POTENTIAL PROBLEMS LIST IN LEGACY 8 ~ What problems did I find today?

It’s necessary with any database, to check for problems, errors etc.  Legacy 8 has a built-in feature for doing just that.  It’s called “Potential Problems” and can be found under your Tools tab.

(CLICK ON ANY IMAGE TO ENLARGE IT)

 
Since I run this feature about once a month, my problems list is usually very small.  Of course, that wasn’t true the first time I ran it.  I can’t remember exactly how many I had, but I know it was dozens.  It took me a while to go through the list, but it was a worthwhile endeavor.

Today, I ran the list, and here’s what I got.



LET’S TALK ABOUT WHAT WE CAN DO WITH THIS LIST

• The name that is highlighted is Boggs, Virginia [3934].  I always have the RIN number listed after my individuals as it makes it very easy to find them quickly in the Index or write the numbers down, should I need to come back later.
• At the bottom of the screen, you can see that Legacy tells me exactly what the problem is.  In this case “The birth date for this individual is either after the mother’s death date or more than ten months after the death date of the father.”
• I can do several things directly from this list.

    1.  Print it
    2.  Mark as Not a Problem
    3.  Run the report in different ways
    4.  Report destination can be Screen, Text file or PDF file

I went to the family page for Virginia Boggs.  I can see that her birth date is listed as “Abt 1848.”  I have an 1850 census for her and her family which states that she is two years old.  The next census in 1860 lists her as 11.  So, the birth year of approximately 1848 is probably correct.

Now, let’s look at her father, Hamilton Boggs.  OH OH!  I have his death date as “Abt. 1842.”  Kind of tough for him to have been Virginia’s father if she was born 6 years later.  I don’t have a second marriage for her mother, and Virginia is the last child, of 6, listed for this family.

Hamilton Boggs is my 3rd great granduncle, and I can see that I have done very little thorough research on him.  I have one source listed and it’s an email from another descendant, that I received back in 2005.

My next step, as I sit here this morning, will be to go online and begin trying to piece together Hamilton’s life with more valid sources.  I’m sure there has been a lot of sources made available over the past 11 years.

Then I will move on to the other person listed on my Problems Report.

This report provides an excellent method for us to find the problems we might not have noticed and, in this case, to go back to a fairly close ancestor, and do more research.
 
Have you used the Potential Problems report?  What have you found?

Please visit the tab “Legacy 8 Tips” at the top of my blog for 12 other posts that are specific training tools for using Legacy 8.

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

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