Legacy News

Legacy Genealogy Cruise - We're Back! and Day One

We're back from our 9th annual Legacy Genealogy Cruise. I finally made it to the Eiffel Tower in Paris, saw the Queen of England, participated in 21 hours of Legacy and genealogy classes, biked down the mountains of Geiranger, Norway; and ate way too much food. While we had the time of our lives, it's also great to be home. I sure missed my four "descendants."

While gone I wrote about each day and tried so hard to publish it here. I tried on the ship, but the 60-cents-per-minute-Internet was soooo sloooowww, and the free Internet at McDonald's in Liverpool worked but my blog software's Publish button wouldn't work. So in the next few days I'll publish the articles and pictures here. And so it's time to get back to work. But I don't feel like I've worked a day in my life - I love my job!

Saturday, May 12

After a much needed nap I’m finally able to write my first report from our cruise. There’s just been no time in between eating, touring, and visiting with our Legacy guests. The funny thing is that I’m not even exaggerating. During my nap I even heard my room’s telephone ring – I’m certain it was Luc wanting to go play shuffleboard again. But we’ve had such a great first 3-4 days so far!

My Day One got off to a great start. We had a few hours to play with before we boarded the ship so I walked around the city of Oslo. Guess what caught my eye? A cemetery of course. This wasn’t any ordinary cemetery. Situated just behind the city hospital, was the cemetery with all kinds of sizes and shapes of tombstones – calling my name. We found what we thought was the entrance but the gate was locked. After taking a few distant pictures we crossed the road and browsed an old Norwegian bookstore. I found a book of the history of Ole Rasmussen. When we came out, we looked again at the cemetery’s locked gate and noticed just to its left, but around the thick column, was an opening – not even a gate – it was wide open. I think there’s a good metaphor there. Nonetheless, we explored one of the most beautiful cemeteries I’ve seen, both from the ground and its second level.

Later we boarded the Vision of the Seas, ate some lunch, and got set up to meet our Legacy guests and distribute name tags and schedules. Many of them looked very tired – most had been awake for at least 30 hours traveling but were happy to be there.

Luc and I played a little shuffleboard, but it was already time for our first sit-down dinner. Our group had 20 tables reserved for the 170 or so of us. Our travel coordinator, Christy, arranged with the head waiter to let us sit round-robin style throughout the cruise (usually you are assigned a table number and must remain there) so we are able to meet and get to know everyone in our group. After dinner, my wife and I skipped dessert and went to the evening show where we were entertained with music, dancing, and even some acrobatic ballet. At the end of the day, I put the finishing touches on my classes I would give the next day.

Bon Voyage - Legacy Genealogy Cruise begins

Tomorrow we leave to begin our 9th annual Legacy Genealogy Cruise, this year to the British Isles. About 200 of us will cruise together, departing from Oslo, Norway and visiting Le Havre (Paris), France; Cherbourg, France; Dublin, Ireland; Liverpool, England; Edinburgh, Scotland; Arhus, Denmark; Bergen, Norway; and Geiranger, Norway. We will sail on Royal Caribbean's Vision Of The Seas. We've also got 22 hours of personal Legacy and genealogy instruction from six different instructors, including Irish expert Judy Wight and blogger, Randy Seaver. I'm looking forward to the one-on-one and small group sessions we have planned also.

Just because I will be gone for 17 days enjoying the sun (well, actually the snow and rain...), the food (I promise to spend time in the gym), and time alone with my wife (oh how I will miss my four kiddos at home) doesn't mean I will forget about all of you. I hope to keep you updated - here on this blog (and probably over on our Facebook page too) - nearly every day, with pictures and play-by-play accounts of everything we're up to.

And by the way, even though we won't have our weekly webinars and their traditional coupon codes while we're gone, watch these articles for special coupon codes. In fact, I just had an idea. Why don't we issue a Bon Voyage 10% off-anything-in-the-store coupon code? Here's the code:

bonvoyage

It's good for 10% off anything in the online store through the first day of our cruise, Saturday, May 12, 2012.

Our sincere thanks go out to our entire technical support and sales staff who will continue to provide sales and support services while we are away. Thanks Jim, Sherry, Brian, Ron, and Sarah for keeping us afloat!

We'll either see you here, on Facebook, or on the ship!

Think Like an Indexer

It's no wonder some of our ancestors are so difficult to find. If I would have known that Asa Brown's name in the 1850 census would be indexed as Asa Prowse (Ancestry's index) or Asa Preuss (FamilySearch's index) he would have been easy to find. To have greatest success in finding our indexed ancestors, we must think like indexers.

Here are a couple of tips that have been helpful in my research.

Tip 1 - Years ago, before anything was online, I found this family living in Neshannock, Lawrence County, Pennsylvania. Because of how they were indexed, it was difficult finding this record in any online database. I eventually located them by searching for just the given name of one of their children. I searched for William because I figured most indexers can decipher that name. I combined the given name with his age of 9 and added Lawrence County to the search parameters. Try different combinations.

Tip 2 - Correct the index if you can. If you're using the Ancestry index, when you are looking at the actual image, click on the View All link in the upper left. This should split the screen, showing you the indexed entries. Then, hover your mouse in the far lower right (just above the View Updates button) and click on the Add Update button. Here you can add alternate names, which will then be included in the index so future researchers can more easily locate the same person.

Tip 3 - Do some indexing. Through my indexing efforts I've become a better researcher. It helps me think like an indexer. Now when I see a "J" I know that it can easily be interpreted as an "I". An "L" and an "S" are nearly identical as well. In fact, in Kip Sperry's Reading Early American Handwriting, he explains potential problems and solutions with every letter of the alphabet. Here's his example for the letter F:

Two small ff(s) were used to form a modern capital F. A small f or backward lower case f may look like an s. A capital F may be confused with a capital H.

If you are not yet familiar with the long s you can easily mistake it for an f as is the case with the name of this township in the 1840 census:

Many compiled records have published this name as "Scrubgrafs" when it should be Scrubgrass. My semester-long paleography class as part of my genealogy degree was well worth it. At the beginning of the class I could not read anything our professor presented, but by the end, with the tips and techniques I learned from Kip Sperry, I could easily read the same documents. I strongly recommend that you read his book.

Tip 4 - Be creative! Try to think like the indexer and the enumerator. I don't think the enumerator double-checked that his spelling was correct for every name in the household. Try to think of all the surname variants and spellings. When you've exhausted your own creativity, use the three online tools I wrote about in Three Free Resources to Find Surname Variations.

Tip 5 - Use Legacy's Soundex tool. In Legacy, go to Tools > Soundex Calculator. Fill in the surname and click on the Search Name List button. This will give you a list of all surnames that share the same soundex code, so you might locate other variations of the same name.

Have you located someone in an online index where the name was terribly transcribed? What techniques did you use to locate your ancestor?

Researching Your New York Ancestors - free webinar Wednesday, May 30 by Thomas MacEntee

While many of our ancestors may have come from New York, finding them and the records left behind is another story. New York research offers certain challenges and it helps to know the strategies needed to tackle those Empire State records. In this webinar, you’ll not only get a quick lesson in New York State history and understand why the different regions are important, you’ll also learn about special record sets and resources unique to New York. Whether your ancestor was a Knickerbocker or an immigrant, you’ll be in a “New York State of mind“ with these research tips, tricks and tools.

The live webinar is scheduled for Wednesday, May 30, 2012 at 2PM Eastern U.S., so register today to reserve your virtual seat. Registration is free but space is limited to the first 1,000 people to join that day. Join at least 15-20 minutes early (maybe 30-40 minutes early due to the popularity of this webinar) to ensure your virtual seat. When you join, if you receive a message that the webinar is full, you know we've reached the 1,000 limit, so we invite you to view the recording which should be published to the webinar archives within an hour or two of the event's conclusion.

About the presenter

Thomas MacEntee is a professional genealogist specializing in the use of technology and social media to improve genealogical research and as a means of interacting with others in the family history community. Utilizing over 25 years of experience in the information technology field, Thomas writes and lectures on the many ways in which blogs, Facebook and Twitter can be leveraged to add new dimensions to the genealogy experience. As the creator of GeneaBloggers.com he has organized and engaged a community of over 2,000 bloggers to document their own journeys in the search for ancestors. Through his business High-Definition Genealogy, Thomas is available for speaking engagements, workshops and other events. In addition, he can appear via WebEx for virtual presentations and distance education events. High-Definition Genealogy also performs market research within the genealogy industry and has proven track-record of mapping out the genealogy industry landscape for clients seeking to transact business and interact in the field. 

He is the author of:

• Google for Genealogists webinar-on-CD
• Backing Up Your Genealogy Data webinar-on-CD
• Building a Research Toolbox webinar-on-CD
• Dropbox for Genealogists webinar-on-CD
• Google Docs for Genealogists webinar-on-CD
• Google Forms for Genealogists webinar-on-CD
• Facebook for Genealogists webinar-on-CD
• Finding Ancestors Amid the Rubble of Disaster and Misfortune webinar-on-CD
• Navigating the 1940 U.S. Census webinar-on-CD

 Upcoming webinars by Thomas:

• Staying Safe with Social Media, Friday, June 22, 2012. Click here to register.
• The Genealogy Cloud: Which Online Storage Program Is Right For You, Friday, July 27, 2012. Click here to register.
• Wikis for Genealogists, Wednesday, August 8, 2012. Click here to register.
• Privacy and Our Ancestors, Wednesday, October 3, 2012. Click here to register.

Add it to your Google Calendar

With our Google Calendar button, you will never forget our upcoming webinars. Simply click the button to add it to your calendar. You can then optionally embed the webinar events (and even turn them on and off) into your own personal calendar. If you have already added the calendar, you do not have to do it again - the new webinar events will automatically appear.

Webinar time

The webinar will be live on Wednesday, May 30, 2012 at:

• 2pm Eastern (U.S.)
• 1pm Central
• 12pm Mountain
• 11am Pacific

Or use this Time Zone Converter.

Here's how to attend:

1. Register at www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/webinars.asp today. It's free!
2. You will receive a confirmation email containing a link to the webinar.
3. You will receive a reminder email during the week prior to the webinar.
4. Calculate your time zone by clicking here.
5. Make sure you have the latest version of Java installed on your computer. Check at www.java.com.
6. Click on the webinar link (found in confirmation and reminder emails) prior to the start of the webinar. Arrive early as the room size is limited to the first 1,000 arrivals that day.
7. Listen via headset (USB headsets work best), your computer speakers, or by phone.

We look forward to seeing you all there!

6 new webinars - Genealogy Idol, The Genealogy Cloud, Circumstantial Evidence, Heritage Collector, Canada and Flip-Pal

Our 2012 webinar schedule just got even better. We have opened registration for six additional webinars bringing our number of webinars in 2012 to 44. That's over 65 hours of the highest quality of genealogy education available to you - from your computer - and all at no cost to you. 

Genealogy Education Where You Are!

Here's the lineup for the rest of the year. The brand new classes are in red. Our webinar brochure has also been updated so we encourage you to print it, email it, and share it with your friends, family, genealogy society and local Family History Center.

• Researching Your New York Ancestors with Thomas MacEntee, May 30.
• Researching Your German Ancestors with Kory Meyerink, June 6.
• Genealogy Idol Competition, June 9.
• Putting Flesh on the Bones with Ron Arons, June 13.
• Marriages and Anniversaries. Mining newspapers for engagements, marriages, anniversaries, and divorce records with Tom Kemp, June 20.
• Staying Safe with Social Media with Thomas MacEntee, June 22.
• Digital Images for Genealogists and Technologists: scanning, digitizing, editing, and preserving your photos with Geoff Rasmussen. June 27.
• The Quest for your English Ancestors with Claire V. Brisson-Banks. July 11.
• Plan Your Way to Research Success with Marian Pierre-Louis, July 18.
• Tips for Taking the Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner to Your Family Gatherings by Gordon Nuttall, July 25.
• The Genealogy Cloud: Which Online Storage Program Is Right For You? with Thomas MacEntee, July 27.
• Neglected History by Megan Smolenyak, August 1.
• Wikis for Genealogists with Thomas MacEntee. August 8.
• The 5 C's for Success in Genealogy Today with Barbara Renick. August 22.
• Building a Family from Circumstantial Evidence, with Judy G. Russell, CG. August 29.
• Beyond the Arrival Date: Extracting More from Passenger Lists with Lisa Alzo. September 5.
• What is a 'Reasonably Exhaustive Search'? with Michael Hait. September 12.
• Getting Started with Heritage Collector Software with Kathleen Bitter. September 14/21/28
• Use Your Digital Camera to Copy Records with Mary Hill. September 19.
• Digital Research Guidance, Research Logs, and To Do Lists: FamilySearch, Research Wiki, and Legacy Family Tree with Geoff Rasmussen. September 26.
• Privacy and our Ancestors with Thomas MacEntee. October 3.
• Ten Brick Wall Tips for Intermediate Researchers with Marian Pierre-Louis, October 17.
• Your Civil War Ancestors: Beginning Your Research with Michael Hait. October 24.
• Breaking Down Your Irish Brick Wall with Judy Wight. October 31.
• Researching Your Canadian Ancestors - an Overview with Claire Brisson-Banks. November 7.
• Genealogy for Novices: Where Do We Begin with Linda Geiger. November 14.
• The Big 4 U.S. Record Sources with Mary Hill. November 28.
• Researching Your Irish Ancestors: Beyond the Basics with Judy Wight. December 5.

Click here to register.

See you online!

2nd-Ever Genealogy Idol Competition webinar - sign up to watch and vote

The second-ever Genealogy Idol competition will be held Saturday, June 9, 2012. The three participants have now been chosen and the winner will be decided by YOU! All you have to do is register for the live event (free), watch the 1-hour competition from your computer, and vote.

In the three rounds of competition, the three contestants will demonstrate their gen-tech expertise and try to woo you with their favorite gen-tech secrets. Everyone will learn - but only one will leave with the title of "Jamboree Genealogy Idol 2012." Legacy Family Tree's Geoff Rasmussen will host the event which will be broadcast live via the Southern California Genealogy Jamboree in Burbank, California.

The Topics

Applicants will present three 5-minute presentations in these categories:

• Round 1: Favorite Technology Tip
• Round 2: Genealogy Serendipity story
• Round 3: Technology website or blog

While their specific topics will be a surprise, everyone should learn a new thing or two about genealogy technology.

The Contestants

Each contestant will be broadcasting from their homes across the country. Here they are:

The Competition

The one-hour competition will feature three rounds of topics. Each contestant will have five minutes to impress you with their demonstrations. Regardless of whether you will be in a seat at Jamboree or in a virtual seat from your home, you will see and hear it all - live! At the very end, YOU, the online audience will decide the winner by voting using the webinar's poll technology. Everyone will go home a winner, but the one with the most votes will go home with both the title of "Jamboree Genealogy Idol" and a free Flip-Pal Mobile scanner from Legacy Family Tree.

Register

If you want to watch the demonstrations and vote for the winner, you need to register. Registration is free but space is limited to the first 1,000 people to join that day. And if you are attending Jamboree in Burbank, register for this special breakfast event and join us in Convention Center Academy 6. Breakfast starts at 7:30am and the webinar begins at 8:00am (9am Mountain, 10am Central, 11am Eastern).

Watch the recording of the first-ever Genealogy Idol competition

The first-ever Genealogy Idol competition was held earlier this year at RootsTech in Salt Lake City. Elyse Doerflinger, Elizabeth Clark, Michael Hait, and Marian Pierre-Louis gave twelve 3-minute presentations. Watch the entire show here.

See you there!

Researching Your Pennsylvania Ancestors - free webinar now online by Lisa Alzo

If you have Pennsylvania ancestors you need to watch the recording of today's webinar, "Researching Your Pennsylvania Ancestors," by Lisa Alzo. One viewer commented, "I have been stumbling along like a toddler and now I think I can walk!" Pennsylvania can be a difficult state to research, but with Lisa's suggestions you might just break down that brick wall. During the webinar, a viewer wrote in saying that "thanks to one of Lisa's suggestions, I just found the marriage record of my g-g-g-grandmother!" Congrats on your find and thanks again to Lisa for a terrific webinar!

View the recording

If you could not make it to the live event or just want to watch it again, the 1 hour 30 minute recording of Researching Your Pennsylvania Ancestors is now available to view in our webinar archives. Visit www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/webinars.asp to watch. It is available for free until May 14, 2012.

Pre-order the webinar-on-CD

Own your own copy of Researching Your Pennsylvania Ancestors by purchasing the webinar-on-CD for just $9.95. It includes the 1 hour 30 minute recording of the class, the complete Q/A session, and 4 pages of handouts. Click here for more information or to purchase.

All four of Lisa Alzo's webinar CDs are available here.

Special discount coupon

The special discount coupon of penn that was announced during the webinar is valid for 10% off anything in our online store through Monday, May 7, 2012.

Register for our upcoming webinars (free)

• Researching Your Pennsylvania Ancestors with Lisa Alzo, May 2.
• Researching Your New York Ancestors with Thomas MacEntee, May 30.
• Researching Your German Ancestors with Kory Meyerink, June 6.
• Genealogy Idol Competition, June 9.
• Putting Flesh on the Bones with Ron Arons, June 13.
• Marriages and Anniversaries. Mining newspapers for engagements, marriages, anniversaries, and divorce records with Tom Kemp, June 20.
• Staying Safe with Social Media with Thomas MacEntee, June 22.
• Digital Images for Genealogists and Technologists: scanning, digitizing, editing, and preserving your photos with Geoff Rasmussen. June 27.
• The Quest for your English Ancestors with Claire V. Brisson-Banks. July 11.
• Plan Your Way to Research Success with Marian Pierre-Louis, July 18.
• The Genealogy Cloud: Which Online Storage Program Is Right For You? with Thomas MacEntee, July 27.
• Neglected History by Megan Smolenyak, August 1.
• Wikis for Genealogists with Thomas MacEntee. August 8.
• The 5 C's for Success in Genealogy Today with Barbara Renick. August 22.
• Building a Family from Circumstantial Evidence, with Judy G. Russell, CG. August 29.
• Beyond the Arrival Date: Extracting More from Passenger Lists with Lisa Alzo. September 5.
• What is a 'Reasonably Exhaustive Search'? with Michael Hait. September 12.
• Getting Started with Heritage Collector Software with Kathleen Bitter
• Use Your Digital Camera to Copy Records with Mary Hill. September 19.
• Digital Research Guidance, Research Logs, and To Do Lists: FamilySearch, Research Wiki, and Legacy Family Tree with Geoff Rasmussen. September 26.
• Privacy and our Ancestors with Thomas MacEntee. October 3.
• Researching Your Irish Ancestors: Beyond the Basics with Judy Wight. October 10.
• Ten Brick Wall Tips for Intermediate Researchers with Marian Pierre-Louis, October 17.
• Your Civil War Ancestors: Beginning Your Research with Michael Hait. October 24.
• Breaking Down Your Irish Brick Wall with Judy Wight. October 31.
• Researching Your Canadian Ancestors - an Overview with Claire Brisson-Banks. November 7.
• Genealogy for Novices: Where Do We Begin with Linda Geiger. November 14.
• The Big 4 U.S. Record Sources with Mary Hill. November 28.

Click here to register.

See you online!

Researching Your Pennsylvania Ancestors - free webinar Wednesday, May 2 by Lisa Alzo

Got Pennsylvania ancestors? Sign up for our free webinar, presented by Lisa Alzo. She will help you:

• discover what records are available
• where they are located
• and how to utilize them to trace your roots in the Keystone state.

The live webinar is scheduled for Wednesday, May 2, 2012 at 2PM Eastern U.S., so register today to reserve your virtual seat. Registration is free but space is limited to the first 1,000 people to join that day. Join at least 15-20 minutes early (maybe 30-40 minutes early due to the popularity of this webinar) to ensure your virtual seat. When you join, if you receive a message that the webinar is full, you know we've reached the 1,000 limit, so we invite you to view the recording which should be published to the webinar archives within an hour or two of the event's conclusion.

About the presenter

Lisa A. Alzo, M.F.A. is a freelance writer, instructor, and internationally recognized lecturer, specializing in Slovak/Eastern European genealogical research, writing your family history, and using the Internet to trace female and immigrant ancestors. She is the author of nine books, including the award-winning Three Slovak Women, and hundreds of magazine articles, and writes the blog, The Accidental Genealogist.

She is the author of:

• Ready, Set, Write! Share Your Family's Story webinar-on-CD
• Tracing Immigrant Ancestors webinar-on-CD
• Digital Writing Tools for Genealogists webinar-on-CD

 Upcoming webinars by Lisa:

• Beyond the Arrival Date: Extracting More from Passenger Lists, Wednesday, September 5, 2012. Click here to register.

Add it to your Google Calendar

With our Google Calendar button, you will never forget our upcoming webinars. Simply click the button to add it to your calendar. You can then optionally embed the webinar events (and even turn them on and off) into your own personal calendar. If you have already added the calendar, you do not have to do it again - the new webinar events will automatically appear.

Webinar time

The webinar will be live on Wednesday, May 2, 2012 at:

• 2pm Eastern (U.S.)
• 1pm Central
• 12pm Mountain
• 11am Pacific/Arizona

Or use this Time Zone Converter.

Here's how to attend:

1. Register at www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/webinars.asp today. It's free!
2. You will receive a confirmation email containing a link to the webinar.
3. You will receive a reminder email during the week prior to the webinar.
4. Calculate your time zone by clicking here.
5. Make sure you have the latest version of Java installed on your computer. Check at www.java.com.
6. Click on the webinar link (found in confirmation and reminder emails) prior to the start of the webinar. Arrive early as the room size is limited to the first 1,000 arrivals that day.
7. Listen via headset (USB headsets work best), your computer speakers, or by phone.

We look forward to seeing you all there!

Reverse Genealogy: Finding the Living - free webinar now online by Megan Smolenyak

The best way to spend an hour and a half - listen to Megan Smolenyak! In her first webinar ever, genealogy's icon spoke to a capacity webinar audience - all 1,000 webinar seats were taken. Using fascinating case studies she taught the eight proven strategies to finding our living relatives. One viewer commented, "she is so professional, witty, and charming and really knows her stuff! I would have listened for hours." I was thinking the same thing. Thanks Megan!

View the recording

If you could not make it to the live event or just want to watch it again, the 1 hour 45 minute recording of Reverse Genealogy: Finding the Living is now available to view in our webinar archives. Visit www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/webinars.asp to watch. It is available for free until May 7, 2012.

Pre-order the webinar-on-CD or the Megan Smolenyak Bundle

Own your own copy of Reverse Genealogy: Finding the Living by purchasing the webinar-on-CD for just $9.95. It includes the 1 hour 45 minute recording of the class, the complete Q/A session, and 4 pages of handouts. Click here for more information or to purchase.

Or...purchase the Megan Smolenyak Bundle which includes:

• Who Do You Think You Are: The Essential Guide to Tracing Your Family History (224 pages)
• Hey, America, Your Roots Are Showing (288 pages)
• Reverse Genealogy: Finding the Living webinar-on-CD

Click here to purchase the bundle for just $32.95 (savings of $10.95).

Special discount coupon

The special discount coupon of megan that was announced during the webinar is valid for 10% off anything in our online store through Monday, April 30, 2012.

Follow Megan:

• http://megansmolenyak.com
• https://twitter.com/#!/megansmolenyak
• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/megan-smolenyak-smolenyak
• http://www.youtube.com/user/MeganSmolenyak
• https://plus.google.com/118360375753126381346
• http://www.facebook.com/megansmolenyak

Register for our upcoming webinars (free)

• Researching Your Pennsylvania Ancestors with Lisa Alzo, May 2.
• Researching Your New York Ancestors with Thomas MacEntee, May 30.
• Researching Your German Ancestors with Kory Meyerink, June 6.
• Putting Flesh on the Bones with Ron Arons, June 13.
• Marriages and Anniversaries. Mining newspapers for engagements, marriages, anniversaries, and divorce records with Tom Kemp, June 20.
• Staying Safe with Social Media with Thomas MacEntee, June 22.
• Digital Images for Genealogists and Technologists: scanning, digitizing, editing, and preserving your photos with Geoff Rasmussen. June 27.
• The Quest for your English Ancestors with Claire V. Brisson-Banks. July 11.
• Plan Your Way to Research Success with Marian Pierre-Louis, July 18.
• Neglected History by Megan Smolenyak, August 1.
• Wikis for Genealogists with Thomas MacEntee. August 8.
• The 5 C's for Success in Genealogy Today with Barbara Renick. August 22.
• Beyond the Arrival Date: Extracting More from Passenger Lists with Lisa Alzo. September 5.
• What is a 'Reasonably Exhaustive Search'? with Michael Hait. September 12.
• Use Your Digital Camera to Copy Records with Mary Hill. September 19.
• Digital Research Guidance, Research Logs, and To Do Lists: FamilySearch, Research Wiki, and Legacy Family Tree with Geoff Rasmussen. September 26.
• Privacy and our Ancestors with Thomas MacEntee. October 3.
• Researching Your Irish Ancestors: Beyond the Basics with Judy Wight. October 10.
• Ten Brick Wall Tips for Intermediate Researchers with Marian Pierre-Louis, October 17.
• Your Civil War Ancestors: Beginning Your Research with Michael Hait. October 24.
• Breaking Down Your Irish Brick Wall with Judy Wight. October 31.
• Genealogy for Novices: Where Do We Begin with Linda Geiger. November 14.
• The Big 4 U.S. Record Sources with Mary Hill. November 28.

Click here to register.

See you online!

Reverse Genealogy: Finding the Living - free webinar Wednesday, April 25 by Megan Smolenyak

Although genealogy is at its heart the study of long-deceased ancestors, connecting with living relatives has become almost as important to many family historians. Some seek living kin in an effort to track down family photos; others do it to find family history playmates, plan reunions or identify DNA project participants. Whatever the motivation, one of the most addicting aspects of genealogy is the thrill of finding distant cousins, or in some cases, parents, children or siblings. But this "reverse genealogy" (working from the past to the present) has its own special challenges and requires the researcher to be part genealogist and part private investigator. This presentation covers proven techniques for tracing 20th and 21st century friends and relatives from the past to the present.

The live webinar is scheduled for Wednesday, April 25, 2012 at 2PM Eastern U.S., so register today to reserve your virtual seat. Registration is free but space is limited to the first 1,000 people to join that day. Join at least 15-20 minutes early (maybe 30-40 minutes early due to the popularity of this webinar) to ensure your virtual seat. When you join, if you receive a message that the webinar is full, you know we've reached the 1,000 limit, so we invite you to view the recording which should be published to the webinar archives within an hour or two of the event's conclusion.

About the presenter

Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak (yes, that's her real name) is a genealogical adventurer who loves solving mysteries, making unexpected discoveries and pushing the boundaries of conventional genealogy.

A popular writer, speaker and TV guest, Megan has appeared on Good Morning America, the Today Show, the Early Show, CNN, NPR and BBC. In addition to consulting on shows ranging from Who Do You Think You Are? to Top Chef, she is the author of six books, a Huffington Post contributor, a cold case researcher for the Army, NCIS and the FBI, and former Chief Family Historian and spokesperson for Ancestry.com.

Upcoming webinars by Megan

• Neglected History, Wednesday, August 1, 2012. Click here to register.

Megan's books

• Hey, America, Your Roots Are Showing
• Who Do You Think You Are?: The Essential Guide to Tracing Your Family History

Add it to your Google Calendar

With our Google Calendar button, you will never forget our upcoming webinars. Simply click the button to add it to your calendar. You can then optionally embed the webinar events (and even turn them on and off) into your own personal calendar. If you have already added the calendar, you do not have to do it again - the new webinar events will automatically appear.

Webinar time

The webinar will be live on Wednesday, April 25, 2012 at:

• 2pm Eastern (U.S.)
• 1pm Central
• 12pm Mountain
• 11am Pacific/Arizona

Or use this Time Zone Converter.

Here's how to attend:

1. Register at www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/webinars.asp today. It's free!
2. You will receive a confirmation email containing a link to the webinar.
3. You will receive a reminder email during the week prior to the webinar.
4. Calculate your time zone by clicking here.
5. Make sure you have the latest version of Java installed on your computer. Check at www.java.com.
6. Click on the webinar link (found in confirmation and reminder emails) prior to the start of the webinar. Arrive early as the room size is limited to the first 1,000 arrivals that day.
7. Listen via headset (USB headsets work best), your computer speakers, or by phone.

We look forward to seeing you all there!

Legacy Family Tree update available (version 7.5.0.185) - Census List Tool enhancements

We have another great new Legacy Family Tree update (free) for you to download. After the recent release of our new Census List Tool, we have had a flood of ideas from you to make the new feature even better. Today's free update adds several of your suggestions.

See the download instructions below for step-by-step instructions on installing this update.

What's New

In our last update we released the genealogy industry's first-ever Census List Tool, which will tell you who was alive on any date in any location. Watch the webinar here. Many of you have figured out that it does much more than just helping you find who was alive during a census. You can use it to help you find who was alive on any date in history.

Today's update adds some fantastic options for excluding individuals from the report or search list.

Exclude individuals from the Report who appear to have already been found in this census - With this option turned on, Legacy looks in several places to see if the current census has already been referenced for a particular person:

• Event names and descriptions
• individual and event source citations
• and individual notes.

If the current census is mentioned in any of these places, you can have the person excluded from the census report. No need to fill up valuable report space with the names of those you have already found. But if you still want to include their names, you can turn on the option to italicize their names. Now it's easy to know who you have found and who you still need to find.

Exclude individuals from the Report with location percentages less than  X % - On the report, Legacy suggests where each person would be living in the census year dependent upon the location's date and how close it was to the census date. Locations with low percentages can be excluded from the census report by selecting a percentage value as the minimum acceptable.

The report also now considers the birth places of the children to help determine where the person may have been living on a certain date.

What's Been Fixed

View the April 16, April 6 and March 29, 2012 release notes here. 

How to Update

For our Deluxe Edition users, all you have to do is connect to the Internet, start Legacy 7, and click on the "Install and Download Now" link on the Legacy Home tab. (If you're reading this from within the Legacy Home tab inside of Legacy 7, you'll first need to click on the Home button in the top left of the Legacy Home tab which looks like the following picture:

If you are a Standard Edition Legacy user, you will need to visit our website. Go to http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/DownloadUpdate.asp and follow the instructions.

Researching Your Scottish Ancestors - free webinar now online by Marie Dougan

If you have Scottish ancestry (or even if you don't) you need to watch the recording of today's webinar, "Researching Your Scottish Ancestors" by Marie Dougan. She shared an enormous amount of knowledge on researching our Scottish ancestors, and did it with her beautiful Scottish accent (she was broadcasting live from Linlithgow, Scotland)! I had no idea Scotland's records are so voluminous and organized. Can't wait to pursue my Alexander Hill line now.

View the recording

If you could not make it to the live event or just want to watch it again, the 1 hour 27 minute recording of Researching Your Scottish Ancestors is now available to view in our webinar archives. Visit www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/webinars.asp to watch. It is available for free until April 30, 2012.

Pre-order the webinar-on-CD

Own your own copy of Researching Your Scottish Ancestors by purchasing the webinar-on-CD for just $9.95. It includes the 1 hour 27 minute recording of the class, the complete Q/A session, and 3 pages of handouts. Click here for more information or to purchase.

Special discount coupon

The special discount coupon of scotland that was announced during the webinar is valid for 10% off anything in our online store through Monday, April 23, 2012.

Register for our upcoming webinars (free)

• Reverse Genealogy: Finding the Living with Megan Smolenyak, April 25.
• Researching Your Pennsylvania Ancestors with Lisa Alzo, May 2.
• Researching Your New York Ancestors with Thomas MacEntee, May 30.
• Researching Your German Ancestors with Kory Meyerink, June 6.
• Putting Flesh on the Bones with Ron Arons, June 13.
• Marriages and Anniversaries. Mining newspapers for engagements, marriages, anniversaries, and divorce records with Tom Kemp, June 20.
• Staying Safe with Social Media with Thomas MacEntee, June 22.
• Digital Images for Genealogists and Technologists: scanning, digitizing, editing, and preserving your photos with Geoff Rasmussen. June 27.
• The Quest for your English Ancestors with Claire V. Brisson-Banks. July 11.
• Plan Your Way to Research Success with Marian Pierre-Louis, July 18.
• Neglected History by Megan Smolenyak, August 1.
• Wikis for Genealogists with Thomas MacEntee. August 8.
• The 5 C's for Success in Genealogy Today with Barbara Renick. August 22.
• Beyond the Arrival Date: Extracting More from Passenger Lists with Lisa Alzo. September 5.
• What is a 'Reasonably Exhaustive Search'? with Michael Hait. September 12.
• Use Your Digital Camera to Copy Records with Mary Hill. September 19.
• Digital Research Guidance, Research Logs, and To Do Lists: FamilySearch, Research Wiki, and Legacy Family Tree with Geoff Rasmussen. September 26.
• Privacy and our Ancestors with Thomas MacEntee. October 3.
• Researching Your Irish Ancestors: Beyond the Basics with Judy Wight. October 10.
• Ten Brick Wall Tips for Intermediate Researchers with Marian Pierre-Louis, October 17.
• Your Civil War Ancestors: Beginning Your Research with Michael Hait. October 24.
• Breaking Down Your Irish Brick Wall with Judy Wight. October 31.
• Genealogy for Novices: Where Do We Begin with Linda Geiger. November 14.
• The Big 4 U.S. Record Sources with Mary Hill. November 28.

Click here to register.

See you online!

Legacy Family Tree Now Available in Afrikaans Language

Surprise, Arizona, April 16, 2012 -- Millennia Corporation, a leader in family history software, today announced that its software, Legacy Family Tree, is now available in the Afrikaans language.

The software, used by beginners and professionals to record, plan, and share their family trees, is now the premier choice for Afrikaans researchers. Legacy is also available in Czech, Danish, German, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, and English languages.

"Making genealogy software available to researchers in their native language is a big step in helping the world trace their family trees," said Dave Berdan, president of Millennia Corporation. "This is a big day for Afrikaans researchers."

Key Features

• entire user interface and help system - all in Afrikaans
• over 100 reports and charts - all in Afrikaans
• creates web pages and To Do Lists
• same excellent features as the regular edition including over 100 reports, calendars, expert tips/advice, statistics, web site searches, and much more...

Price and Availability

Legacy Family Tree 7 is now available for US $29.95:

Afrikaans - http://www.legacyafrikaans.com/

Other languages

Legacy is also currently available in the following languages:

• Czech
• Dansk (Danish)
• Deutsch (German)
• English (Australia)
• English (Canada)
• English (United Kingdom)
• English (USA)
• Nederlands (Dutch)
• Norsk - Bokmål (Norwegian)
• Norsk - Nynorsk (Norwegian)
• Svenska (Swedish)

Translation is in progress for the following languages: Chinese, Eesti (Estonian), Español (Spanish), Français (French), Italiano (Italian), Português (Brasil), Português (Portugal), and Suomi (Finnish).

More information about the translations is available at http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/InternationalLegacyVersions.asp

About Millennia Corporation
Founded in 1984, Millennia Corporation publishes the award-winning Legacy Family Tree genealogy software program, with headquarters in Surprise, Arizona. More information can be found at www.LegacyFamilyTree.com.

Locating, resizing, and sending a digital image in about a minute

Without a simple-to-use digital genealogy filing system and a knowledge of how to properly resize an image, responding to this email request I received this morning would have taken a lot longer than it did.

Geoff:  I am looking for a copy of the Marriage license of Edwin and Annie Beevers in 1877.  Any chance you might be able to send me a digital copy?  Thanks much.

Here's what I did....

First, I opened Legacy and located the couple - Edwin Hague and Annie Beevers (my wife's great-great-grandparents).

I noticed that their Marriage Source button was blue, so I knew I had entered a source for their marriage. My hope was that I had also linked a copy of the digital image to the source detail (I didn't want to have to retrieve the actual paper document and scan it). So I clicked on the Source button, then clicked on the Pictures tab. A small preview of their marriage certificate appeared. Great!

I made a mental note of the marriage location (Wentworth, Yorkshire, England) and opened my Windows Explorer (shortcut: Windows button + E) in preparation for emailing the image to my new correspondant. Although I have tens of thousands of digitized images on my computer, locating the digtial image of this marriage certificate was easy because of how I have set up my digital genealogy filing system. I navigated to C:\Genealogy Photos Pictures\England\Yorkshire\Wentworth where I found ten digitized documents. The marriage certificate was one of them.

I noticed, however, that the marriage certificate's file size was way too big to send in an email - 25MB and in the .tif format. For some original documents that are either irreplaceable or very expensive to replace, after digitizing, I save them as a .tif instead of the usual .jpg. Saving an image as a .tif takes up more space on my hard drive, but they do not use the same "lossy compression" that a .jpg might and gives me a better-quality digital image.

So to email this certificate, I first had to resize it. I right-clicked on it, then clicked on 'Open With Adobe Photoshop Elements', my preferred picture editing software.

Next, I resized the image by going to Image > Resize > Image Size and modified the pixel dimensions from 3504 x 2436 to 1000 x 695 (I simply changed the width to 1000 and the height adjusted proportionally).

Finally, since I did not want to make these changes to the original digital file, I made a copy of it by going to File > Save for Web, clicked OK after reviewing the image's adjusted quality, and gave it a new name.

The resulting file was 790kb, less than 1MB. My email software (gmail) would have no problem with this file size, and with the dimensions of 1000 x 695, the recipient wouldn't have a problem viewing the smaller image either.

The entire process took about a minute to do. Because I had linked the image to the couple in Legacy, I could quickly locate where I had stored it in my digital genealogy filing system. You can learn more about organizing and sharing digital photos in my recent webinar here. In a couple of months I will be presenting a webinar on digitizing your images, including editing, preserving, resolution and more. Register for it here.

I received the email request this morning at 7:34, didn't look at it until 8:20, and had replied by 8:23. Typing the response to him took longer than anything else. While most of my emails don't have such a good response time, I hope he was impressed.

Update: at 9:08am I received the following reply:

Wow! Thanks for the quick response....

Amazing. This process would have taken weeks, or even months in the B.C. days (Before Computers).

Researching Your Scottish Ancestors - free webinar Wednesday, April 18 by Marie Dougan

Got Scottish ancestors? Join our free webinar on Wednesday, April 18, presented by Marie Dougan, to learn how to find them.

Scotland has a wealth of records available to assist you in researching your Scottish ancestry. Scottish statutory records of births, marriages and deaths began in 1855 and are available online together with census returns from 1841-1911. Other online records include Old Parish Records of baptisms, marriages and burials, records from Catholic archives and Scottish wills and testaments. Join our webinar to find out about these records and strategies to help you use these and other useful sources effectively in your research.

The live webinar is scheduled for Wednesday, April 18, 2012 at 2PM Eastern U.S., so register today to reserve your virtual seat. Registration is free but space is limited to the first 1,000 people to join that day. Join at least 15-20 minutes early to ensure your virtual seat.

About the presenter

Marie Dougan is a professional genealogist based in Scotland who holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Genealogical Studies from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. She has been involved in researching genealogy for over 12 years. Marie has an extensive background in education and provides a variety of training courses in genealogy, as well as speaking at a number of events. She has a particular interest in the applications of technologies to assist in genealogical research. Marie is the owner of Ancestral Consultants which provides a range of professional genealogy services.

Add it to your Google Calendar

With our Google Calendar button, you will never forget our upcoming webinars. Simply click the button to add it to your calendar. You can then optionally embed the webinar events (and even turn them on and off) into your own personal calendar. If you have already added the calendar, you do not have to do it again - the new webinar events will automatically appear.

Webinar time

The webinar will be live on Wednesday, April 18, 2012 at:

• 2pm Eastern (U.S.)
• 1pm Central
• 12pm Mountain
• 11am Pacific/Arizona
• 6pm GMT
• 7pm Glasgow

Or use this Time Zone Converter.

Here's how to attend:

1. Register at www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/webinars.asp today. It's free!
2. You will receive a confirmation email containing a link to the webinar.
3. You will receive a reminder email during the week prior to the webinar.
4. Calculate your time zone by clicking here.
5. Make sure you have the latest version of Java installed on your computer. Check at www.java.com.
6. Click on the webinar link (found in confirmation and reminder emails) prior to the start of the webinar. Arrive early as the room size is limited to the first 1,000 arrivals that day.
7. Listen via headset (USB headsets work best), your computer speakers, or by phone.

We look forward to seeing you all there!