TUESDAY’S TIPS ~ How many people in my database have marriage dates? Let’s use Legacy 9 to find out

It occurred to me today, that I’d never tried to run any kind of report to find out how many people in my database I have marriage dates for.  I love discovering new lists I can create with Legacy 9. 

I immediately went to the Search tab>Find>Detailed Search and began to figure out what criteria I should enter. 

I entered the following:

When I clicked on “create list” I was shown my list of 2102 names.  The list is opened in the List View which allows you to go through the various pages associated with each ancestor such as Detail, Edit, Events, Notes, Family & Sources. 

From there I wondered if I could find out how many of those marriages had sources attached.  Dare I check my work? 

I went back to my original search criteria and changed it to Individual>Source-Citation>Contains>Married  This resulted in 896 matches.  Ok, not too bad.  If there are 2102 names in the marriage list and you divide that by two you get 1051 marriages.  If I have sources for 896 of those marriages, then I’m very happy with those results.

I played around with this idea for a while creating lists of those who were divorced, husband deceased, wife deceased etc.  It was quite fun to see what popped up.  Of course to create such lists you have to have entered something in the Marriage Status field.  Here’s a sample from my great grandparents. 

Notice the Status field is filled in. Also note that the icons for Notes, Images and Sources are colored rather than black & white, meaning they contain information that I’ve added.

One more list before I go.  I’d like to find out how many of my ancestors were married in my home town of Detroit, Wayne, Michigan.  I created my search and the list contained 133 individuals.

WHY CREATE LISTS?

• To help determine what you have or don’t have on any given individual
• To assist you in obtaining documents such as marriage certificates or records. Or any other type of records, based on the list you create.
• To assist you in completing information for each of your ancestors by determining what’s missing.
• To find out where you’ve made mistakes.
• Because sometimes it’s just fun to take a break from our research and play around a bit.
• I’m sure there are other reasons to create lists.  Please share your ideas with me.

TO FIND OTHER POSTS RELATED TO USING LEGACY PLEASE CLICK ON THE LEGACY TIP TAB FROM ANY SCREEN ON MY BLOG.

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2018   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

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

• Click on the Box on the far right, second one up, that says “set”

Now this screen pops up

• 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

• Click OK at the bottom of that screen and the next screen will look like this

• 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

• 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

• Click “SAVE” at the bottom left of your screen and now you have a new background.  Here is how it looks.

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.
 


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.
 
    
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. 
       

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

CREATING PHOTO BACKGROUNDS FOR YOUR FAMILY TREES

SATURDAY FUN

 

How about creating some family trees with various backgrounds?  I don't spend enough time doing this and I probably should.  I need to create some fun things for our grandchildren and other family members.  Then they can just look at the picture on the wall and say "that's my great grandfather or great grandmother."  

It's important to teach them about family.  And doing these kinds of things is fun for us.  I created these in Legacy Family Tree by going to "Reports" and then to "Family Picture Tree Report."  You can change the backgrounds and use any picture from your hard drive, or one of the pictures they provide.

 

CREATING FAMILY TREES WITH VARIOUS BACKGROUNDS

SATURDAY FUN

To stay with the Surname Saturday theme.

How many surnames are in your family tree?

Yup, that's right, let's count those surnames.

I won't have to manually count mine because my Legacy database will do it for me.  Here's how.......

 First click on the "Reports" menu

If you don't have the Reports icon on your top menu you can find it on the text menu across the top of your page

             
Second - once the small window opens, click on the "Books/Other" tab and select "Surname Summary"

Next you'll see a box pop-up that is titled "Surname Summary."  Click on the "preview" box.  

NOTE:  Be sure you have selected "screen/printer" as your report destination (at the bottom).

     Once you've selected "preview," Legacy will immediately    generate a report. Mine was 18 pages long. Showing every surname, how many times the surname appears in my database and the date range for the names.

HOW COOL IS THAT?

 So, how many surnames do I have in my database?

987

Do this in your database and tell me how many you have.

Happy Counting,

Michigan Girl