Creating a Missing Sources by Location Report in Legacy

A few days ago, I commented on Randy Seaver's Genea-Musings blog regarding how to create a report in Legacy Family Tree 7.5 of people with missing sources in a specific location.  Unfortunately, when I tried to duplicate my steps with a different (and much larger) database, I wasn't able to replicate the process.  Basically, I'm here to admit I didn't know what I was talking about in that comment.  It is possible to do, but you'll need to ignore those instructions and follow these instead.

While there is a way to do it with tagging, it is not necessary to use tagging.  Instead, here is what I think is the easiest method:

(1) I have customized my Legacy toolbar to include a Location icon that opens my Location list; clicking the icon replaces Step 1 in Randy's instructions.  Scroll down the Location List to the specific location, or type the location in the Find field.  My locations are sorted right to left (see the Sort button at the center bottom of the screen) so that typing Massachusetts will take me to all Massachusetts locations, from which I can easily highlight the one I want (Freetown, Bristol Co.).  Because I have the Show People field (right side of the Master Location List screen) checked, highlighting the location produces a list of the people in the database using that location:

(2) Click on List Options at the bottom of the list of names, but instead of choosing Tag Everyone like Randy did, choose Create Search List.  That brings up a screen that asks whether to Create a New Search List or Add to an Existing List.  Choose Create New Search list and then select Close.  That brings up another prompt that asks whether you would like to show the results from the "Used By" search you created?  Click OK.

(3) This opens the Search List, i.e. the people who have an event occurring in Freetown, Massachusetts.  The first person in the list will be highlighted. 

Notice the tabs on the right:  click on the Sources tab and you can see the sources attached to the highlighted person.  You can check, add or edit sources directly from the list by highlighting each person on the list.

If you want a printed list, however, you'll need to follow some additional steps:

(4) At the bottom of the Search List screen (above), click Search and then Find.  This opens the Search screen; select the Missing Sources tab:

(5) THIS STEP IS CRITICAL:  notice on the lower left of the Missing Sources search screen (above) that you have three choices:  Clear List before this search; Add results to existing list, or Only Search the search list.  Make sure you check that you want to "Only Search the search list."  Also check the type of Missing Sources you want to look for.  I get confused with the Anything Option, so I prefer to check the specific types of sources.  For this example, I selected birth, death, burial, and marriage date.  Once you've made your selections, click the Create List button at the bottom of the screen.

I now have a list of the people in my database with a Freetown, Bristol Co., Massachusetts location who are missing at least one source citation for birth, or death, or burial, or marriage date.  In this example it is only one person.

(6) To print the list, click the Print button at the bottom of the screen, and the List Report Options screen will appear: 

Under the Options tab, I entered a title "Missing Sources:  Freetown, Massachusetts," and on the Row 1 tab, I selected to print name, birth, death, and burial information.  After adjusting the page size to Landscape to allow for all 4 data fields on Row 1, I clicked the Preview button and obtained the following printable report:

While this is not exactly the format Randy was hoping for in his series of posts, I think it is close.  Legacy gives a variety of options for printing and formatting a Missing Sources report by Location.  The procedure may sound complicated, and I'm not sure why there are a couple of extraneous clicks in Step 2, but once you've done it a few times, I think you will agree it is not difficult.

While RootsMagic became my primary database about a year ago (primarily because of its Research Notes Report feature), I still prefer Legacy for its ease of data entry, its search features, and its flexibility in creating a wide variety of customized reports.