Melody, Let me see if I can answer all of your questions, I'm sure that some others will chime in and will have better answers, but hopefully I can give you a start. I must also state that these are my opinions only, and it's your opinion and your mothers that are the only important ones to consider.
First, a family is what we make of it. I work with Dads and their parenting frequently, I ask them about their "fathers" many times they describe their father-in-law or a coach that they use as a model for their parenting style. Families are what you make of them, not genealogists. Particularly for your living mother! I think that your party idea is great and will probably plagiarize this and your goals. We too have a many blended family. 1. Invite anyone that you want, your mom may or may not be a genealogist, but this "family reunion" is for who she considers as family. My mother considers my step children as her grandchildren and I wouldn't consider telling them that they cannot come. 2. For creating an application, you have three options: a. create a subset of your genealogy file including everyone that you feel are necessary and create a CD with the Legacy application that they can use to run. The instructions are at http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/tipsShareLegacy.asp. b. Create a web page with this subset and pass out cards at the party pointing everyone to your web site. This has the advantages that your data will always be the most current, and others can help you with data correction or keeping current on the living family members, the disadvantage is that you would probably want to use this for your full genealogy set. C. There is a wonderful program called Passage express that is available as an add-on for Legacy and can include many of your photos and censuses as well as your data subset in a self contained CD. This is a wonderful program, but I admittedly haven't done a lot with it yet. 3. The charting program allows you to add in customized backgrounds from photos. This can be used to "jazz" things up quite a bit if you like. Hopefully someone with more Charting experience can help. 4. Passage express would be the add-on that I recommend as an add-on, but you have the other options that I set forth in item 2. 5. As children learn they find quickly that their parents are not perfect, they make mistakes and if we don't make a big deal of these mistakes, neither do they. They love their stepfather, and whether he is their bio father or not will not change the love. I have a number of nieces that are adopted, we've never kept it from them and they have a strong understanding of the difference between a father (anyone can be a father in a drunken stupor) and a Dad (Many years of dedication and Love). Don't hide the fact, but at the same time, you don't have to highlight this data. I'm sorry for the soap box, but bottom line it's not as big of a deal as we adults make of it. 6. The in-laws may not be included on the invitation, but for the subset of your genealogy that you create you may find it nice to include them. It's nice to know that my daughter married John Doe, son of James and Jane Doe. Your genealogy and your family is what you make of it. Don't be worried about sticking to strict genealogy, worry more about making this a special day for your mom. I hope that this helps. Jay Van Zeeland http://www.tell-my-mom.com/_ancestry. ___ From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Melody B Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2008 7:18 AM To: Legacy User Group Subject: [LegacyUG] 75th Birthday prezzie advice My mom will be turning 75 this year and we're arranging a party. The focus of the party is to celebrate her life and gather her family around her (so it's part family reunion as well) - think "This is Your Life". I want to do "something" with the genealogy data I've been collecting. There are so many options in Legacy for generating reports/charts/etc that I'm a bit overwhelmed. My goals are: 1. I'd like to include step-family stuff. I know that's not the strict "genealogy" way, but imagine if you will, if my SIL's children are not included even though my mom treats them as her grandchildren? SIL might feel insulted and would certainly like not a true part of the family and that would make my mom feel bad. 2. It would be really cool if I could create a CD or DVD that was at least browse-able. Even better would be an "application" that the user would run and from there browse through census images, pictures, family trees, narratives, etc. I would really like to be able to create several copies so that each guest could have one. 3. I'd really like the family trees (images) to be a little more artsy than the themes I've seen so far in Legacy Charting. 4. I'm willing to purchase Legacy Add-ons if necessary, or supplemental software products. I'm also willing to have initial artwork/trees printed elsewhere if reasonably priced. 5. There are a few cases where birth dates versus marriage dates might be ... hmmm.... uncomfortable. For instance, I have a grandniece whose dad was completely out of the picture before she was even born. She doesn't share the same last name as her half-sisters. I don't want to highlight that her stepfather isn't her real dad but yet don't want to fudge facts either. Any idea around this? (I know it's not in the same vein as the rest of the goals but yet it's a goal too.) 6. I won't be including inlaws of Mom's offspring. So, my in-laws won't be in there. I won't be including some step- situations such as my nephew-in-law's oldest daughter from a former partner (myself and other of my sibs have never even seen her). As I said, I'm not interested in adhering to any strict genealogy requirements. I want to include all the family members who feel like family members to my mom. That means my SIL's kids from a previous marriage, my stepdaughter. Any advice you have is welcome. I'm looking back through the archives as well. However, Legacy seems quite changed (to me) with Version 7 that I figure that info might be a bit outdated. I have Legacy 7 Deluxe. -- Take care, Melody If not now, when? 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