NEVER MARRIED ~ How many people do I have in my database who never married?

Let’s take a look and see who in our family is listed as never having been married?

The first thing I did was go to the “Search” tab in Legacy and select “Find.”  This allows me to enter the criteria for my search.



This search created a list.  The first time I did it, I had 17 people.  I noticed right away that two of my ancestors, whom I know did not marry, were not on the list.  This means I had not checked the appropriate box in Legacy, to indicate this condition.  I went back into Legacy and checked the box and then created a new list.
 
TIP:  The box that is checked in Legacy to indicate that a person wasn’t married and had no children is located on the Individual’s Information screen.  However, I would like to see the wording changed.  Right now it says “This individual has no relationships and no children.”   It would be nice to have two boxes – one that says “never married” and the other “no children.”  We may not know the name of another party involved with our ancestor and the ancestor may well have had children and not named the other parent.

Please note that there are two boxes to check in the Marriage/Relationship screen – one for “This couple did not marry” and the other “This couple had no children”




Here is the list created by Legacy showing the names of those 19 individuals in my database for whom that box is checked.



There are 5070 people in my Legacy database.  So, this cannot be a complete list of those individuals who never married.
 
We can perhaps, assume anyone who died young (under 15) would never have married.  However, I obviously didn’t check the box for those individuals, or they would be on this list.  Yes, some people may have married prior to that, but that number would be quite small, if any. 

What other type of list can I create that would help me with this statistic?  What I’m trying to find is a search by age.  I am unable to locate this particular criteria in the search conditions listed in Legacy.

Therefore, I am unable to create a list of those who are under 15 and go back and check the “never married” box.
 
Can any of you think of another way to check this statistic?

This little exercise today has made me aware that I need to make sure I mark all appropriate boxes in each person’s information screen.

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST

HERE IS A LINK TO ALL MY LEGACY TIPS 8 TIPS

Happy hunting,
Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2017   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

MICHIGAN DEATH RECORD IMAGES FOR 1940 NOW ONLINE! Here’s how I found my family’s certificates

The website https://michiganology.org/vital-records/ has many wonderful records & historical information for Michigan researchers. 
Certainly the one I’ve used the most is their death index and images. The images for records from 1897-1920 have been online for a while now.

The images for 1921-1952 are being released as the 75 year restriction rolls around.  As of today, they have uploaded the images up to and including 1940.

So, today, I’m going to use my Legacy search function and see how many, if any, of my ancestors have deaths in Michigan in 1940.

To accomplish this I will go to the “Search” tab and then “Find.”
I want two criteria in my search:

• Place of death = Michigan
• Date of death = 1940

(CLICK ON ANY IMAGE TO ENLARGE IT)
 

And, here is my list



Let’s go over to seekingmichigan.org (UPDATE Oct 2019 - the seekingmichigan website if closed down - the new site is michiganology.org) and see how many of those four certificates I can locate.

NOTE:  As you know, uploading and indexing are not perfect sciences.  So, just because we hear that records are available, doesn’t mean they ALL will be.

How many of these death certificate images did I find?

FOUR OUT OF FOUR!!!

DEATH CERT FOR WILLIAM W. BUSH	DEATH CERT FOR WILLARD B. GOULD
DEATH CERT FOR MINNIE ERB	DEATH CERT FOR KATHERINE MARTZ FORSYTH

Wonderful!  I’ve downloaded each of them, cropped and corrected them and now I can add them to Legacy and source them.  That’s what I call 15 minutes well spent online.

TIP:  I do not like the look of images as they appear in our downloads.  I don’t like the black surrounding them and I don’t like them to be crooked or too grey.  I fix all of this before I ever save the digital image to my computer.  I takes about one minute to perform the task and makes your images look so much better in any report or if you upload them online.  See my “Other Posts” below for a post I wrote about this process.

Time to go work on those records.  Please let me know how many new records you find in this collection.

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST

MICHIGAN DEATH RECORDS ONLINE - Where can you find them?

Legacy 8 - THE SEARCH FUNCTION - What Can You Find?

EASY DOCUMENT EDITING - How to Straighten & Correct Images

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2016   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

TUESDAY’S TIP–How to Determine Which War Your Ancestor May Have Participated In

Military records can be one of the best resources we find for our ancestors.  Whether it’s a draft registration, a pension file or a service record, they can tell us a lot about that ancestor.

Here are some of the things you may find in a military record:

• Date of birth
• Names of parents
• Date of marriage, name of spouse & marital status
• Names and ages and/or date of births of children
• Places of residence
• Occupation
• Physical characteristics
• Names of other relations or acquaintances may be found in pension files
• Date & place of death
• Place of burial

That is only a partial list.  But, you can certainly see how important these records can be.

SO HOW CAN WE FIND OUT WHICH OF OUR ANCESTORS MIGHT HAVE PARTICIPATED IN WHICH WAR?

I use Legacy 8 as my software database and this is the method I used.  I’m sure other software programs have similar finding aids.

The first thing I referred to was a list that I located on Ancestry.com last year.  Here is a link to the post: http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2014/04/23/what-war-did-my-ancestor-serve-in/

(CLICK ON ANY IMAGE TO ENLARGE IT)

My next step was to use the “Search” capabilities of Legacy 8 by beginning here: 



For a detailed, step by step lesson on how to create your search criteria, please see my post here - Legacy 8 - The Search Function - What Can You Find?

In this case I used the following criteria for possible World War I veterans:



NOTE: Of course there were women who served during the wars.  Especially the later wars.  However, for now I wanted to concentrate on the primary possibilities, which are the men.

Now I actually have a list I can use for each of the wars.  I can check the list one by one and look for military records.  Rather than my usual method of remembering to do that as I’m researching a particular person.
 
I can indicate in my To-Do list in Legacy that I have completed this task.  Or, I could make a notation in the ancestor’s “research notes.”  Or you could keep track some other way.  Because some of the lists are multiple pages, I would not personally print them out.  You might choose to.  I did create a PDF version of each list, which you can do directly from the “Print” option at the bottom of the page of names.

Here is a sample of the first page of a list I converted to PDF format:



Here is a compilation of how many names appear on each list that I created.

REVOLUTIONARY WAR = 90
CIVIL WAR = 411
SPANISH AMERICAN WAR = 573
WAR OF 1812 = 118
WORLD WAR I = 421
WORLD WAR II = 554
KOREAN WAR = 243
VIETNAM WAR = 160

That’s a grand total of 2570 men who could possibly have military records.  I will be able to quickly eliminate from each list, those who died at birth, died as infants or before they were military age.  There could be several who overlap and could have served in more than one war.  My database contains 4719 individuals.

Now to determine where to start and how to proceed.  Do you think this is a valuable list?  Is it something you could use?  Please share your results with me if you choose to create such lists.

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST

Legacy 8 - CENSUS LIST - How Will I Use It To Search for My Family?

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2015   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

OCCUPATION FILES ON ANCESTRY–1600-1995–What are they? Have you seen these?

I was researching one of my husband’s ancestors the other day (his 7th great grandfather, Benjamin Clarke), when I came across a record I had never seen before.

This record actually showed up when I was checking the shaky leaf on Ancestry.  I do check those shaky leafs every day.  Why?  Because it seems to me that whoever you have been working on recently will be shown on those hints.  Sometimes I find they are hints I am already familiar with, but many times, I have come across new information.  I’m NOT talking about family trees, but actual document records.

In this case it was the DELAWARE, CRAFTPERSON FILES, 1600-1995

I was not familiar with this set of records.  AND, I have absolutely no one who is from or ever lived in Delaware.  At least not that I’m aware of.

Why would Benjamin Clarke, who lived in Massachusetts be listed in this file?

Here is the explanation of this source, directly from Ancestry.

"About Delaware, Craftperson Files, 1600-1995

The Winterthur Library is devoted to the study of everyday life in America and America’s craft traditions, including furniture making, silversmithing, pottery making, textile production, etc. This collection includes images of a series of card files containing the names, working dates, places of residence, and other information about American craftspeople. Data on the cards relate to a wide range of craftspeople:

• artists / painters
• blacksmiths
• engravers
• fraktur artists
• furniture makers / cabinetmakers / turners / joiners
• gilders
• clock- and watchmakers
• glass workers
• goldsmiths
• graphic artists
• jewelers
• metalsmiths
• potters
• sculptors
• silversmiths / silver plate workers

Information on the cards includes the names of craftspeople, occupation and working dates, birth and death dates, where they lived, what they made, notes about their professional lives, and bibliographical and source references. (Information about furniture makers and silversmiths is more complete than other occupations, and some of the cards don’t include complete information.)"
 
WOW!  That’s a lot of occupations.  And, look at the information that may be included on the cards.

• Birth & death dates
• Where they lived
• Occupation & working dates
• What they made
• Notes about their professional lives
• Bibliographical source references

The card shown above, for Benjamin Clarke, doesn’t list all of those items, but look what it does give me.  Year of birth & death, year the record was recorded, where he lived and his occupation.  And, by the way, this information matched what I already have for Benjamin, so I added it as a source for those items in my Legacy database.

Here are some other samples of cards in this database that contain different kinds of information.  I just began scrolling through the film and found these.  Some contain a lot of information and others just a little.

(CLICK ON ANY IMAGE TO ENLARGE IT)

     

     

I’m anxious to continue exploring this database.
 
Please tell me if you were aware of this group of records?  If so, what have you found?  Or, if not, do you think it would be helpful to you?

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST

FINDING OCCUPATIONS IN LEGACY 8 - How to use the search function 

SHAKY LEAVES ON ANCESTRY CAN LEAD TO NEW RECORDS-Here's how 

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2015   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

TUESDAY’S TIP - USING THE “INTERNET SEARCH” OPTION IN LEGACY 8

Today I’ve decided to use the internet search option in Legacy and see if it will bring up any new clues for my 2nd Great Granduncle, Anthony Bowen BOGGS or his wife, Anna CARY.

Here is a screen shot of the family view from Legacy.  This shows what I know about this couple.

(CLICK ON ANY IMAGE TO ENLARGE IT)



There’s not much information here, is there? 

TIP:  Be sure you have highlighted or selected the person you are wanting to research on the internet.  I am able to see that I've done that by the GREEN line under Anthony’s name. 

Before I use the Internet Search option I’ll take a look at any notes or sources I have on this couple. In Legacy, you can tell if there is content for any of the associated items by whether the icons are shown in grey or in color.  

You can see that for Anthony there are several colored icons below his info box.  There are three colored icons for Anna.

Here are the icons and what each one indicates.

In looking at each one of these I don’t see much.  Here is what I have for each of the icons that are in color (indicating content).

• The first 3 icons, his spouses name, parents names & siblings names
• For notes I have a note I wrote in 2009 regarding a possible match on familysearch.org pilot site.
• Under events there is an 1850 census with him in the household with parents & siblings
• Under sources I have One World Tree (very poor and undocumented source) and the 1850 census record.
• Under AKA’s I have Anthony B. Boggs
• The last icon is for Research Guidance and there several suggestions for me to look at.

Now I will go to the top of the page, on the shortcut bar and click on the globe that indicates Internet (red arrow).

NOTE:  I have customized the “My Toolbar” section of the shortcut bar to include the items I refer to or use the most.



When you click on the globe a drop down list appears with three items.

1.  Create Web Pages
2.  Legacy Homepage
3.  Search Internet for current person

I will select item number 3. 

This is the screen that comes up next.



If you click on the drop down arrow (as indicated by the red arrow below), you will get a list of choices for sites that Legacy can search for you.



You have options on the screen before you actually click on the “Search” icon.  Each of the selected websites allow you to adjust your search in various ways. On one can change the first & last name and the end year.  On another you might only be able to adjust the name.  So, pay attention to those fields before you click on search.  The fields you can change are in black letters and the ones you cannot change are grey.  You can opt to “close this window after each search, and you can also “customize searches.”

The Customize Searches option allows you to add or delete websites you want to have access to from this list.  

Let’s try a few searches for Anthony Bowen Boggs and see what I come up with.  

ANCESTRY.COM – 11,701 HITS 
ARCHIVES.COM – 46 RECORDS
BILLION GRAVES.COM – NO HITS
BING.COM – 42 RESULTS (the first two of which are my own blog)
FINDAGRAVE.COM – NO HITS
GENEALOGY BANK.COM – 221 HITS
GOOGLE.COM – 3 RESULTS
WORLDCONNECT.COM (aka ROOTSWEB) – 46 HITS 

As you can see “your results may vary.”  But, this is certainly a good way to see what’s out there on any given ancestor.  Some of these sites are free and some are subscription.  It took me less than 5 minutes to check these 8 sites.  The most promising one to me is the World Connect Rootsweb site, which is one I haven’t looked at in a long time.

I hope that by looking at some of the “hits” from various sites, I can increase the information I have for Anthony Bowen Boggs and his family.

Have you used this Legacy feature?  If so, do you find it useful?

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST
LEGACY 8 - FAMILY STATISTICS REPORT
LEGACY 8 - A QUICK GUIDE TO LABEL & TAB COLORS
LEGACY 8 - CENSUS LIST - HOW WILL I USE IT TO SEARCH FOR MY FAMILY
LEGACY 8 - ADDING A RECORD - STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2014   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION