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Research Guidance

  The Research Guidance Results screen is reached by choosing the Other Tools button on the Tools tab on the Ribbon bar and then choosing Research Tools > Research Guidance from the submenu.  It can also be reached by clicking on the Research icon on the personal toolbar of the Husband or Wife on the Family View.  The Research button can also be placed on the My Toolbar tab of the ribbon bar by using the Customize My Toolbar option.

Legacy's Research Guidance helps you locate records that may contain information about your ancestors. It does this in four steps. 

Legacy helps you review the ancestor's timeline, to be certain that you've already recorded everything you know about the ancestor. 
Legacy suggests preliminary survey sources to help you learn if the research is already in progress by another researcher. 
Select your goal, and Legacy provides a list of prioritized suggestions to help you accomplish your goal. 
Finally, Legacy organizes the sources into a To-Do List. 

The Research Guidance Results screen shows the current person at the top of the window along with his or her birth and death information.  If any piece of information has been estimated by Legacy, it is surrounded by angle brackets, and highlighted in red.  

Options
Clicking the Options button near the upper-right corner of the screen lets you refresh the current person's research suggestions, or change the font sizes of various portions of the screen so that you can see them better or display more information, or set the default country.

Note: The Source Tip text on the right is displayed in a web browser window.  If you set your Internet Explorer options to Ignore Font Sizes, any zoom changes you attempt to make for the notes and tips will be ignored.

Below the personal information are four tabs corresponding to the four general areas of Research Guidance.  Each is described below:

Review Timeline Tab

On the right is a list of the timeline events that make up the person's profile.  This is the information used to display suggested sources that you should look at to find addition information for the individual. Some of these events are drawn from existing information and others are estimated by Legacy and shown in red with angle brackets around them.  In general, the more timeline events that are known, the better Research Guidance can suggest helpful sources to research.  If you know any addition information, even estimated information that would help, click the Add Event/Fact button, located below the Timeline Events list. Clicking the button displays a popup menu with the following choices:
  • Add Vital Event - Vital events are birth, christening, death, and burial.  This option displays the Individual Information screen for the current person where you can add additional dates and locations.
  • Add Custom Event - Custom events include any facts other than the four vital information pieces.  This option displays the Event window for the current person where you can add additional facts.
  • Add a Marriage - This option displays the Add wife/husband screen, to add a spouse to the current individual. 

    Editing an Event

    You can make changes to any event by highlighting the desired row in the Timeline Events and clicking the Edit Event/Fact button below the list.  If you have a vital event selected, the Individual Information screen appears.  The Edit Event screen appears for any non-vital events.  The Marriage Information screen appears if you have a Marriage event highlighted.  If you have a Child line selected, the Individual Information for that child appears.

    Double-clicking any event in the list also displays the appropriate edit screen where you can add or edit information.

    What Information to Use
    By default, all the timeline events in the list are used to generate research suggestions by Legacy.  If you would like to turn off the inclusion of any particular event, click the checkbox in the Use column on the left to remove the checkmark.  Subsequent clicking of the checkbox toggles the checkmark on and off.


    Preliminary Survey Tab

    Before starting original research on an ancestor, you should learn if that ancestor has already been researched and documented by another fellow genealogist. In Step of Legacy's Research Guidance, Legacy suggests various sources and Internet sites where you can see if anything has already been published concerning your ancestor.

    The Preliminary Survey tab contains five sub-tabs:
    Lineage-Linked Databases
    Surname MB / ML  (Message Boards and Mailing Lists)
    Locality MB /ML
    Genealogies
    Local Histories

    Each tab indicates in its caption how many suggested sources are included.  The five tab areas are described below:

    Lineage-Linked Databases
    A Lineage-Linked database is what is created as you enter information into your Legacy Family File. Many researchers choose to publish their linage-linked databases to the Internet. The sites listed here are major repositories for these electronic databases. Some can be searched freely, others require a nominal subscription fee.

    The top portion of the tab area contains a list of the online databases containing lineage-linked pedigrees where you may find the current person.  The bottom of the area is a web browser.  (To use the web browser, you must be connected to the Internet and have Internet Explorer installed on your computer.)

    To search any of the lineage-linked preliminary survey databases, double-click the desired source in the upper list.  The search page for the appropriate web site is loaded and displayed in the web browser.  

    Surname MB / ML  (Message Boards and Mailing Lists)
    Message Boards and Mailing Lists assist researchers in communication with each other. These should be searched before beginning original research to learn if others are already research your same family lines. These Message Boards and Mailing Lists are also places where you can submit queries about your research.

    Like the Lineage-linked tab, the top portion of this tab area contains a list of the online message boards and mailing lists that match the current person.  For females, message boards are suggested that include each of their married names and their maiden name. The bottom of the area is a web browser.  

    To search any of the resources, highlight the desired message board or mailing list  and then click the Search button.  The search page for the appropriate web site is loaded and displayed in the web browser.

    Locality MB /ML
    Like the Surname Message Boards and Mailing Lists, locality Message Boards and Mailing Lists are places where you can submit queries or search the archived queries relating to a certain locality.

    This tab shows any locality message boards or mailing lists that might be useful in researching your ancestors.  It works the same way as the Surname MB/ML tab. 

    Genealogies
    Millions of books have been published over time. It is possible that one of those books contains genealogical information about your ancestor. The sources listed here assist you in locating a genealogy about your ancestor. Indexes and even some of the actual genealogies can be searched online.

    If there is a suggested source in the list that you would like to search, you can either click on the Plan to Search button, to add that source to the To-Do List, or, if the source is marked as online, click on the Online button to search the source online.  If you want to ignore the suggested source, click on the Options button and choose one of the Ignore... button choices.

    Below the suggested sources is a list of repositories. These are places where the suggested source can be researched.

    The Reason section of the screen displays the reasons for which the source was suggested.

    The Source Tip section may include additional helpful information about the suggested source.


    Local Histories
    Learning about the history of the cities, towns, counties, and other regions helps you learn about your ancestors. The suggested sources in the Local Histories tab are sources that help you learn about this history. Many of these histories contain biographical information about the people who lived in the area. They may also provide information about where the people came from who settled the area. Finding your ancestor's name in print may not only help you solve your research problem, but it helps them come alive!

    Filtering the List
    You can filter the list of source suggestions by any or all of the columns in the list.  There are four checkboxes under the Online, Ignore, To-Do, and Done columns.  If you check the Online column for example, only the suggestions that are available online will show in the list.  The same goes for the other three columns.  If you select two or more checkboxes, only the suggestions that pertain to all of the checkmarks will show.

    Suggested Sources Tab

    Once steps and have been completed, the Suggested Sources tab, step , provides you with the best sources to learn about your ancestor.

    The Suggested Sources tab contains seven sub-tabs corresponding to the seven possible goals available in the Research Guidance system.  These are:

    Birth / Death / Marriage / Parents / Siblings / History / Maiden Name

    Each tab area has the same layout as described below:

    Suggested Sources
    In the upper-left part of the tab area is the list of suggested sources for the current goal.  This list is ranked in order of importance, which means that the researcher is more likely to find information relating to their goal in the sources that are ranked higher (1 is the highest). However, do not neglect the sources that are ranked closer to the bottom of the list, because one never knows all of the hidden information in various sources. If you would like to see more detail for a particular source, double-clicking it displays all the information.

    The Suggested Sources list also indicates if the source is available online
    means the contents is available free of charge.
    means the content is available only by subscription.
    means that you must order the source document which is then sent to you.

    Source Output
    Below the Suggested Sources list is a source citation for the highlighted source in the list.  This can be used later, if you find information from this source, as the source documentation in Legacy.  

    To view the source details, double-click on the source in the Suggested Sources list.  The Source Details screen appears.

    Source Repositories
    The repository list shows one or more places where the source (highlighted in the Suggested Sources list) can be found.  Each repository line also indicates if there is an e-mail link or a web site address available by showing icons in the Email and Online columns.  
    means that there is an e-mail link to the source.
    means the source is available online.

    To view complete address and contact information for any repository, click the Repository Details button below the list.  (You can also double-click any repository for the details.  To send an email to a repository (with an Email icon), click the Email button below the list.  To launch your web browser and display the web site for the repository, click Online.

    Source Tip
    As you highlight each source in the Suggested Sources window on the left, the reason for suggesting that source is displayed in the window to the right. For example, if the Barbour Collection: Connecticut Birth Records… source is suggested, the reason section explains that this source was suggested because the individual lived in Connecticut during the same time period that the source covers.  Also included is more information about the source. In some cases, it lists the information that you might find in the source. It may suggest to you how to best utilize and/or analyze the information you might find.

    How to Use the Suggested Sources
    If you would like to search the source, click on the Plan to Search button to add it to your To-Do List. This is an important step - adding the source to your To-Do List helps you keep a log, or a history, of the sources that you have searched.

    Some of the sources listed in the list can be searched online. If this is true, an Internet icon appears in the Online column. Just click the Online button, and select the site that you wish to search. 

    If there is a source listed that you want to ignore, click on the Options button and choose one of the Ignore... button choices:

    Hide/Show ignored sources
    Ignore the highlighted source for the current individual.
    Ignore the highlighted source for everyone

    Filtering the List
    You can filter the list of source suggestions by any or all of the columns in the list.  There are four checkboxes under the Online, Ignore, To-Do, and Done columns.  If you check the Online column for example, only the suggestions that are available online will show in the list.  The same goes for the other three columns.  If you select two or more checkboxes, only the suggestions that pertain to all of the checkmarks will show.

    To-Do List Tab

    The final step in Research Guidance is to utilize the To-Do list that has been generated. This list can be printed by clicking on the Print button on the right. As you search the sources, even the online sources, be sure to update the To-Do Item by clicking on the Edit button. Here you can record your results.

    For example, if you searched the International Genealogical Index, and you did not find anything for your ancestor, be sure to record this. Record all variations of the name/surname that was searched, the time periods you searched, and any pertinent information so that you, or a fellow researcher, can understand exactly what you searched.

    Check Back Often
    Legacy's Research Guidance system is updated often, so check back frequently for great new sources to search.

    As you add new information to your Legacy Family File, the list of suggested sources may change. New sources may appear as you find more exact information.

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