Hello all Lists,
If you do not have a Gen computer program, you really should. The reasons
are overwhelming, but I'm going to outline why you should, AND suggest a
Free such program, which has just offered (Free if downloaded, $1.00 on CD)
its version 4 upgrade to excellent reviews. While the Free version will
likely do very very well for 3 out of 4 of you, the $20 'Deluxe' version has
MANY added values, outlined below AND at the internet site of the program,
Legacy.com, see discussion below.
A Gen program allows you to input your family data just once (changeable
at any time), and use it forever, in many formats, including and excluding
things as you wish, displaying and/or printing it in Many formats, depending
on your wish & purpose. All your data is automatically backed up. And it is
now avail forever, for your GC, G Gc, et al.
(Tip! However, you MUST back up the backups regularly - easy to copy & paste
the program data file to another location, and/or to floppies, and/or to
CD's (if you have a burner), and/or send, via internet, by way of a GedCom,
which the program will assemble automatically for you, a copy of your backed
up file to your relatives/ cousins, etc. This file can be saved forever,
displayed on any Windows computer (and on Macs, etc, but see discussion),
and is essentially your family's Life History, which they can also open &
use). Also, you can backup and/or display a Tree, such as the mini-one
displayed below, AWA save it to the floppy/CD/ email it, post it to our
Lists, print it (print this message FYI), etc, etc.
If you have 10,000 names in your family Tree, a moderate size Tree, and
you are looking at your screen discussing your Tree with a cousin by tel,
your cousin could have that exact full & complete Tree displayed on her
computer an hour later, for the two of you to compare notes. Just email her
your family history GedCom (both of you will find and follow the relatively
simple download and install instructions right in the program, usually by
following the on-screen displayed instructions by a 'Wizard'). Once you've
done it the first time, youll be an expert, able to instruct others how.
The only challenging aspect is 'naming' your GedCom file, and then naming
the 'expanded' Family file.
[Tip! For a trial run, and a valuable download, Go to
http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/, and search for your G Gf's name, find
him, look for the 'DownLoad Gedcom' option (keep trying if unsuccessful the
first time), d/l (download) & open that GedCom into your Gen program as a
trial run - most questions will be answered in that exercise. BTW (by the
way), once youve done that, you've pretty much populated your family tree,
at least to that level. Now add to it as you wish. bw)
I personally use Family Tree Maker (ver 8, altho there are later versions
avail), primarily because I started w/it, and it was simple then (and may be
so now). However, FTM seems to have a policy to upgrade often, w/little
value added, and they are not all that quick to refund when promised. Im
seriously considering going to Legacy upgrade myself.
Legacy was just well evaluated by Dick Eastman, a quite well respected
Gen writer, copy below.
You can subscribe (Free) to his weekly column at:
To subscribe or unsubscribe, go to
http://www.rootsforum.com,
and see the instructions at the end of his evaluation.
Also, go to the Links mentioned in his Review, and the following Link for
more information:
http://64.4.8.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?_lang=EN&lah=ec97770eee67d1f67d57fb9...
Barry
- Legacy 4.0
http://lw9fd.law9.hotmail.msn.com/cgi-bin/getmsg?curmbox=F000000001&a...
By Dick Eastman
As predicted in the last newsletter, this week Millennia Software released a
new version of their very popular genealogy software, Legacy. This Windows
program is available in two versions: a Standard Edition that is free and a
Deluxe Edition with extra functionality that sells for $19.95. I've always
been had a high opinion of both versions of Legacy, so I decided to see what
is new in version 4.0.
I downloaded the free version directly from Millennia's Web site. It is a
big download of several megabytes. Anyone with a cable or DSL modem won't
mind, but the file sizes will be significant for anyone using a dial-up
modem. You can also purchase the program on a CD-ROM for only $1.00 plus
shipping charges if you do not want to download huge files. There are two
methods of downloading Legacy 4.0:
1. A faster Web download of a small setup program. That
program will then check your computer and will download only
those files that are needed.
2. A full setup of a single compressed file that contains all
files used by Legacy. This file is about 13.4 MB and will
take longer to download. Some users may like the full setup
even though it's larger. It can be copied to a CD-ROM or
ZipDrive and be used to install Legacy on computers that do
not have Internet access.
I downloaded the full setup on a Windows XP system and then double-clicked
on the newly stored file. The installation process that followed was a
typical Windows installation, very easy and intuitive. The entire
installation required less than a minute to accomplish. I was soon looking
at Legacy's intuitive main screen.
At first glance, nothing seemed to have changed on version 4.0's main
screen. That's a good thing in my opinion; I have always admired Legacy's
user interface. It is one of the more intuitive editing screens I have seen.
Legacy crowds a lot of icons onto this screen, each leading to other
features. However, even though a bit crowded, everything is placed in a
logical manner. I believe the newcomer can become familiar and comfortable
with Legacy's basic features after only a few minutes' use. Learning to use
all of the program's extended features will require a bit more time,
however.
I am not going to describe the operation of the program nor comment on all
the screens available. Millennia Software has already created an excellent
"on-line tour" that does all of that. The on-line tour even shows typical
screen shots. The screen shots are normally shown as thumbnail sized images;
you can click on any of these to see a much larger image of the screen. If
you have an interest in evaluating Legacy 4.0, I'd suggest that you take the
on-line tour at:
http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/Tour.asp
It appears that the changes from version 3.0 to 4.0 in the Standard Edition
are minimal. However, there are many, many improvements to Legacy 4.0 Deluxe
Edition. Here is a partial list of the changes in the Deluxe Edition, as
listed in Legacy 4.0's Help file:
New quick way to switch to next spouse, sibling, or parents
with a click of the mouse.
User-selectable information on the Family View and Pedigree
View. Choose the fields you want to see for the Husband and
Wife.
Automatically set Living to Yes or No for large groups of
people. Mark entire ancestral lines that you know are no
longer alive and mark them as dead. This catches all your
ancient relatives with no birth or death dates.
Navigate to consecutive RIN or MRIN numbers right from the
Family or Pedigree View.
The Location List can now be sorted by any field while you
analyze it to combine duplicates. There is even an amazing
right-to-left sort that shows you duplicate locations you
would have never seen otherwise.
Three new Quick Bookmarks make it faster than ever to return
to key people in your file.
You can now add addresses to the Birth, Christening, Death,
and Burial fields as well as to Marriages. All individual and
marriage events can also have an address. Even the Master
Locations can include an attached address.
New Master Repository List lets you enter the mailing address,
e-mail and web addresses of libraries, archives, and agencies
and use them over and over again.
You can add Latitude and Longitude information to addresses
and locations.
Faster Than Ever:
Tagging operations and searching are now faster than
ever.
Relationship calculation is much faster.
Pictures:
Scan pictures from within Legacy. It's easier than ever
to connect your special pictures to individuals and
marriages in your family file.
Pictures, sounds and video can now be linked to any type
of event. You can also attach pictures to master sources
and source citation details.
Pictures can now be cropped to focus in on just the
people you want to show.
Create a Sliding Picture show screen saver made up of
your favorite family photos. Click on a photo and go
directly to that individual. Family reunions will never
be the same.
Enhanced Photo Album. Print a family photo album from all
individuals or just those who are tagged. Add pictures
and scanned document images to Places, Events, and
Sources.
Web page creation is now many times faster. You can
break large web sites into multiple folders and specify
their location. You can also have a common picture
folder so that different web styles can share pictures.
Marriage Enhancements:
You can now add unlimited Events to marriages.
User definable Husband and Wife labels for each couple.
These are shown on the Family View and used on reports.
Customizable report narrative sentences for special
situations (common law marriages, children out of
wedlock, etc.).
Note Fields:
All Notes fields now hold up to 1 million characters.
That's hundreds of pages each!
Add notes to Births, Christenings, Deaths, Burials and
Marriages.
Reports and Lists:
Print custom address labels and name tags. Dozens and
dozens of standard and A4 size Avery labels and nametags
are included. Nametags can include pictures and three-
generation pedigree charts. Great for genealogy
conferences and family reunions.
Count and print the separate Trees within your family
file.
Improved List Reports with line wrapping options.
Customize the reports by choosing any field for any
column. Save the reports for future use.
Enhanced Print Preview engine lets you quickly view and
scroll through your reports. You can view the entire
report as thumbnails (32 per page), facing pages, or
single pages from screen size up to 400 percent. Print
the current page, any range of pages, odd or even pages,
collated or uncollated.
New Character Map gives you support for European
alphabets. Entering names like Bjørn is easier than ever.
There is even a new Special Character ribbon on all input
screens that lets you quickly choose from eight user-
selected characters by just clicking on them.
New Descendant Narrative Report. Combines the easy-of-
reading of a Descendant Chart with the narrative style
and contents of a Modified Register report. This could
quickly become your new favorite.
New summary style Potential Problems report skips
redundant information. This saves paper when printing the
report and speeds collection.
Events can be marked as Private. Report and Web page
options allow you to include or exclude these events.
Relationship report can be filtered to tagged
individuals.
Internet Support:
Internet button. Just click and connect to the Internet
to find your favorite genealogy Web site.
Search the Internet for information about your ancestor.
Simply select Search /Search the Internet to
automatically query
Ancestry.com or
FamilySearch.org for
the current individual. That's nearly one billion names!
Internet and e-mail enabled -- Just click to send an e-
mail message or connect to an organization's Web page
right from Legacy.
Sources:
New Source Detail Comments, File ID Number and Recorded
Date fields.
You can now add sources for LDS ordinance information.
Despite its length, the above is still an abbreviated list of changes. You
can find a more complete list at:
http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/WhatsNew4.asp. You can also find a list of
Legacy's features, including those that were in previous versions, at:
http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/Features.asp.
In short, Legacy 4.0 is an evolution of an already excellent program. Anyone
who has used version 3.0 will immediately feel at home with the new version.
Anyone who has not used an earlier version will require only a few minutes
to become comfortable with the program. Legacy 4.0 is an excellent tool for
any genealogist, whether neophyte or experienced researcher. I'd suggest
that you download the Standard Edition and try it for a while. I suspect you
will like it. I also suspect that many of Legacy's users will pay the $19.95
(U.S. finds) to upgrade to the Deluxe Edition. However, there is no
requirement to upgrade. If the Standard Edition meets your needs, you may
continue to use it forever at no charge.
Legacy 4.0 (both editions) requires Window 95, Windows 98, Windows NT,
Windows 2000, Windows ME, or Windows XP. Legacy requires a Pentium class
computer, a VGA or higher display, at least 35 megabytes of available space
and a floppy disk drive or CD-ROM drive. The program will operate (slowly)
in 16 megabytes of RAM memory although 32 megabytes is highly recommended
for proper performance. I tested Legacy 4.0 Standard Edition on a 533-MHz
Celeron system running Windows XP in 256 megabytes of memory. The
performance was excellent on my system.
Millennia Software says that Legacy cannot run on a Mac unless you have
installed a Windows emulator like Real PC, SoftWindows or Virtual PC. The
company doesn't mention Linux. Obviously, a Windows program will not operate
in Linux unless a Windows emulator is used. I happen to have a Linux system
available with the Win4Lin Windows emulator installed, so I decided to try
Legacy 4.0 on that system. In short, Legacy 4.0 worked flawlessly under
Linux by using the Win4Lin emulator. Performance was quite reasonable on my
Linux system with a 900-MHz Celeron processor and 512 megabytes of RAM
memory.
To learn more about Legacy 4.0, to take the tour of the program's features,
to download the free Standard Edition, or to purchase the Deluxe Edition, go
to:
http://www.legacyfamilytree.com
As promised above, here is the 'mini' Family Tree (barebones FYI - you
can print in 20 other formats, AND add /subtract add'l info, etc.):
Descendants of Samuelunk (Widdrington) Witherington
1 Samuelunk (Widdrington) Witherington bef1620 -
+Unk
2 Robert (Widdrington(e)) Witherington abt1682-1722
[will of 1722 avail w/names & dates]
+Elizabeth Dare
3 John Witherington 1703 -
+Rocksolannah Carruthers 1720 -
[Her father John Carruthers 1751 will avail w/names, etc]
4 William Witherington, Sr 1740/41 - 1819
+Elizabeth Lewis 1745 -
5 Peter Wetherington 1770 - 1852
+Esther Allen 1790 - 1870
6 John Wetherington 1833 - 1896
+Jane Wilkinson 1839 - 1926
7 James Barnie Wetherington 1876 - 1941
+Ethel Ella Ratliff 1882 -
8 Lawton Levon Wetherington 1915 - 1982
+Florence Josephine Barlitt 1915 - 1993
9 C Barry Wetherington
3 Elizabeth Witherington 1700 -
+Henry Easterling, Sr
4 Henry Easterling 1720 -
4 Allathera Easterling 1725 -
3 Mary Witherington 1705 -
3 Dorcas Witherington 1707 -
2 Mary (Widdrington) Witherington 1680 -
+Nathaniel Dare
2 Barbara, Grace, Wm abt1660s - 80s
D:\Data\DatFmMic\PERSONAL\GENEALGY\RESEARCH\HowTo\StrtHere 17Mar02
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