TUESDAY’S TIP ~ Working on your Brick Walls & unknown connections–How I Keep Track

If you’re like me, you have a few brick wall ancestors.  We all need a way to keep track of who we’ve researched and what we have or have not found.  No one wants to duplicate their efforts or work on a particular line and forget all the things you’ve located. 

Here’s how I have been keeping track of them in Legacy.  I’ve used this method for several years and so far, it’s worked well.

Two of my biggest brick walls are John C. Gould and Robert L. Bowden.  Who are their parents?  That’s been a burning question for nearly 2 decades now. Without knowing that I have not been able to locate any siblings or other family. This mystery continues, in  spite of DNA testing by many family members and having that DNA on all the sites.

In my Legacy 9 database I like to enter the families I am researching.  If they end up not being connected, that’s fine.  But this way I have kept track of my progress, made necessary notes of what I’ve located and what conclusions I’ve reached.  You could, I’m sure, easily do the same thing in RootsMagic, Family Tree Maker, Reunion or most of the other software available.  Although I haven’t used them all.

Let’s begin.  I find a family I believe is either connected or could be.  Or, that will assist me in my search.

I enter the person into Legacy as an “unlinked” individual.  Menu>Add>Add unlinked male or female. I don’t want these people attached to my tree, but I want them available in my database.  Adding them as unlinked, means they are searchable in my Index or Name List and I can see all their information at a glance.

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Notice that I have used double [[brackets]] in the suffix area of each name.  What this means is that my notation of “GOULD surname search” will not show up if I decide to print reports. 

BUT, it allows me to easily spot the people I’ve entered as part of this particular surname search project.

Here is a view of how this person appears in the Individual View in Legacy.

And how they appear in the Index View as well. You can see they are clearly designated.

Another thing I can do is create a list of ONLY these people.  I simply use the Search>Find>Primary Condition = Individual, Where To Look = Suffix, How to look = Contains, What to look for = [[Gould surname search]]

Here is the list of 52 individuals in my database with the Gould Surname Search designation

I treat these people as if they are connected to my family, in regards to my entries in Legacy.  They are assigned hash tags, sources, events and images.  I also keep research notes for them.  Just think, if I do ever find out they are connected, I can attach them to the rest of my tree with a mouse click or two.  Wouldn’t that be nice?

Example of some notes I have for Benjamin Gould

Speaking of hash tags.  When I began using these brackets several years ago, Legacy did not have the hashtag feature.  I now use that, as well, to indicate individuals who are in a particular group.  See the example below. It's a bit difficult to see, but you can enlarge it by clicking on it.

I’m sure there are many other ways of keeping track of your unconnected individuals.  But, this works for me.  

What is your method for keeping track?

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST

LEGACY 8 & 9 –THE SEARCH FUNCTION–WHAT CAN YOU FIND?

Mystery Monday Brick Walls Posts - read all about my problem ancestors here

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2021   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

STEVE MORSE’S ONE-STEP WEBSITE ~ If you thought it was only for passenger records–Think again!

When I began doing family research I tried to learn as much as I could.  One of the first things I remember hearing about was Steve Morse’s One Step site for finding passenger records.  The site combined the records from Ellis Island and Castle Garden, making searching easier.

THAT WAS THEN, THIS IS NOW

Oh, how this webite has changed over the years.

IF YOU HAVEN’T VISITED LATELY I HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU TAKE A LOOK

HERE ARE JUST SOME OF THE GREAT RESOURCES YOU WILL FIND

• Passenger lists, not just from Ellis Island and Castle Garden, but Baltimore, Boston, Philadelphia and more
• Ships lists and photos
• Census information including images, ED finders, maps and more
• Some Canadian and UK census records
• New York Census records
• Some vital records
• All kinds of calendar conversions, zip codes, area codes etc.
• Foreign Alphabet translations
• DNA informaton, publications and more

Let me show you one example of how this site can help you.

I need to find a death record for my great granduncle, Vincent F. Thorp.  I have a Cook County, Illinois, Death Index that tells me he died on 4 Dec 1910 in Chicago, Cook, Illinois.  The index gives me enough information for me to believe this is the right person.  The index does include an FHL film number.

I could go to the Cook County, Illinois website and try to locate a certificate number.  NOTE:  I happen to know that the death record images from this year are not online.

I went to Steve Morse’s site and looked under Vital Records (in the list on the left hand side of the home page).  Then went to Illinois Death Records (pre 1916)

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That takes me to the next screen, where I fill in information to try and locate my record.
 
TIP:  I generally begin with a broad net when I search.  Based on the requirement listed for this set of records, all I entered was a first name and the first two letters of the last name.



Will that be enough information?  Let’s find out.

YES!  Look what came up in my search!!



This certainly looks like the right guy to me, based on the death index.
 
Now I can order a death certificate using that certificate number.
So, now you know, if you didn’t already, that the Steve Morse website is about a LOT more than passenger records.

Please let me know if you’ve used this website lately.  If so, what did you find?

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2016   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

ADDING A RECORD TO LEGACY FROM ANCESTRY–Step by step instructions

One of the members of a Facebook group (Technology for Genealogy) I belong to asked a question this morning.  I thought this would be a good topic to share with you.

This group member was switching from Family Tree Maker to Legacy. She asked how we would recommend she save things she found on Ancestry to the Legacy database so that she doesn't lose what she finds.  She has been used to Family Tree Maker and Ancestry syncing all the records. I have written this post in response to her question.  

My primary database is stored in Legacy.  I have a couple of trees on Ancestry.  The “working” tree is private and I use it to share with relatives and to glean any hints that Ancestry might come up with.  The other tree is public, but I don’t have any pictures attached to it.  I still get plenty of contact from new cousins this way.

Back to our topic.  ADDING A RECORD TO LEGACY

Today I have chosen to learn more about Charles Louis KING, the son of my great grandaunt.  At this point I don’t know very much about him or his wife.

Here is a screen shot of what I have at this point.

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Our goal is to try and find every record we can from the time someone is born until their death, by using every method we have learned.

Here is the screen shot showing exactly what facts and events I currently have for Charles L. King.



Now, let’s take a look on Ancestry and see if there is anything new?  Are there any new hints?



NO HINTS!  I don’t let that deter me.  Now I will click on “Search Records” located just under his photo.

As I scroll through the first page of records that come up I see one that could be a match.



The names look like a match (closer than the other names I’ve seen on this list). 

I will click on that record and bring up the page on Ancestry. 



For this exercise, I will add this event to Charles L. King.  I need to find more evidence that this is, in fact, the same Charles L. and Emma M. King. I do know that Charles was widowed and living with his parents in Lexington, Fayette Kentucky in the 1930 census. 

Now I will go to Charles King’s Event/Fact page in Legacy and begin to add this event. (See the events/facts in the screen shot above for Individual’s Information)

1.  Click on the “Add” icon  



2.  In the Add/Edit Event screen use your drop down list to bring up the event/fact you want to record.  If there isn’t an event/fact in the list that meets your needs, then add your own.  If I remember correctly, I had to add the “City Directory Listing” event myself.  I wanted this to be very specific, not just residence or location.

3.  Now fill in the top portion with description, date & place.  Your event screen should now look like this.



4.  Back on the Ancestry page showing the details for this listing I highlight the pertinent data.  I don’t want everything on the page, only the detail.  I roll my mouse over the data from “Name” down to “1921” at the end of the listing.  Your data should now be highlighted as shown below.



5.  Now you can right click with your mouse and choose “copy” or use the shortcut Ctrl C.

6.  Go back to your event/fact screen in Legacy and in the NOTES area for the City Directory Listing, place your cursor and use “paste” or the shortcut Ctrl V.

Your Event will now look like this.



7.  Since there is an image available for this event, I will add that image.  I won’t go into detail here about adding images or sources to Legacy.  They have tutorials on their website and in their CD’s for that.  The image is added just like any other image, by clicking on the little picture frame icon at the top of the event screen.

8.  The next thing I would do is enter the source for this information. 

When you are finished your entry will look like this.



You have entered your event, sourced it and added an image.  This entire process takes less than 5 minutes.  

You perform these same steps for every event, whether it’s a census record, World War I or II registration card or obituary.
 
This creates your timeline for this individual and allows you to review it and see what you might be missing.  In Legacy you can click on “Chronology” and all of these events are listed.

I hope this post was helpful.  Now go add some events.

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST
ADDING SIBLING LINKS TO FINDAGRAVE 
ADDING SIBLING LINKS TO FINDAGRAVE - AN UPDATE 
LEGACY 8 - THE SEARCH FUNCTION - WHAT CAN YOU FIND?

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2014   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION