Chronology Report in Legacy Family Tree 7.5

While on the Legacy Family Tree cruise last week, I was exposed to more features in Legacy Family Tree 7.5 that I had not fully explored.  I thought it might be useful to compare specific features between the software programs that I use.

The first feature I want to look at is the Chronology or Timeline feature.  I selected my grandfather, Frederick Walton Seaver (1876-1942).  The Family View in Legacy Family Tree 7.5 looks like this (my color settings):

There are several View tabs on the screen just below the menu and icon rows near the top - they are for Legacy Home, Family, Pedigree, Descendant, Chronology, Index and Research Guidance.  I clicked on the "Chronology" View tab and then on the "Options" button on the right-hand side of the screen below.  That opened the "Chronology Options" menu:

The "Chronology Options" menu has tabs for Include, Formatting, Column Widths, Report Options, Sources, and Screen Fonts.  I went carefully through those and figured out what I wanted to see in a Chronology Report - I want the events/facts for my grandfather, his parents, his spouse and his children.  I couldn't find an option for his siblings.  I want my Notes and Sources included in the report.  I want Historical Facts in the way of US Presidents and US Wars.  I tried to add Inventions but that dominated the chronology.  Here is the top of the first page of the Chronology as presented on the View tab:

In the screen above, the Age is in the left-hand column, followed by the Date, the Event, and the Event Description. The Event column uses different colors - the Person's color is black, the spouse is purple, the children red, and the historical events orange.  The user can control these colors and the fonts.

I wanted to print a report out, so I clicked on the "Report" button on the right of the screen above.  Here is a two-page view of the start of the chronology:

This was a 7 page report, with the General Notes following the Event list, and the Source End-notes following the Notes.  Here is a two page view of the end of the notes and the start of the sources:

This printed out very nicely for me.  I can change the margins, the title, and other content using the "Chronology Options" menu.

Chronologies/Timelines can be very useful for researchers to help them understand all of the events that might occur in a person's life. However, the researcher needs to add the Facts and Events for each person so that the Chronology/Timeline is complete.  I should add the Residence address, the place of employment, newspaper articles, etc. to the Facts/Events in order to have a more complete picture of my grandfather's life.

I would like to have sibling information, children's marriages, and more historical events (elections, economic events, etc.) added to this Chronology report.  I noted that some of the U.S. Presidents had only their inauguration date listed, but that there were no notes.

Disclosure:  I have received free copies of Legacy Family Tree software, webinar CDROMs and other gratuities from Legacy Family Tree over the past four years.  These gifts have not influenced my opinion of this product.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/05/chronology-report-in-legacy-family-tree.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Catch-Up Day - Tuesday, 22 May 2012

We're back home in San Diego after a very long day traveling from Oslo to London to San Diego to Chula Vista.  Genea-Musings will soon return to its regular programming!

I will add daily summaries of our vacation to The Geneaholic blog (www.geneaholic.com) and link the posts to my daily "What I think we're doing" posts here on Genea-Musings so that interested readers can see what we did without adding a lot of personal posts to Genea-Musings.

Some observations:

*  British Airways 777 aircraft were not wonderful as far as traveling in economy is concerned.  The San Diego to and from London flights were full, cramped, the food was poor (a dinner meal and a snack later), and the entertainment system sucked.  We had to pay to reserve seats before the flight.  At least they didn't charge extra for Linda's walker that we checked.

*  The weather was pretty good once we got out of Oslo.  The Friday (11 May) was very gray and damp, but we had a great time with geneablogger Torill Johnsen (see her blog post about the visit at http://www.disnorge.no/cms/lederblogg/geneablogger-p-bes-k).  It rained a bit in Paris also, but was dry after that.

*  The Vision of the Seas cruise ship was pretty nice - well organized and efficient (Royal Caribbean International is a Norwegian company!).  We ate breakfasts and lunches in the Windjammer Cafe on Deck 9.  The outdoor swimming pool on Deck 9 was not used at all due to the cool weather.  Linda really enjoyed the indoor pool and hot tubs on Deck 9 in the Solarium.  Our cabin was 3006, near the bow on the port side, right over the maneuvering engines used to position the ship in ports.  The cabin had two twin beds put together to form a king bed, a desk, a couch, a closet and a bathroom with a small shower (like 5 square feet!).

*  Dinner was in the Aquarius Dining Room on Deck 4 mid-ship.  The Legacy Family Tree group had the early 6 p.m. seating and sat at Tables 18 through 44.  We were encouraged to move around and meet people.  Linda and I stayed at Table 32 because the waiter was very sensitive to Linda's allergy problems and we needed that.  It was fun to meet and share meals and stories with the other Legacy cruisers.

*  The Legacy Family Tree staff (Ken, Dave, Luc and Geoff, and their spouses) and travel agent (Christy and spouse Steve, who took many photos!) were very friendly and helpful and fun to be with.  We had a meet and greet on the day we boarded, and everybody got a Legacy name tag with a pouch for key cards, a pen, etc.  There were at least three other genea-bloggers on the cruise - Geoff Rasmussen (Legacy News), Donna Peterson (Hanging from the Family Tree) and Kay Haden (Leaves of the Tree).  A number of the Legacy group said that they were Genea-Musings readers also, and it was great to put faces with names.

*  The Legacy genealogy classes had good attendance (about 100 of the Legacy group of 170 were genealogists) and were well presented.  The first and third days of classes were in a conference room with seats and some tables for laptops, but the second day of classes (morning and afternoon) were in a lounge where most of the attendees were far away from the screen across the dance floor.  The afternoon session was delayed by the cruise ship Bingo games running long, which made us all late for the second formal dinner.  I missed the classes on the first day (slept in without checking the schedule), but made the rest of them.  Judy Wight did a great job with her four classes on English, Irish and Scottish research.  I gave two talks on the third class day - "The Genealogical Proof Standard" and "Searching Ancestry.com Effectively."

*  The shore excursions were fairly expensive and ran on time, and the ones we took had good guides.  However, the ones we took were on a bus with all of the boarding problems.  Linda was able to sit in the front row on the buses and the drivers were happy to get her walker out at each stop.  We went on the Paris Sightseeing with Lunch and Boat Ride tour, the Leisurely Dublin Panoramic tour, and the Liverpool Beatles tour. We did not go on a tour in Cherbourg or Edinburgh.

*  The only exercise I got was walking the stairs and decks (which was good for me...but my feet hurt) and playing shuffleboard on Deck 10 twice with Geoff and Luc.  They let me play, and I was almost as good as they were.  The first time was while we were at sea - the ship was going 20 knots, the wind was about 20 knots, so we had 40 knots over the deck that curved the pucks some and occasionally blew them sideways.  Plus the air temperature was about 50 F (10 C) - we were in jackets.   The second time I played was while docked in Liverpool and it was calmer!  I shot worse the second time.

*  Believe it or not, Ken and Diane got Linda and I on the dance floor on Friday night, and we had a great time with them and several other couples.

*  Nine days on a cruise ship seems like enough...but we signed up for the next Legacy Family Tree cruise from San Diego through the Panama Canal to Fort Lauderdale in September 2013.  It's a 16 day cruise!

*  Thank you to Ken, Dave, Luc, Geoff and Christy for arranging a wonderful and fun cruise with genealogy highlights.  It's a lot of fun to share a cruise experience with genealogy friends and to come back knowing a lot more people.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/05/catch-up-day-tuesday-22-may-2012.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Travel Day - Monday, 21 May 2012

We pulled into port at Oslo, Norway this morning, and plan to get off the ship at 9 a.m.

After catching a shuttle, or a taxi, or a train, to Gardermoen Airport, we should be on the 12 noon British airways flight from Oslo to London, and then the British airways flight from London to San Diego, arriving at 6:15 p.m.

Hopefully, Our friend Barbara will be there to pick us up and drive us home.  I suspect, after 18 hours of traveling, that we'll fall into bed without checking email, or blogs, or even turning on the television to watch the Padres game.

My plan is to start the regular blog schedule again starting on Tuesday sometime.

I wonder what I will miss?

*  Will AncestorSync work well with Geni?

*  Will the FamilySearch Family Tree be open to everyone?

*  Will the NGS offer a CDROM of the 2012 Conference syllabus?

*  Will Ancestry.com announce another acquisition?

*  Will the 1940 Census for California be completely indexed?

*  Will the 1940 U.S. Census be 50% indexed?

*  Will I have over 2,000 blog posts to read?

*  Will more previously unknown cousins find my blog and write me in email?

Who knows?  I don't but I wouldn't be surprised by any of the above!

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Legacy Day - Sunday, 20 May 2012

On the 8th day on our cruise aboard Royal Caribbean's Vision of the Seas, we are in transit from Edinburgh to Oslo.

Therefore, it is a Legacy learning day.  The class schedule (in the Conference Center) is:

*  1 p.m.:  "Digging for Gold in British Estate Records" by Judy Wight


*  2 p.m.:  "Finding Your Elusive Ancestor: The Genealogical Proof Standard, and Doing a Reasonably Exhaustive Search" by Randy Seaver (yep, me, Geoff asked, I couldn't resist!)


*  3 p.m.:  "Searching Ancestry.com Effectively" by Randy Seaver


*  4 p.m.:  "Merging 101 and 202" by Ken McGinnis


*  5 p.m.:  "Questions and Answers with the Legacy team (and maybe a surprise too!)

6 p.m.:  Dinner with the group.

We get back to Oslo tomorrow for a long day of travel back to San Diego.

Best of the Genea-Blogs - Week Ending 20 May 2012

As devoted Genea-Musings readers recall, we are away on a vacation cruise out of Oslo to Le Havre (Paris), Cherbourg, Dublin, Liverpool and Edinburgh.  Because I don't have cheap and fast Internet access, and more importantly, time to read 1200 genea-blogs, the weekly Beat of the Genea-Blogs published on Sundays is on hiatus until 27 May.

Several other genea-bloggers post weekly Best Of posts - please read them:

*  Lynn Palermo on The Armchair Genealogist blog.

*  Lisa Frank on the 1 Ancestry 2 Little Time blog.

*  Amanda on the Geni Blog.

*  Ruth Blair on The Passionate Genealogist blog.

*  Jen on the Climbing My Family Tree blog.

*  Diane Haddad on the Genealogy Insider blog. 

*  Julie Cahill Tarr on the GenBlog blog.

Vacation Day - Saturday, 19 May 2012

We pulled into Edinburgh at 8 a.m. this morning on the Royal Caribbean's Vision of the Seas cruise ship, but not at a dock.  We have to "tender in" to the port.

We have not chosen a tour yet, deciding to see how tired we are and the weather.  We've been to Edinburgh before, and have toured the Castle, the Royal Mile, St. Giles Cathedral, and St. Andrews back in 1993 when we were more agile.  We may just go ashore for lunch.

We leave Edinburgh at 8 p.m. tonight and head for Oslo.  But Sunday is going to be a busy day!

Surname Saturday - LNU (Germany? > New Jersey)

It's Surname Saturday, and I'm "counting down" my Ancestral Name List each week.  I am up  to number 453, Maria LNU (????-1738). [Note: The 6th great-grandfathers have been covered in earlier posts] 

My ancestral line back to Maria LNU is:

1. Randall J. Seaver

2. Frederick Walton Seaver (1911-1983)
3. Betty Virginia Carringer (1919-2002) 

6.  Lyle Lawrence Carringer (1891-1976)
7.  Emily Kemp Auble (1899-1977)

14.  Charles Auble (1849-1916)
15.  Georgianna Kemp (1868-1952)

28.  David Auble (1817-1894)
29.  Sarah Knapp (1818-ca 1900)

56.  Johannes Able (1780-????)
57.  Anna Row (1787-1863)

112.  Johannes Able (1758-1818)
113.  Sophia Trimmer (1747-1811)

226.  Matthias Trimmer (1722-1793)
227.  Anna Martha Nachbar (1724-????)

452.  Johannes Trimmer, born about 1700 in of Feldkirchen, Palatinate, Germany; died January 1749 in Amwell, Hunterdon, New Jersey, United States.  He married before 1720 in Germany.
453.  Maria, died 1738 At sea.

Children of Johannes Trimmer and Maria are:
i. Matthias Trimmer, born 1722 in Germany; died before 10 March 1793 in Readington, Hunterdon, New Jersey, United States; married Anna Martha Nachbar 1742 in New Jersey, United States.
ii. Anthonius Trimmer, born 1725 in Germany; died before 24 December 1754 in Washington, Warren, New Jersey, United States; married Elisabetha Houshall 1749 in Hunterdon, New Jersey, United States; born 1723 in New Jersey, United States; died 1781.
iii. Andreas Trimmer, born 1726 in Germany; died 14 August 1793 in Reading, Adams, Pennsylvania, United States; married Susanna Houshall 1746 in Hunterdon, New Jersey, United States; born about 1729 in Hunterdon, New Jersey, United States.
iv. Amos Trimmer, born 1727 in Germany.
v. George Trimmer, born about 1728 in Germany; died 29 March 1807 in Amwell, Hunterdon, New Jersey, United States; married (1) Ann Hoppock; born 1731 in Hunterdon, New Jersey, United States ; married (2) Catherine before 1769 in Hunterdon, New Jersey, United States.
vi. Harman Trimmer, born about 1730 in Germany; died before 04 September 1810 in Kingwood, Hunterdon, New Jersey, United States; married Martha Case; born 1733 in Hunterdon, New Jersey, United States.
vii. Hannah Trimmer, born 1733 in Germany.
viii. Mary Trimmer, born 1737 in Germany.

I have no clue as to Maria LNU's maiden name, and apparently no other researcher does either.  Are there any other descendants of Maria (LNU) Able that are researching this family?

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Legacy Day - Friday, 18 May 2012

We left Liverpool last night at 6:30 p.m.  We are headed for Edinburgh in Scotland, but this is an "at sea" day aboard the Royal Caribbean's Vision of the Sea cruise ship.

Since we're "at sea," this is a classroom day for the Legacy Family Tree team.  The scheduled classes in the Some Enchanted Evening Lounge on Deck 6 are:

*  8 a.m.:  Small group and one-on-one sessions with the Legacy team.


*  9 a.m.:  "Legacy: Especially for Beginners" by Geoff Rasmussen


*  10 a.m.:  "GENViewer, GENMatcher, GENCatalog, and Research Guidance" by Luc Comeau


*  12 noon:  Join group for lunch.


*  4 p.m.:  "Key Genealogical Resources for Ireland" by Judy Wight


*  5 p.m.:  "Key Genealogical Resources for Scotland" by Judy Wight


*  6 p.m.:  Join group for dinner.

I know nothing about GENViewer, GENMatcher, or GENCatalog - are they Legacy Family Tree features, or add-ons?  I guess I'll find out!

Tomorrow is Edinburgh, Scotland.

Book Review - "Texas Cherokees: 1820-1839"

Do you have Cherokee ancestry that resided in northeastern Texas in the early 19th century?  If so, then this book may be just what you've been looking for!

George W. Fields, Texas Cherokees: 1820-1839, A Document for Litigation (Oklahoma City, Okla., 1921, reprinted Baltimore, Md. : Genealogical Publishing Company, 2012), 118 pages + viii; $15.95 (soft cover).


The publicity for this book says:

Prior to the forced migration of Eastern Cherokee during the "Trail of Tears," several hundred tribesmen migrated to Texas in 1819. Following a brief stopover in Arkansas and then the future site of Dallas, Texas, the Cherokee ultimately established a settlement near present-day Nacogdoches. For the privilege to officially establish this settlement, the tribesmen first petitioned the Spanish government and then--following its war for independence--the leaders of Mexico, and, ultimately, the independent Republic of Texas. Despite negotiating in good faith with each regime--including the Treaty of February 23, 1836, negotiated with Texas president Sam Houston--the Cherokee were ultimately driven off their Texas land in 1839. Most of the Texas Cherokee, who had suffered hundreds of casualties, fled to the Indian [Oklahoma] Territory, once again falling victim to a white government attending to real-estate interests rather than honoring prior agreements with Native Americans.

The details of the Cherokee experience in east Texas are described in a legal document filed on behalf of the Cherokee’s descendants by attorney George W. Fields Jr. in 1921. The grandson of Texas Cherokee tribal co-leader Chief Richard Fields, the younger Fields compiled the document to support his--ultimately unsuccessful--suit in the U.S. Supreme Court. Fields was attempting to win compensation for the Texas Cherokee after they had been forced out of Texas.

Unpublished for over 80 years, the contents of Fields' account of the Texas Cherokee experience from 1820-1839 has now been transcribed for publication, complete with affidavits and facsimile illustrations, by Mr. Jeff Bowen. In addition to quoting sources documenting the agreements or understandings between the Texas Cherokee and governments in question, Fields' transcript includes a number of newspaper articles published in connection with the suit, illustrations of Chief Bowles and other personalities involved in this episode, correspondence, and a full name index to all the persons--both white and Cherokee--who figure in this forgotten episode in Cherokee history.

Disclosure: Genealogical.com contacted me recently and asked me to provide a review of this book. They mailed me a review copy for my personal use as remuneration for this review. 

Vacation Day - Thursday, 17 May 2012

Our cruise ship, the Royal Caribbean's Vision of the Seas, departed Dublin at 10 p.m. last night, and we arrived at the dock in Liverpool, England at 7:30 a.m.

Today, we're going to take the "In the Steps of the Beatles" Tour.  On the 4 hour tour, tour, the guide will recount the story of the Beatles in photo stops. including:  The Beatles Story, a walk-through series of 18 features following the Fab Four;  a walk on Mathew Street and hear the music playing in The Cavern;  then to Abbey Road studios to experience Beatlemania first hand (I missed it, I guess).

My guess is that we'll get lunch at an English pub, or back on the ship.

The ship departs from Liverpool at 6:30 p.m.