Legacy Family Tree - Unlocked! a new book by Legacy's Geoff Rasmussen, is based on the brand new Legacy 8.0. In its 236 pages, you will learn how to better utilize some of Legacy’s best features by shadowing the research process of a professional genealogist, Legacy Family Tree developer, and host of FamilyTreeWebinars.com's webinar series. Be sure to add it to your cart at checkout!

About Millennia Corporation

Millennia Corporation is located in Surprise, Arizona. The company strives to provide top-quality genealogy software so people can record and track their family history. It is also the publisher of the award-winning FamilyTreeWebinars.com webinar series, now with more than 200 hours of quality genealogy education. For additional information on Millennia or the products they offer visit http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com.

Long-time Legacy Family Tree users will think they have died and gone to heaven (myself included) after reading about this next Legacy 8 reveal: automated sorting!

Although in real life, children are born in birth order, and people who marry more than once get married in chronological order, as researchers we sometimes do not discover these children or marriages in order.

Marriages

For example, my ancestor, Lorenzo D. Brown, was married to five different women:

• Clarinda Ann Williams
• Ida Parker
• Lottie Hentz
• Rhoda
• Sarah Nermire

Initially, because I did not know when each marriage occurred, I entered each relationship alphabetically. First I added Clarinda, then Ida, then Lottie, and so on. Later I discovered each of the marriage records and I added the new dates and places. Legacy kept the marriages displayed in the original order even though I now had the marriage dates:

In Legacy 7 and earlier, to sort the marriages I had to click on the Sort button.

In Legacy 8 (and beyond...) you will never have to manually sort these again! They are automatically sorted as you add them.

Children

The same is true with the births of children. After adding the 15 known children of Nathan and Anna Brown, if I were to discover a new child, who, according to their birth year fit in as the 9th child, Legacy 8 will automatically sort the child into the correct position.

I know...seems that this new automated sorting feature should have been around for a long time...but it's there now! Horray! You can't tell I'm excited, can you? And this is one of the smaller new Legacy 8 features.

Events

Let's say that I finally found Asa Brown in the 1830 census. Because you have read chapter 5 of my Legacy Family Tree - Unlocked! you understand that this census should be a part of his timeline, so you add the new census event. In the past, any newly-added event would sort to the bottom of the list of events.

In Legacy 8, it will automatically sort to fit in exactly where it belongs:

Did you also notice the age column in the enhanced Events/Facts section above? Great!

Global Sorting

Just in case you have some unsorted children, marriages, or events in your family file, we have also included a new Global Sorting tool in Legacy 8. This is found on the Tools ribbon, in the Tools section:

Clicking on this option brings up this screen:

Just click the "Sort the Selected Lists" button, and Legacy 8 will go through your entire family file and get everything correctly sorted. In those cases where you have a child, marriage, or event without a date, AND you want to keep them in their current order, just select the "Don't sort the..." option and Legacy will leave that family/person alone.

We've worked hard on this new feature and hope that you really like it! So what do you think? 

Legacy Family Tree - Unlocked!

See Legacy 8 in action with the new Legacy Family Tree - Unlocked!book by Geoff Rasmussen (that's me)! Get the PDF edition free when you purchase the 236 page paperback. Click here for more information or to purchase.

What are the other new features of Legacy 8?

Here are links to the articles I've previously written:

Legacy Family Tree 8 Revealed

Legacy Family Tree 8 Revealed - Q/A, new Tagging options, and other surprises

Legacy Family Tree 8 Revealed - Migration Mapping

Legacy Family Tree 8 Revealed - Instant Duplicate Checking

Legacy Family Tree 8 Revealed - Shared Events and Automated Sorting

Legacy Family Tree 8 Revealed - Potential Problem Alerts and "Gaps of Unusual Size"

Legacy Family Tree 8 Revealed - Sources

Legacy Family Tree 8 Revealed - Origins and Migration Reports

Legacy Family Tree 8 Revealed - New Wall Charts and options

Legacy Family Tree 8 Revealed - Color Coding

When will Legacy 8 be released?

There's still more than one truthful answer to this:

• I'm not really sure, but probably before the end of the year, and hopefully way before then
• When it has been thoroughly tested by our development team and beta testers

But if you are considering downloading either the free or deluxe editions of Legacy, don't wait! Any purchases of Legacy 7.5 from May 8, 2013 forward will receive the new Legacy 8 at no charge. And as always, anyone who has purchased Legacy Deluxe previously will qualify for special discounted upgrade pricing. Get started today - you won't have to relearn everything when Legacy 8 is ready, but you'll get some really nice new features when it is.

Legacy Family Tree's color coding tools are one of the reasons genealogists love Legacy. And in the upcoming Legacy 8, it gets even better!

Legacy's color-coding, developed by Accredited Genealogist and popular webinar speaker, Mary E. V. Hill, was implemented to help researchers organize both 1) what they see on the screen AND 2) their paper files more efficiently. In the pedigree view bleow, notice that my tree is divided into four colors: 

• Grandfather's lineage on father's side: BLUE
• Grandmother's lineage on father's side: GREEN
• Grandfather's lineage on mother's side: RED
• Grandmother's lineage on mother's side: YELLOW

While navigating my pedigree, if I am viewing someone who has been color-coded as yellow, I immediately recognize that they are part of my maternal grandmother's line.

These colors are also available for your printed pedigree charts:

and family group records:

and even wall charts:

These colors go hand-in-hand with Mary's filing system, where your paper files correspond to the colors in Legacy. Here's a image from Mary's webinar:

One of the frequent requests concerning this color coding system is to be able to color code both your pedigree AND your spouse's pedigree.

New in 8! Multiple starting points

You've asked. We've listened and responded. And we even have Mary's blessing. When I previewed this to her, she responded by saying "Wow! I really like it! It is awesome to see that you did the 4 colors for your ancestors and four for your wife's lines!!!"

Here's what it looks like in Legacy 7 with only my pedigree colored. Notice my wife's side is not colorful:

Legacy 8 lets you have two starting points.

By default, the second group's colors are a darker version of the same colors, but you can adjust the colors to anything you want. Choose them on this screen:

Oh yes, and the new v8 pedigree view displays the ancestors' pictures too. Cool!

New! Color-code 8 great-grandparents' lines

Also new in Legacy 8, if you have the need to divide your tree into more groups than just the four grandparents' lines, you can track the eight great-grandparents lines with eight different colors.

Just select this option:

When ancestors intermarry

The further back in time you go, the more likely your ancestors will intermarry and the colors will "blend." Legacy 8 makes it easier to see these relationships. From the colors below, I can see that my paternal grandfather's pedigree (blue) marries into my maternal grandmother's pedigree (light yellow) and then mixes with my wife's maternal grandmother's pedigree (dark yellow). At last I have a reason for why my kids are the way they are! (Just kidding, I love my kids...)

Set Ancestor Colors option

Enable color coding from the Tools tabs:

So what do you think? Do you already use color coding? How will these new options help?

Legacy Family Tree - Unlocked!

See Legacy 8 in action with the new Legacy Family Tree - Unlocked! book by Geoff Rasmussen (that's me)! Get the PDF edition free when you purchase the 236 page paperback. Click here for more information or to purchase.

What are the other new features of Legacy 8?

Here are links to the articles I've previously written:

Legacy Family Tree 8 Revealed

Legacy Family Tree 8 Revealed - Q/A, new Tagging options, and other surprises

Legacy Family Tree 8 Revealed - Migration Mapping

Legacy Family Tree 8 Revealed - Instant Duplicate Checking

Legacy Family Tree 8 Revealed - Shared Events and Automated Sorting

Legacy Family Tree 8 Revealed - Potential Problem Alerts and "Gaps of Unusual Size"

Legacy Family Tree 8 Revealed - Sources

Legacy Family Tree 8 Revealed - Origins and Migration Reports

Legacy Family Tree 8 Revealed - New Wall Charts and options

When will Legacy 8 be released?

There's still more than one truthful answer to this:

• I'm not really sure, but probably before the end of the year, and hopefully way before then
• When it has been thoroughly tested by our development team and beta testers

But if you are considering downloading either the free or deluxe editions of Legacy, don't wait! Any purchases of Legacy 7.5 from May 8, 2013 forward will receive the new Legacy 8 at no charge. And as always, anyone who has purchased Legacy Deluxe previously will qualify for special discounted upgrade pricing. Get started today - you won't have to relearn everything when Legacy 8 is ready, but you'll get some really nice new features when it is.

Legacy 8 adds two new wall charts plus one really big option that you have requested.

Family Bow Tie Chart

This new chart, one of my personal favorites, displays the father's ancestors on the left, the mother's ancestors on the right, and their children in the middle.

Here's the same chart with the new Mug Shot theme applied:

Now with the color-coding and one more generation:

And finally with a simple tree for a background:

Left-to-Right Descendant Chart

One of the most requested new charts is the left-to-right descendant chart. You asked, we've again delivered! Just select the starting person and their descendants will be charted from left to right. Don't worry, the top-to-bottom orientation is still available.

Suppress duplicates

Legacy 8's Charting now provides the ability to easily show or suppress duplicate lines. Duplicates sometimes occur when cousins (usually distant cousins) marry, and thus they share common ancestors. These common ancestors, as expected, are therefore shown more than once in a chart. The new Show Duplicates option shows their pedigree the first time, but suppresses it for any other occurrences with a "duplicated" notation.

What are the other new features of Legacy 8?

Here are links to the articles I've previously written:

Legacy Family Tree 8 Revealed

Legacy Family Tree 8 Revealed - Q/A, new Tagging options, and other surprises

Legacy Family Tree 8 Revealed - Migration Mapping

Legacy Family Tree 8 Revealed - Instant Duplicate Checking

Legacy Family Tree 8 Revealed - Shared Events and Automated Sorting

Legacy Family Tree 8 Revealed - Potential Problem Alerts and "Gaps of Unusual Size"

Legacy Family Tree 8 Revealed - Sources

Legacy Family Tree 8 Revealed - Origins and Migration Reports

When will Legacy 8 be released?

There's still more than one truthful answer to this:

• I'm not really sure, but probably before the end of the year, and hopefully way before then
• When it has been thoroughly tested by our development team and beta testers

But if you are considering downloading either the free or deluxe editions of Legacy, don't wait! Any purchases of Legacy 7.5 from May 8, 2013 forward will receive the new Legacy 8 at no charge. And as always, anyone who has purchased Legacy Deluxe previously will qualify for special discounted upgrade pricing. Get started today - you won't have to relearn everything when Legacy 8 is ready, but you'll get some really nice new features when it is.

Legacy 8's new Origins and Migration reports help you better visualize where you come from and where one's descendants have migrated.

Origins Report

My children have especially enjoyed the new Origins report. Since I am American and my wife is Canadian they wanted to know where they fit in. Analyzing our immediate family, the easy answer is that they are 1/2 American and 1/2 Canadian. The Origins report clearly shows this:

But looking back in time a few more generations surprised all of us:

I haven't yet shown this to my Canadian mother-in-law (very patriotic!). I wonder what she will think. She does, however, sometimes read these articles so I think I will leave it at that.

Don't the colorful flags add a nice touch?

This report works best when the place names have been accurately entered. One of the report's options is to "Include a list of any unrecognized locations." Had these locations been entered correctly and consistently, the percentages above would change a little. (Oh how I wish that I wouldn't have imported what I did into my software when I began my genealogy years ago....)

Migration Report

Seeing where one's descendants were born is equally as fascinating! Of Asa Brown's 207 known descendants it looks like most of them stayed in the United States:

When this is the case, select the "Go down to the state level" option in the "For US Locations" section of the report options:

Not only are these charts fun to look at, but they would be a nice addition to any book you create using Legacy's Publishing Center.

So what do you think? Do we have another winning new feature? Personally, I think we've done it again! 

What are the other new features of Legacy 8?

Here are links to the articles I've previously written:

Legacy Family Tree 8 Revealed

Legacy Family Tree 8 Revealed - Q/A, new Tagging options, and other surprises

Legacy Family Tree 8 Revealed - Migration Mapping

Legacy Family Tree 8 Revealed - Instant Duplicate Checking

Legacy Family Tree 8 Revealed - Shared Events and Automated Sorting

Legacy Family Tree 8 Revealed - Potential Problem Alerts and "Gaps of Unusual Size"

Legacy Family Tree 8 Revealed - Sources

When will Legacy 8 be released?

There's still more than one truthful answer to this:

• I'm not really sure, but probably before the end of the year, and hopefully way before then
• When it has been thoroughly tested by our development team and beta testers

But if you are considering downloading either the free or deluxe editions of Legacy, don't wait! Any purchases of Legacy 7.5 from May 8, 2013 forward will receive the new Legacy 8 at no charge. And as always, anyone who has purchased Legacy Deluxe previously will qualify for special discounted upgrade pricing. Get started today - you won't have to relearn everything when Legacy 8 is ready, but you'll get some really nice new features when it is.

Here at Legacy Family Tree we believe in the phrase "Genealogy without documentation is mythology." In the new Legacy Family Tree 8, to be released this year, we've taken Sources to the next level. Here's a preview of what's coming....

Source Quality

Not all sources are created equally. Therefore, all sources should be carefully evaluated for the kind of source they are (original or derivative), the nature of the information they contain (primary vs. secondary) and the kind of evidence they provide (direct vs. indirect vs. negative).

Legacy 7 was the first genealogy management software to provide templates to follow the guidelines in Elizabeth Shown Mills' Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace. Legacy 8 builds on this by adding the ability to record your analysis of the source.

From the Source Detail screen, click on the new Analyze Source Quality button.

After evaluating your source, record your analysis on this screen:

Read Evidence Explained or watch Linda Geiger's webinar, Evidence: Guidelines for Evaluating Genealogical Evidence for more on the topic.

Pedigree Chart Citations

Years ago I spoke with Elizabeth Shown Mills and she wondered why genealogy management software did not include source citations on the most basic genealogy chart - the Pedigree Chart. My initial thought was that there was not enough room on a pedigree chart to list all of the citations. Looking at the chart below, you can see what I mean.

We thought there must be a way to do it though, and now in Legacy 8 - there is! From the new Reports ribbon, click on the Pedigree Chart button.

In the Report Options, click on the Source tab. Make sure there is a checkmark next to "Print source citations" AND ensure that the default option of "If an event has mulitple citations, combine them into one paragraph" is also turned on.

The result is a clean pedigree chart, still with the superscripted numerals for the citations:

The pages that follow include the complete citations in combined, paragraph form, following the standards in The Chicago Manual of Style.

Exciting, isn't it!!

Source Labels

One of the more frustrating genealogy experiences is looking at someone's document but not having any idea where it originated. Legacy 8's new Source Labels eliminates this problem.

In the Assigned Sources screen, just click on the new Print a Source Label button.

You can choose to print a label of the current citation, or all of the citations for that person.

You define your favorite label type, and print. Here is a page of Source Labels that is now ready to apply.

I like to apply the label to the outside of the sheet protector in which I store the document. Here's an example of the label attached to the sheet protector for the 1850 census of Asa Brown's family:

Now when you make a photocopy or scan the document for a fellow researcher, the complete citation accompanies the document. I've used these labels for my documents for years, but I've manually typed and printed them. Now Legacy does all the hard work for me - no extra work! Yep, I really like this one.

Expanded Source Clipboard 

Finally, Legacy 8 expands the use of the Source Clipboard to load up to five different citations that can be assigned at the click of a button.

In the Source Clipboard, click on the Options button, and then select "Allow multiple sources on the clipboard".

The result is that you now have up to 5 sources for the clipboard:

Legacy Family Tree - Unlocked! - available to pre-order today!

If you are not yet using the Source Clipboard, you are not using Legacy to the fullest. To see it in action, and to learn more about how it speeds up your research and data entry, there's a new book available to pre-order starting today! And I quite like it! I know - sheepish plug for my new book, but I'm curious to know if anyone reads this far into this article....:) Legacy Family Tree - Unlocked! was patterned after the popular Watch Geoff Live webinar series and based on the new Legacy 8. Click here to read more about it.

What are the other new features of Legacy 8?

Here are links to the articles I've previously written:

Legacy Family Tree 8 Revealed

Legacy Family Tree 8 Revealed - Q/A, new Tagging options, and other surprises

Legacy Family Tree 8 Revealed - Migration Mapping

Legacy Family Tree 8 Revealed - Instant Duplicate Checking

Legacy Family Tree 8 Revealed - Shared Events and Automated Sorting

Legacy Family Tree 8 Revealed - Potential Problem Alerts and "Gaps of Unusual Size"

When will Legacy 8 be released?

There's still more than one truthful answer to this:

• I'm not really sure, but probably before the end of the year, and hopefully way before then
• When it has been thoroughly tested by our development team and beta testers

But if you are considering downloading either the free or deluxe editions of Legacy, don't wait! Any purchases of Legacy 7.5 from May 8, 2013 forward will receive the new Legacy 8 at no charge. And as always, anyone who has purchased Legacy Deluxe previously will qualify for special discounted upgrade pricing. Get started today - you won't have to relearn everything when Legacy 8 is ready, but you'll get some really nice new features when it is.

The pinnacle feature in the soon-to-be-released Legacy 8 is already making its impact in the world of genealogy. This new feature will change the way every genealogist looks at their data. It will begin to prevent bad data from being shared with others and published online. It will cause us to be a little more careful about what information we accept and add to our family files. It will help us more easily visualize the potential problems with data from online databases. And it will even help you find missing ancestors that you did not even know existed.

Others are already trying to copy this feature. And for the sake of everyone researching their ancestors - I hope they do. In fact, I hope this new feature pops up in every known genealogy management software and online database. Interestingly, as a result of me previewing this Legacy 8 feature at a recent genealogy conference, it has already made its first appearance in another software program. Good for everyone! I showed off this feature at a seminar in California last weekend, and the attendees could not stop talking about it afterwards.

Okay, is that enough build up yet? Drum roll please. Here's what it looks like:

That's it! This small warning icon will prevent typos, incorrect assumptions, the exchanging of bad data, and will even help you find missing relatives. Here's how....

Legacy 8 monitors your family file for any potential problems and immediately displays this symbol when it finds one. For example, in the Pedigree View, the warning appeared next to Jesse Brown.

When you hover the cursor over the icon, this screen appears. 

Click on the icon to learn more about the potential problem. In this case, his parents' marriage was recorded as having occurred in 1817 - some 23 years before Jesse's birth - which although is still possible, it begins to be more improbable the longer the marriage lasts. If it's really not a problem, just right-click the icon to exclude it. And Shift-Right-click it to exclude this type of problem from being suggested for anyone.

Every potential problem is customizable. The option that triggered this warning was "warn if birth after 20 years of marriage." The number can be changed to whatever you would like. The higher this number, the more improbable the birth.

Look what happened to this family when I changed the marriage year (to illustrate a possible typo) from 1832 to 1932 (66 years after Asa's death):

Yikes! Pretty simple to detect this typo, eh?

Gaps of Unusual Size

Check this one out, again from the perspective of the Family View:

Here, warning symbols appear next to children 3, 5, 11, and 12. The warning for child #3 shows:

Reviewing the warning, it appears that there is indeed a large gap between the births of child #2 and #4. Samuel was born in 1835. William, the next child, was born in 1841. The length of years between these births is abnormally large. There could be two additional children (born in 1837 and 1839) that I have overlooked. The amazing thing is that I've never really noticed this before. The warning symbols make it visually obvious that I might not have the complete family! Could there be one or two more children buried in a cemetery somewhere?

For another example, below is a warning symbol next to child #1.

Hovering the cursor over the icon shows this:

Myrtle, the first child of David and Clara Brown, was born March 8, 1872. Her parents were married January 1, 1868 - over four years earlier. Children, especially in this time period, were usually born within a year of their parents' marriage. This warning symbol, representing another "Gap of Unusual Size" could suggest that there are other children in this family that I have not yet identified. Here are other Gaps that Legacy 8 analyzes:

If these gaps really do exist, and you have proved that there are no other children, great! Just mark the potential problem as being 'not a problem.' But until you have explained the gap, you just might not have the complete family.

Legacy 8 will also check for these potential problems:

I love the "buried date before death date" warning. I guess if this really did happen, you would have a clue as to the cause of death....

Legacy 8 will also help your data entry become standardized.

Remember that all of these potential warnings can be optionally turned on or off.

These potential problem alerts appear in the Pedigree View, Family View, Marriage Information screen, and the Individual's Information screen in Legacy 8. But the feature is not completely new to Legacy. These warnings have been included in Legacy's FamilySearch tool for years. Notice below that the same potential problem alert symbol appears next to Jesse's birth year on the "My Legacy Person" side. If this date really were incorrect, this warning symbol might be enough to prevent the researcher from clicking the "upload" button to publish it to FamilySearch without first verifying the date.

The same would be true if you noticed a potential problem alert on the "FamilySearch Person" side of this example. You might actually think twice now before downloading/copying the information about this person into your personal Legacy file.

Imagine the decrease of the sharing, republishing and downloading of bad data if every genealogy software program and online database added these potential problem alerts to their data!

Thanks to Legacy Family Tree 8's new Potential Problem Alerts, it's not going to be as easy to accidentally record incorrect information. Typos happen. But you're just not going to get away with them as easily anymore. And with the new "Gap" checker, you might pick up an additional family member or two!

What are the other new features of Legacy 8?

Here are links to the articles I've previously written:

Legacy Family Tree 8 Revealed

Legacy Family Tree 8 Revealed - Q/A, new Tagging options, and other surprises

Legacy Family Tree 8 Revealed - Migration Mapping

Legacy Family Tree 8 Revealed - Instant Duplicate Checking

Legacy Family Tree 8 Revealed - Shared Events and Automated Sorting

When will Legacy 8 be released?

There's still more than one truthful answer to this:

• I'm not really sure, but probably before the end of the year, and hopefully way before then
• When it has been thoroughly tested by our development team and beta testers

But if you are considering downloading either the free or deluxe editions of Legacy, don't wait! Any purchases of Legacy 7.5 from May 8, 2013 forward will receive the new Legacy 8 at no charge. And as always, anyone who has purchased Legacy Deluxe previously will qualify for special discounted upgrade pricing. Get started today - you won't have to relearn everything when Legacy 8 is ready, but you'll get some really nice new features when it is.

The feature most requested by Legacy Family Tree users - Shared Events - will be included in the soon-to-be-released Legacy 8 upgrade.

First of all, if the Legacy term of "event" is new to you, you have been missing out on one of the most important aspects of genealogy research. An event is something that took place in an ancestor's life - like their immigration, a land transaction, being enumerated in the census, being a witness to a marriage. An event is usually associated with a date and a place. Recording these events is crucial to genealogical success because it builds a timeline of the ancestor's life. The timeline displays their migration and shows you where you need to look for their records. Just click on the Chronology View to see the ancestor's timeline. (Click on the image below to see a portion of Asa Brown's Chronology report.)

The timeline is built from the information and events you have recorded. In Legacy 7, much of this comes from the Events/Facts section as shown here:

Compare this with the same screen in Legacy 8:

In red, below, are some of the enhancements:

First is the addition of the Age column - I love it!

Next, the blue arrows in the Event/Fact column indicate that this is an event shared with this person, originating from someone else. In this example, I added the 1800 census event to Nathan Brown, and shared it with everyone else in the household.

Using the new "Share" button prevents me from having to manually add this event to everyone else involved.

Next, the four columns of colorful icons replace the boring S and + symbols of v7. Hovering your cursor over the shared event icon will show you how many people share this event: 

By the way, when you add a new event, it is now automatically sorted! Can I get a hallelujah?!

Now for the practical use of shared events. I'll use the census for the first example. Since I found Asa Brown in the 1850 census, I would add a new Census event to his record as shown below. (Some people call it a Residence event. It doesn't really matter. What matters is adding the event because it shows the place a person lived on a certain date.)

Also in this household were his wife, five children, and one stepson. Prior to Legacy 8, I would 1) click on the small "copy event to clipboard" button, 2) navigate to the next person in the household, 3) create their census event, 4) click the "paste event from clipboard" button, and 5) save their new event. 6) Repeat steps 2-5 for each person in the household. This has worked wonderfully because it adds this event to each person's timeline.

In Legacy 8, just click on the "Share Event" button and select the other people with whom you wish to share the event. The role of "household member" is automatically added to everyone, yet this role can be adjusted if desired.

This new shared event now appears in both the Individual's Information screen AND the Chronology View for each of these people. Simple!

Other uses for shared events would include sharing the "Deed" event with the others mentioned in the deed like the grantor/grantee or even the witness to the deed. These individuals may be family, associates, or neighbors that end up being important to research also. When you click on the Add Person button, you can choose to 1) select a name from the name list or 2) just enter the name of a person.

You would also use shared events with a marriage certificate. The marriage certificate not only provides information about the bride and groom, but also about the wedding's witnesses. Sharing the marriage event is an easy way to link everyone together so their relationships are recorded and not forgotten.

What other ideas do you have? When would you use a shared event?

Sorting of events and children

It gets even better! I mentioned above that events are now automatically sorted in the Individual's Information screen as they are added. But what about all those events and children you have previously entered? With the new "Sort Child, Marriage, and Event Lists" tool, Legacy 8 will look for children, marriages, and events that were entered out-of-order and sort them for you.

Don't worry though if you have children or events without dates that you have manually sorted. We have taken that into consideration and provide you with options to preserve your manually sorting.

So what do you think? Are you excited about the new Shared Events and Sorting features? 

What are the other new features of Legacy 8?

Here are links to the articles I've previously written:

Legacy Family Tree 8 Revealed

Legacy Family Tree 8 Revealed - Q/A, new Tagging options, and other surprises

Legacy Family Tree 8 Revealed - Migration Mapping

Legacy Family Tree 8 Revealed - Instant Duplicate Checking

When will Legacy 8 be released?

There's still more than one truthful answer to this:

• I'm not really sure, but probably before the end of the year, and hopefully way before then
• When it has been thoroughly tested by our development team and beta testers

But if you are considering downloading either the free or deluxe editions of Legacy, don't wait! Any purchases of Legacy 7.5 from May 8, 2013 forward will receive the new Legacy 8 at no charge. And as always, anyone who has purchased Legacy Deluxe previously will qualify for special discounted upgrade pricing. Get started today - you won't have to relearn everything when Legacy 8 is ready, but you'll get some really nice new features when it is.