Finding Missing Sources In Legacy Family Tree 7.5, Part 2

Yesterday, I explained a method for searching for missing sources in a specific location using Legacy Family Tree.  The method works well if you plan on entering the missing sources directly into Legacy.  You don't need to print out a report; you can just view and add sources directly from the search list.

Today, I'm going to describe a method that may be more practical if you have a large database or many missing sources.  I began using a genealogy database in the mid-1980s, but my first program only printed pedigree charts and family group sheets.  I couldn't have entered a source citation even if I'd realized I should.  I began adding sources in the 1990s in Brother's Keeper, moved to Legacy about 2001, and started using RootsMagic in conjunction with Legacy about 18 months ago.  All the moves between databases involved GEDCOM, and given the age of my database, I've got a lot of missing sources.

One option would be to run a simple Missing Sources search of the entire database.  Because my database contains about 8100 people, the report for missing sources for burial place alone is 24 pages and nearly 400 people.  That's too large a "to do" list for me to handle.  The "Anything" search is even more impractical:  for reasons of my own, I usually don't add a source to the Name field, so virtually my entire database will show up on that search.

Another option is to limit the search by location, surname, and event type.  For example, I searched for and printed a list of everyone with the surnames of my great-grandparents who are buried in Harrison Co., Missouri who have no source citation for that burial.  With that list, which contains only 21 names, it will be easy to use my gravestone photographs, cemetery books, and FindAGrave to add source citations.

Unlike the method I described yesterday, this process involves tagging. Tagging is a feature of Legacy that allows us to mark individuals in the database so we can limit searches or reports just to those individuals.  For this example, I started by tagging everyone in my database with the surnames of my great-grandparents.

(1) Clear any tags that may have been assigned previously (Ctrl-T; then select Clear All Tag Numbers for Everyone). Then, open the Search feature (Ctrl-F; or use the Search Menu and select Find) and select the Query by Example tab.  If necessary, use the Clear button to remove data from any previous searches, then type in the surname:

(2) Make sure "Clear list before this search" (lower left) is ticked, and click the "Create List" button.  The following screen should appear:

(3) Select the Options button at the bottom of the name list, then select Advanced Tagging.  From the Advanced Tagging screen, select the "Everyone in Search List" button, then Close.  Notice that an X has been added in the Tag 1 column of the search list.

Close that list and repeat Steps 1 through 3 for the other surnames.

(4) Once the surname(s) are tagged, press Ctrl-F to open the Search box again.  This time, select the Detailed Search tab.  This screen uses drop-down boxes to define the search in a variety of ways.  In this case, I wanted only the surnames I'd tagged who are buried in Harrison Co., Missouri.  To do that, I made the following selections:

Primary Condition:  Look for whom? Individual; Where to look? Tag 1; How to look? Equal to; What to look for? Tagged

AND

Second Condition:  Individual; Burial Place; Contains; Harrison Co., Missouri

(5) Make sure "Clear list before this search" is ticked, then click Create List.  I now had a list of everyone with the tagged surnames whose burial location contains the words Harrison Co., Missouri:

 (6) From the bottom of that Search list, click the Search button and then Find.  This time when the search screen appears, select the Missing Sources tab and clear it if necessary.  Select Burial Date and Place, and in the lower left corner select "Only search the search list."  Then click the "Create List" button.

(7) Now click the Print button at the bottom of the list of names, and select the options you want to print.  Because I'm dealing with Burials in this example, I selected Name, Died, and Buried under Row 1.  Clicking Preview (or Print) gave me the following report, containing the information I need to confirm and add burial citations for my surnames of interest in Harrison Co., Missouri:

Could I have skipped the tagging step?  Sure, but I prefer working with shorter lists, and I wanted to illustrate how tagging can provide data you otherwise wouldn't be able to obtain without manually going through large reports from your entire database.  I probably wouldn't use tagging in most situations where I can find what I need from the Query by Example or Detailed Search tab.  However, when I want to include more than 3 conditions, it seems necessary.

Yes, this sounds complicated when you see it written out, but that's only because the search and reporting features of Legacy are so powerful, flexible, and customizable.  It's not that hard; you just have to experiment with the options to realize how much you can do.

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.

Using Legacy to Create a Research Notes Summary

Recently, RootsMagic 4 unveiled a new Research Notes Report.  While RM4 is an excellent program that I use periodically, if you dread the thought of switching programs and having to clean up thousands of source citations, there is a way to produce a similar report in Legacy.  For information about the purpose and use of a Research Notes Summary, see this recent post on the Transitional Genealogists Form (TGF) list by Elizabeth Shown Mills.

The primary differences in Legacy are these:

*Each segment will be identified/separated by a bullet, not a line.

*Comments cannot be blocked and indented; however, you can italicize, bold, and/or underline to highlight them.

*Transcriptions/abstracts and comments must be entered in the Event Note field, not in the Source Text/Comments field.

*If you want a complete timeline, you will need to create "duplicate" events for birth, marriage, death and burial.  You can mark these added events as private so that you can control which reports they print in.

Steps:

1.  For each document or fact, create an Event (remember that you can add customized Events, so you can call it anything you want).  Enter the date, location, and (if desired) description, then transcribe or abstract the document into the Event Notes field.  Double space, type COMMENTS, enter your comment, and highlight with B/I/U. 

If you want only a summary sentence or two, not the full transcriptions/comments, to appear in other reports, compose that summary and enclose everything else in double brackets [[example]] to mark the raw data as "private."

2.  Click on the Event Sentence Override tab and enter:

[Date]
[Place]
[Desc] [Sources]

[Notes]

I would encourage you to experiment with other structures like:

[Notes][Sources] *or*

[Date]
[Place]
[Sources]

[Notes]

so you can customize the report to your preferences.

3. Attach the source citation.

4. Save the Event, then from the Event list, ensure you have Set Order chronologically (little black arrows toward the lower right of screen).

5. From the Reports Menu, choose either the Individual Report (if you are okay with only end notes), or the Descendants Book Report (if you want footnotes).  The remaining instructions will be specific to the Descendants Book Report, but you will need to make similar changes if you use the Individual Report.

6.  From the Options tab, ensure Index Options, Title Page, and Generate Table of Contents are unchecked.  Set the number of generations to 1. Under the Heading Layout tab, change the title to Research Notes Summary for [FullName], for example.  From the Wording tabs, erase any of those pesky canned sentences that interfere (you can always reset to default later).

7.  Click on Report Options and set each tab as desired; the most important ones IMO are: under Privacy, check Print Private Notes (if you have used the double brackets described above), and/or Include Events Marked Private, if necessary, under Include, check Event Information (I leave almost everything else blank),  under Sources, check Print Source Citations as Footnotes, and  under Format, click on Event Narrative Format and select Bullet Point each Event.

You are now ready to print.  However, you may want to print to an RTF file and make some minor changes in a word processor, such as deleting the "First Generation" subtitle, the basic BMD sentences that will be out of sequence, and the children's information.

This process is not as complex as it may sound.  The main problem I have is remembering to consistently enter the data as I have described in the Event Notes field.