Hello Jill, and welcome to the group. You have quite a project going on, and Legacy can make it a good deal faster. When I switched from FTM to Legacy some years ago I found features that made database cleanup much easier:
Checking the Surname Master List (View > Master Lists > Surname) is a good way to spot typos or surname variations that need to be corrected. Treefinder is a great way to find unlinked individuals (View > Treefinder). Strays will show up there as small groups but you must click the Refresh button each time you use it. Most people who switch to Legacy are shocked to see their old data entry inconsistencies, especially in the Location List. It’s easy to make global corrections there and merge things that were entered as, say, St Louis, Saint Louis, and St. Louis. When you’ve done those simple cleanup tasks, running a Potential Problems Report will help to spot other things to fix. The biggest job we usually have is cleaning up the Master Source List. That’s often an ongoing task and even deciding on the Source List Name to use for each (which dictates the sequence in the source list itself) takes some experimenting. I’ve changed my method a couple of times and that can be done but it’s best if you hit on a good system from the start. At some early point it’s a good idea to run a few reports, see which ones you like best, and figure out how your data entry methods impact the report output. Personally, I’d begin with the things above before tackling individual record cleanup. Good luck with your project. I’m sure you’ll enjoy Legacy. Kirsten From: Jill Groce Sent: Sunday, September 11, 2011 10:22 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [LegacyUG] Switching from FTM to Legacy Hello everybody, I'm happy to meet you all. I'm switching my genealogy research from Family Tree Maker to Legacy 7.5 after 15 years of work, starting with my father's file of 646 people. About 50 are ancillary and might be omitted, so say 600. My mother's file is smaller and will be done later. I loaded the FTM GEDCOM into Legacy. I'm working on a methodical way to go through all my research and bring it up to a professional level, starting with the citations. I collected sources from the beginning, so that helps. I've edited footnotes and bibliographies for years, even before computers, so I'm comfortable with them. I'm stumbling over the process of working with people and families in Legacy; data entry is a challenge. I'm on a painful learning curve with everything I do online, having just started on Win 7, so I'll have to take it easy as I get used to Legacy. I love SourceWriter and the Clipboard. Hundreds of sources, notes, and footnotes came over in the GEDCOM, I'm choosing what to keep, what to delete, and when to start over; editing master sources and details; learning to override without losing consistency. I have a tendency toward miscellany, so I started by choosing a family at random, correcting and completing their citations, then choosing a second one and doing the same. When I discover that information needs more work, I enter a task: read handwritten page and type, study source for more data, verify or delete shaky information, reconcile discrepancies, whatever. It all has to be done and I'm trying to stay on track and stick to the references. My research has varied in quality, of course. I was diagnosed with ADD about six years in. The task is monumental, but it's necessary. I work as a copyeditor at home part-time. There will be days, even weeks, when nothing gets done, but I'd like to journal (and maybe blog) about how it's going—briefly. I don't need another task on top of The Project. I'll have questions as I go, but I'll try to keep them to a minimum. Ideas, advice and support will be welcome. Thank you for any assistance you might give me. I'll be happy to help with information, lookups and research any time I can. —Jill @auntjill on Twitter Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages after Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Archived messages from old mail server - before Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp Follow Legacy on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/LegacyFamilyTree) and on our blog (http://news.LegacyFamilyTree.com). To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
