Saturday, November 30, 2013

SATURDAY NIGHT FUN - LEGACY 8– FAMILY STATISTICS REPORT



Since I opened the Deluxe version of Legacy 8 yesterday afternoon, I’ve been playing around with the program.  I like to learn as much as I can about a program I’m going to be using every day.  And, since I was very familiar with version 7, I have work to do. 
As I was clicking on each individual tab at the top of the program, I was looking at the options as I went along.  I clicked on the REPORTStab and saw an option that I don’t remember seeing in version 7.  The option was “Statistics Report.”  I wonder what that is?  You can see it is the 5th icon from the left.


 
When I clicked on it I was completely surprised!  There was this grand report with ALL sorts of interesting data from my family file.  I was so excited I read each page (it’s 6 pages long).  Then I created a PDF version of the report.  I rarely print anything to paper these days, but somehow I wanted to be able to have this handy at my desk.  Plus, I was able to go out to the living room and bore my husband with “yet another” genealogy tidbit.  He is very long-suffering, believe me.  It’s just the two of us here in the house, so who else am I going to share all these wonderful discoveries with?  I mean, besides you, my loyal readers?
Here are just some of the statistics this report creates for you:
  • Total number of individuals
  • Births by era (it gives you the number of people born in each century)
  • Average lifespan of Individuals (again, by century and then by gender)
  • Longest marriages by century
  • Most popular given names
  • Most popular surnames
  • Most popular locations
Here are the 6 pages from my family file.  I was surprised by some of these and not by others.  Probably my biggest surprise was the incredible number of people in my file who use Detroit, Wayne, Michigan as a location – 766.  The next closest number is 393 for Ohio.



  
  
  To take a closer look at any of the images above – please click on them to enlarge.

For those of you who are using Legacy software and have begun using version 8, I think we are very fortunate.   I’ve always enjoyed this program and the features it offers us.  

Like many of you, I’m not eager to embrace changes.  Especially if I’m very happy with something I’m currently using.  It’s the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality.

So far, I’m happy with version 8.  I know there are a few glitches they still have to work out and I’m sure they will.  I’ve already submitted a couple of suggestions.  

I’m off to find more fun new features.

Happy hunting,
Michigan Girl

Copyright © 2013   Diane Gould Hall

Friday, November 29, 2013

FAMILY "RECIPE" FRIDAY - HOW TO KEEP HAIR CURLED BACK IN 1906


My grandmother, Florence BOWDEN MILNE left us a spiral bound notebook, which I refer to has her journal.  The entire notebook is written in her hand and was begun about the time of her marriage to my grandfather, Joseph, in 1906.  In it she left a treasure chest of family information and wonderful clues to life back in the early 1900's.

BOWDEN_Florence-1906BOWDEN_Florence_color headshot_circa 1950-1956  


                                                               
 
 
 
  
 
On the left, my Grandmother at age 18 - when she began her notebook and on the right when she was about 60 years old.
 
A recipe doesn't necessarily have to be something that is for cooking.  With that in mind I will be sharing various types of recipes, both for cooking and for other things from my grandmother's journal.  These items range from recipes for shampoo to how to keep hair curled (featured today), to curling fluids for your hair,  cures for blackheads or acne, chocolate fudge and how to tell if your wood-burning stove is the correct temperature.  You'll see them all here as the weeks continue.  So, please come back often.
TODAYS FEATURED “RECIPE”
TO KEEP HAIR CURLED
To Keep Hair Curled_enhanced - 2

Please enlarge the picture above, by double clicking on it,  if you want to see it more clearly

 

This “recipe” or formula calls for Gum Arabic, Bichloride of Mercury and Sal Ammoniac.  
  • Exactly what are those items?  They certainly aren’t common to me.  
  • Are they even still around today?  Let’s find out by taking a look online.
 
“GUM ARABIC also known as acacia gum, chaar gund, char goond, or meska, is a natural gum made of hardened sap taken from two species of the acacia tree; Senegalia senegal and Vachellia seyal. The gum is harvested commercially from wild trees throughout the Sahel from Senegal to Somalia, although it has been historically cultivated in Arabia and West Asia.
Gum arabic is a complex mixture of glycoproteins and polysaccharides. It was historically the source of the sugars arabinose and ribose, both of which were first discovered and isolated from it, and are named after it.
Gum arabic is used primarily in the food industry as a stabilizer. It is edible and has E number E414. Gum arabic is a key ingredient in traditional lithography and is used in printing, paint production, glue, cosmetics and various industrial applications, including viscosity control in inks and in textile industries, although less expensive materials compete with it for many of these roles.
While gum arabic is now produced mostly throughout the African Sahel, it is still harvested and used in the Middle East. For example, Arab populations use the natural gum to make a chilled, sweetened, and flavored gelato-like dessert.”
You can find this description of Gum Arabic with much more information about it at GUM ARABIC on wikipedia.
 
BICHLORIDE OF “MERCURY or Mercury(II) chloride or mercuric chloride (archaically, corrosive sublimate) is the chemical compound of mercury and chlorine with the formula HgCl2. This white crystalline solid is a laboratory reagent and a molecular compound. Once used as a treatment for syphilis, it is no longer used for medicinal purposes because of mercury toxicity and the availability of superior treatments.”
You can find this description of Gum Arabic with much more information about it at BICHLORIDE OF MERCURY on wikipedia.
 
“SAL AMMONIAC is a rare mineral composed of ammonium chloride, NH4Cl. It forms colorless to white to yellow-brown crystals in the isometric-hexoctahedral class. It has very poor cleavage and a brittle to conchoidal fracture. It is quite soft, with a Mohs hardness of 1.5 to 2, and has a low specific gravity of 1.5. It is water-soluble. Sal ammoniac is also the archaic name for the chemical compound ammonium chloride. The Romans called the ammonium chloride deposits they collected from near the Temple of Jupiter Amun (Greek Ἄμμων Ammon) in ancient Libya 'sal ammoniacus' (salt of Amun) because of proximity to the nearby temple.[4] Salts of ammonia have been known from very early times; thus the term Hammoniacus sal appears in the writings of Pliny,[5] although it is not known whether the term is identical with the more modern sal-ammoniac.[6] In any case, this salt ultimately gave ammonia and ammonium compounds their name.
It typically forms as encrustations formed by sublimation around volcanic vents. It is found around volcanic fumaroles, guano deposits and burning coal seams. Associated minerals include sodium alum, native sulfur and other fumarole minerals. Notable occurrences include Tajikistan; Mt. Vesuvius, Italy; and Parícutin, Michoacan, Mexico.”
You can find this description of Gum Arabic with much more information about it at SAL AMMONIAC on wikipedia.
 
Many of the items used in my grandmother's recipes aren't even available to us any more.  But, what fun it is to look at them.
 
Have we ever thought of our ancestor's lives without all of our modern conveniences?  Even something as common as shampoo had to be made by hand. And we can use curling irons and hair spray today to keep our hair curled.
 
Can you find any old recipes from your family?
 
Happy hunting,
Michigan Girl 


 
Copyright © 2013 Diane Gould Hall


Thursday, November 28, 2013

HAPPY THANKSGIVING - A LITTLE HISTORY OF THE HOLIDAY



I wish all my readers a very special and happy holiday.  May you have a wonderful day with family and friends.  Let’s all remember those in our military who cannot be with family today.

Here are a few images from Thanksgivings past, followed by a history of Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving 1    Thanksgiving 4

Thanksgiving 2   Thanksgiving 3

And a little history of Thanksgiving, courtesy of Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving_(United_States)

Thanksgiving (United States) 


Thanksgiving, or Thanksgiving Day, is a holiday celebrated in the United States on the fourth Thursday in November. It became an official Federal holiday in 1863, when, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of "Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens", to be celebrated on Thursday, November 26.[1] As a federal and public holiday in the U.S., Thanksgiving is one of the major holidays of the year. Together with Christmas and New Year, Thanksgiving is a part of the broader holiday season.
The event that Americans commonly call the "First Thanksgiving" was celebrated by the Pilgrims after their first harvest in the New World in 1621.[2] This feast lasted three days, and it was attended by 90 Native Americans (as accounted by attendee Edward Winslow)[3] and 53 Pilgrims.[4] The New England colonists were accustomed to regularly celebrating "thanksgivings"—days of prayer thanking God for blessings such as military victory or the end of a drought.

Early observances 
The traditional representation of where the first Thanksgiving was held in the United States has often been a subject of boosterism and debate, though the debate is often confused by mixing up the ideas of a Thanksgiving holiday celebration and a Thanksgiving religious service. According to author James Baker, this debate is a "tempest in a beanpot".[6]
Local boosters in Virginia, Florida, and Texas promote their own colonists, who (like many people getting off a boat) gave thanks for setting foot again on dry land.
—Jeremy Bangs[7]

The first documented thanksgiving services in territory currently belonging to the United States were conducted by Spaniards in the 16th century.[8][9][10] Thanksgiving services were routine in what was to become the Commonwealth of Virginia as early as 1607,[11] with the first permanent settlement of Jamestown, Virginia holding a thanksgiving in 1610.[8]

On December 4, 1619, 38 English settlers arrived at Berkeley Hundred. The group's charter required that the day of arrival be observed yearly as a "day of thanksgiving" to God. On that first day, Captain John Woodlief held the service of thanksgiving. As quoted from the section of the Charter of Berkeley Hundred specifying the thanksgiving service: "We ordaine that the day of our ships arrival at the place assigned for plantacon in the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perpetually kept holy as a day of thanksgiving to Almighty God."[12] After the Indian massacre of 1622, the Berkeley Hundred site and other outlying locations were abandoned as the colonists withdrew to Jamestown and other more secure points.

Thanksgiving observed by the Pilgrims at Plymouth
William Lockhart Made The First Thanksgiving 1621, oil on canvas by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris (1863–1930). The painting shows common misconceptions about the event that persist to modern times: Pilgrims did not wear such outfits, and the Wampanoag are dressed in the style of Native Americans from the Great Plains.[13]Americans commonly trace the Thanksgiving holiday to a 1621 celebration at the Plymouth Plantation, where the Plymouth settlers held a harvest feast after a successful growing season. Autumn or early winter feasts continued sporadically in later years, first as an impromptu religious observance, and later as a civil tradition.

Squanto, a Patuxent Native American who resided with the Wampanoag tribe, taught the Pilgrims how to catch eel and grow corn and served as an interpreter for them (Squanto had learned English during travels in England). Additionally the Wampanoag leader Massasoit had donated food stores to the fledgling colony during the first winter when supplies brought from England were insufficient.

The Pilgrims celebrated at Plymouth for three days after their first harvest, in 1621. Seventeenth-century accounts do not identify this as a Thanksgiving observance, rather it followed the harvest. Two colonists gave personal accounts of the 1621 feast in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The Pilgrims, most of whom were Separatists (English Dissenters), are not to be confused with Puritans who established their own Massachusetts Bay Colony nearby (current day Boston) in 1628 and had very different religious beliefs.

William Bradford, in Of Plymouth Plantation:
They began now to gather in the small harvest they had, and to fit up their houses and dwellings against winter, being all well recovered in health and strength and had all things in good plenty. For as some were thus employed in affairs abroad, others were exercised in fishing, about cod and bass and other fish, of which they took good store, of which every family had their portion. All the summer there was no want; and now began to come in store of fowl, as winter approached, of which this place did abound when they came first (but afterward decreased by degrees). And besides waterfowl there was great store of wild turkeys, of which they took many, besides venison, etc. Besides, they had about a peck a meal a week to a person, or now since harvest, Indian corn to the proportion. Which made many afterwards write so largely of their plenty here to their friends in England, which were not feigned but true reports.

Edward Winslow, in Mourt's Relation:
Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruits of our labor. They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week. At which time, amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which we brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor, and upon the captain and others. And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty.

The Pilgrims held another Thanksgiving celebration in 1623, after a switch from communal farming to privatized farming,[15][16] a fast,[17] and a refreshing 14-day rain[17][18] resulted in a larger harvest. William DeLoss Love calculates that this thanksgiving was made on Wednesday, July 30, 1623, a day before the arrival of a supply ship with more colonists,[17] but before the fall harvest. In Love's opinion this 1623 thanksgiving was significant because the order to recognize the event was from civil authority[19] (Governor Bradford), and not from the church, making it likely the first civil recognition of Thanksgiving in New England.

Referring to the 1623 harvest after the nearly catastrophic drought, Bradford wrote:
And afterwards the Lord sent them such seasonable showers, with interchange of fair warm weather as, through His blessing, caused a fruitful and liberal harvest, to their no small comfort and rejoicing. For which mercy, in time convenient, they also set apart a day of thanksgiving…
By this time harvest was come, and instead of famine now God gave them plenty … for which they blessed God. And the effect of their particular planting was well seen, for all had … pretty well … so as any general want or famine had not been amongst them since to this day.

These first hand accounts do not appear to have contributed to the early development of the holiday. Bradford's "Of Plymouth Plantation" was not published until the 1850s. While the booklet "Mourt's Relation" was summarized by other publications without the now familiar thanksgiving story, by the eighteenth century the original booklet appeared to be lost or forgotten. A copy was rediscovered in Philadelphia in 1820, with the first full reprinting in 1841. In a footnote the editor, Alexander Young, was the first person to identify the 1621 feast as "the first Thanksgiving."

Blessings to all,
Michigan Girl



Copyright © 2013 Diane Gould Hall

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

FEATURES IN LEGACY 8


   

I’m excited about many of the new features that are included in the newest version, just released for Legacy Family Tree software.
I’ve been using this software for about 7 years and have never been disappointed.  I’ve listed the purchase options below, along with all the NEW features in Version 8 and below that a list of the general features of Legacy.  You can go to their website for further information http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/Index.asp

Here are your purchase options:
  Legacy purchase options-2
HERE ARE THE NEW FEATURES IN VERSION 8 OF LEGACY FAMILY TREE SOFTWARE - Remember, click on any image to see it in a larger view.




NEW Origins Report
NEW Migration Report
NEW Migration Mapping
See where you came from and the percentage of "blood" you have from your countries of origin with the new Origins Report.
See how far and wide a person's descendants spread out in the world with the new Migration Report.
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.



NEW Instant Duplicate Checking
NEW Potential Problem Alerts and Gaps
NEW Shared Events
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.
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).
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.



NEW Family Bow Tie Chart
ENHANCED Descendant Chart
NEW Source Quality
Displays the ancestors of both the husband and wife, as well as their children.
Now available in left-to-right formatting.
Now record the quality (original vs derivative, primary vs secondary, etc., direct vs indirect) of each source as you attempt to prove your conclusions.
NEW Source Labels
ENHANCED Source Clipboard
NEW Pedigree Citations
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.
The Source Clipboard has been expanded to load up to five different citations that can be assigned at the click of a button.
Add source citations to your Pedigree Charts, and attach the complete bibliography.
ENHANCED FamilySearch Integration
ENHANCED Wall Charts
ENHANCED Chronology View
Share, discuss, download and interact with FamilySearch's Family Tree (optional).
Duplicate lines can now be suppressed, saving room for more photographs and captions.
Now view the parent's, grandparent's, children's, and grandchildren's vital events in your ancestor's timeline.
ENHANCED User Interface
ENHANCED Tagging
NEW Automatic Sorting
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.
View up to 9 tags at once. Advanced Tagging now shows the counts of each tag.
Children, marriages, and events are now automatically chronologically sorted as they are added. New global sorting tools are also now available.
NEW Statistics
NEW Media Relinker
NEW Media Gatherer
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.
It is easier than ever to locate missing or unlinked pictures. Moving from one computer to another is simpler to do.
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.
NEW Web Links
ENHANCED Color Coding
NEW Brochure
Found evidence of your ancestor online? Easily add a web link to their media gallery to organize a list of their online presence.
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.


General Capacities
  • Individuals and Families File size to 2 billion characters (2 gigabyte).
  • Children per Marriage 60
  • Events per Individual Unlimited
  • Spouses per Individual Unlimited
  • Parents per Individual Unlimited
  • Sources per Event Unlimited
  • Pictures per Individual Unlimited
  • Number of Entries in History List 160
  • Address Lines per Individual 5
  • Phone Numbers per Individual 2
  • Generations per Pedigree Chart Unlimited
  • Generations per Descendancy Chart Unlimited
Save As...
  • Any Family File can be saved under a new name, thus making a copy of the current file.
Backup / Restore
  • Compressed, Zip compatible backup files can be made that span diskettes.
Maintenance
  • The maintenance utility will check the database and will also perform file maintenance items such as repairing common database problems, removing unused names, locations and event names. It also check the validity of all family links and compresses out old unused, deleted records.
Importing
  • Legacy imports both Personal Ancestral File® information as well as GEDCOM files.

  Copyright © 2013 Diane Gould Hall



Monday, November 25, 2013

MAPPY MONDAY–Mapping the lives of your ancestors

US Laminated Map   World Map - laminated
Any time we are doing genealogy research we have a need to know about maps.  Questions to ask yourself:

      1.  Where did your ancestors live?
      2.  Where did they come from originally?
      3.  What brought them to these areas?
      4.  Were there other family members close by?  If not, why not? 
      5.  Did your ancestors move around?  A lot?  Or a little?

The two maps I’ve shown above are the front and back of an 8 1/2 x 11 laminated map given to me by a fellow genealogist about 8 years ago.  It sits right here next to my printer.  I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve picked up this map to look at a location.  I also take it with me when I go to libraries or on any genealogy research trip.  It is pre-punched with holes for placing into a 3-ring binder.

I’ve checked online today and see that you can still buy this map from several sites.  I’ve linked two of them here for your reference.  ABE BOOKS.com and AMAZON.com 

I do not claim any affiliation with either of these sites, I only mention them for your convenience.  The price was the same on both sites.

WHAT OTHER TYPES OF MAPPING AIDS DO I USE?

Another one I couldn’t live without is the “Map Guide to the U.S. Federal Censuses 1790-1920” by William Thorndale and William Dollarhide.  Copyright 1987.  Published by Genealogpical Publishing Co., Inc.  ISBN 0-8063-1188-6  Cover of Fed census book by Wm Dollarhide

What this book contains:  420 pages covering each state from 1790-1920 and an index.  You can see what the county boundaries where for each state in any given census year.  (Providing there was a census in that state in that particular year).  Example:  Michigan doesn’t have a U.S. population census until 1810.  Here are examples of the pages for 1810 and 1900-1920 for Michigan.  I have placed tabs on the states I refer to the most often (as you can see in the first picture).
Page 159 of Dollarhide book_Michigan 1810
Michigan County map in 1810 - also visible are the current county lines
Page 168 of Dollarhide book_Michigan 1900-1920
Michigan County lines 1900-1920
This book is available for purchase at MAP GUIDE TO U.S. FEDERAL CENSUS on Amazon.com

If you don’t want to buy a copy of this book, I have found it available on Google books at the following link:  GOOGLE BOOKS - Free copy of book

Road atlas cover from amazonOne final item I also use all the time, is a good old fashioned Road Atlas. 
The one I have is a large (11” x 15”)spiral bound book of maps of the United Stated and Canada.  Again, I have tabs on the states or provinces I refer to most frequently.  I Googled “road atlas” and found several sites.  Here is a link to the Amazon site just as a reference.

RAND McNALLY ROAD ATLAS at Amazon.com


Have we answered the 5 questions I asked at the beginning of this post?  Not yet.  But, we have some excellent reference material to assist us.  

Of course, there are thousands of maps available online.  I use them too.  However, for me, there is something about having that map in my hand and running my finger over it from point to point.  I’m generally a pretty technically inclined gal, but for some things, I still like items in hand.  

In a later post I will go over some of the ways to actually answer the questions posed above. 

Til then, happy traveling,
Michigan Girl

Copyright © 2013 Diane Gould Hall

Friday, November 22, 2013

50 Years Ago Today–November 22, 1963


THE ASSASINATION OF A PRESIDENT

Where Were You?
Kennedy-collage-1
I was 13 yrs. old living with my parents & brother, Norm, in Pompano Beach, Florida.  I heard about the terrible event on the school bus, on my way home.  The bus was full of children.  As a teenager, I was well aware of who the President was and who my parents had voted for (it wasn’t President Kennedy).  Politics were discussed in our home and you can’t help but over hear the conversations. 
All of the children on the school bus were SHOCKED and some began to cry.  I don’t think I cried then, but I certainly cried in the coming days.
The next three or four days aren’t very clear in my memory, except that we were glued to our television as the events unfolded. 
I clearly remember watching the funeral procession with JFK’s casket and the rider less horse following behind.  I also remember seeing Caroline & John-John (as he was called by so many of us), and thinking how awful it would be to lose your Daddy.  Especially in such a horrible way.
How this changed our country?  I don’t really know.  There’s been so much speculation about “what if.”  But, this is how history unfolded and we can’t change a thing.  If only we could.
God Bless Caroline today, as she is the only surviving member of that little family foursome. 
As a young girl I was interested in history (yes, even back then).  I saved all the newspapers and the Saturday Evening Post from those few days.  They are yellowed and dog eared and seldom removed from the paper bag I’ve kept them in for 50 years.  Today I will move them out the paper bag and into a more appropriate holder. I haven’t enhanced them at all as I believe that leaving them faded and yellowed best represents the 50 years that have passed since that horrible day. 

HERE ARE THE FRONT PAGES OF THE NEWSPAPERS AND THE COVER OF THE SATURDAY EVENING POST

                   Kennedy_newspaper headline_23 Nov 1963   Kennedy_newspaper headline_23 Nov 1963_Miami News   Kennedy_newspaper headline_23 Nov 1963_Sun Sentinel
Kennedy_newspaper headline_23 Nov 1963_Sun Sentinel-2  Kennedy_newspaper headline_24 Nov 1963  Kennedy_newspaper headline_25 Nov 1963_FortLauderdaleNews
Kennedy_newspaper headline_1 Dec 1963_Sun Sentinel    Kennedy_SaturdayEvening Post Cover
In thoughtful remembrance,
Michigan Girl

Copyright © 2013 Diane Gould Hall

Monday, November 18, 2013

TUESDAY TIPS–HOW TO CHANGE THE BACKGROUND COLORS IN LEGACY 7.5

 

HOW TO CHANGE THE BACKGROUND IMAGE IN LEGACY 7.5

THIS DOES NOT APPLY TO LEGACY 8

This may not be important to some users.  But, if you’re like me, you want the screen that you look at every single day to be set up just how you like it.  Here are the step-by-step instructions on how to change the background image in Legacy.
  • Go to the file menu at the top of your Legacy screen and select Options – Customize
  • Click on Colors tab then click on “Click here to change the user interface colors”
  • Next - click on the text box that says "background" under the Colors column on the left.


This screen will pop up next
screen shot 2 for background color
  • Click on the Box on the far right, second one up, that says “set”
Now this screen pops up
screen shot 3 for background color
  • Look at the small box at the bottom with the “down” arrow.  Be sure to select your “C” drive, then Legacy, then Background
  • Now you should click on one of the backgrounds in the list on the far left. I picked BERRIES2.bmp
The next screen will look like this
screen shot 4 for background color
  • Click OK at the bottom of that screen and the next screen will look like this
screen shot 5 for background color
  • Now click “SET” right next to the background we just selected, which you can see as the red berries on the bottom right.
Your next screen will look like this
screen shot 6 for background color
  • You can do one of two things next.  Either click "SAVE" in the right corner just underneath tags, and when prompted save the setup as anything you want such as “berries background” or
  • You can just click on “Close” at the bottom left of the screen.
You will be taken back to this screen
screen shot 7 for background color
  • Click “SAVE” at the bottom left of your screen and now you have a new background.  Here is how it looks.

screen shot 8 for background color

I used that particular sample because it shows up so well here.  However, I’m more of a subtle kind of background gal so here is what mine looks like with another background.
 
screen shot 9 for background color

TIP:  You don’t have to use the backgrounds that come with Legacy.  I’ve gone online and found some very pretty backgrounds that I saved to my computer and commonly use for my own background.  I’ve found them just by using a search engine such as Google or Bing.  These were all on public sites with permission to use them granted.
 
Heart & pendants   texture02sm  Sand Magnified_resized larger
Or you could use any one of your own pictures as a background.  Here are some I could use from our trip to Amsterdam or from a cemetery where my ancestors are buried, or just a scenic view.  You can decide for yourself what kind of background you might want.  Some of them may or may not look just right or show up very much. 
 IMG_0526    CenterCemeteryView of many headstones resized for FAG   IMG_1691

Another note:  If you want more Legacy tips from another blogger who is a member of the Legacy Technical support team, please visit http://ancestoring.blogspot.com/

Have fun playing around with your color scheme.
 
Bye for now,
Michigan Girl


 
 
Copyright © Diane Gould Hall 2013