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Friday, February 6, 2009

Legacy 7 Source Citations - First Look

I posted yesterday about the Family Tree Maker 2009 Source Citation templates and my experience testing it.

I worked in Legacy Family Tree 7.0 today to learn about and test the Source Citation templates, developed from Elizabeth Shown Mills' book, Evidence Explained. For this test, I decided to use the same person and citation details as in the FTM post - Henry Austin Carringer's birth record in the Carringer Family Bible.

While on the [Family] tab page, with Henry highlighted, I clicked on the Birth line and the "Individual's Information" window opened:



I was confused at this point - where is the Source indicator for the birth? I found it by putting the cursor in the Birth input box, and clicking on the "Sources" icon (the small bookcase set next to the notepad). When I clicked on the "Sources" icon, this small window titled "Assigned Sources for Henry Austin Carringer" opened:




In this window, the Birth was highlighted, and since I did not have a Source listed for the Birth, I figured I should click on the "New Source" button. I did and a small window titled "Source Template Index" opened. I input the word "Bible" in the text box:



I clicked the "Search" button at the top of the window, and the Source Template Index window for "Bible" entries opened. There is a choice here - I chose "Bible - Held Privately - Bible Pages, Loose, from unidentified Bible:


I clicked the "Go" button and the "Add New Master Source" window opened. There are a number of "fill-in-the-blanks" text boxes in each of five tabs (across the top). It opens in the "Source Info" tab:



I entered the information about the source in the "Source Info" tab screen. As I added information, the input data appears in the "Output Preview" on the right side of the window.



I clicked on the "Text/Comments" tab and saw that I could add the actual text on the Bible pages in the top text box, and input Comments about the Bible pages in the lower text box. I put the hand and provenance information in the Comments box, as shown below:



I clicked on the "Repository" tab and couldn't figure out if I could add anything for this type of source. I could have clicked on the "Add" button and added my name, address, phone, email, web site, etc. I didn't at this time:


The "Multimedia" tab is where I could input images of the Bible pages. The "Overrides" tab permits the user to make their own edits to the created source citations, or to create their own if they don't want the EE templates. Here is the "Overrides" tab screen:



I was done entering Source data for this fact, so I clicked on the "Save" button. I was back to the "Assigned Sources..." screen, where I could add detail information about this particular entry in the text box, and could choose the source quality from the pick list near the bottom. I picked "3. Almost Certain Conclusion." You can see the finished citations on the right of the screen:



I clicked the "Save" button and the source information appeared in the Birth text box. The source citations also show up below the Facts box - in the "Output" tab:



I clicked on the "Text Comments" tab and the "Master" and "Detail" Text and Comments appear for the selected source:


I clicked "Close" and was back to the "Family" tab screen. Instead of "Close," I could have clicked on another Fact and added a new source or edited an existing source for that Fact.

The final Source Citations read:

"Footnote/Endnote Citation:
Carringer Family Bible, family pages; Original pages held by Randall J. Seaver, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Chula Vista, California 91911, 1988.

"Subsequent Citation:
Carringer Family Bible, family pages only.

"Bibliography:
Carringer Family Bible. Family Pages Only. Original pages held by Randall J. Seaver, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Chula Vista, California 91911. 1988. "

I can use this master source for all of the persons mentioned in this Family Bible.

The Legacy Family Tree Source Citation template seemed to be easy to navigate and use. I thought that it was easier to use and was more organized than the FTM 2009 template. I have only worked in three different templates so far, so I haven't explored all of the options for either program.

6 comments:

  1. I personally love Legacy 7 over FTM. I haven't tried FTM 2009 yet, but I love Legacy 7. I currently use the free version, but I am heavily considering buying the paid version.

    I love the source citations for Legacy, and I am no longer constantly checking EE for how to do it.

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  2. Randy there was at least one more step to take in the evaluation. As a result of the information entered, when you do reports there will be a footnote to the source. That way when information is shared, it is possible to show the other party what sources have been used to document the facts in the report. Also, Legacy has a master list of sources.....

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  3. This is why there are so many unsourced trees online - it takes quite awhile to add one! The sourcing in FTM 2008 is much better than in FTM2005 but it also takes me 4x longer to add them.

    I have downloaded Legacy but haven't done anything with it yet so thanks for the tutorial. It will undoubtedly save me time when I get there.

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  4. I haven't used either but from your examples, it appears to take 7 screens to enter FTM 2009 but 12 to enter Legacy 7.

    I am confused about one thing. Why do the sources (FTM 2009 an dLegacy 7) derived from the same Evidence Explained template for the same source appear so differently in the final form? I would have expected the final results to look exactly the same.

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  5. I chuckled at Apple's comment, "This is why there are so many unsourced trees online - it takes quite awhile to add one!"

    True! But, then, how much time do those "no time for documentation" folks waste when they base research on other unsourced assertions that careful genealogists would never trust? Not just hours or days, but months and years! (Worse: how much time do *we* waste trying to track down the source of their assertions!)

    Our ancestors had a smart saying: An ounce of prevention is worth a whole pound of cure.

    Thanks, Randy, for sharing your test drives.

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  6. Randy, It seems pretty complicated to put a properly cited source (EE format) in Legacy. I have been using footnotes for each person and pasting in Legacy. Our librarian at San Diego GS said she will check it out. I guess it will not take too long. How long did it take to figure out. In other words what is the learning curve on the Legacy source citation?

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