About six months ago, I started seriously researching my maternal grandfather's family from Baden, Germany. I was going nuts trying to keep track of who was in which generation or line of descent as there was extensive reuse of the same names ... Ernst Friedrich, Friedrich Ernst, Fred Ernest, Ernest F., F. Ernest (and many more) ... not to mention the changes of spellings in both given names and surnames over the years.
I came up with an (admittedly unorthodox) way of tracking this for my own benefit without burdening my family with my method ... they like the work I am doing as long as it's easy to understand.
I believe that this is an "undocumented feature" within Legacy ... and one which I hope they never change. It relies on the [[this is a private note]] method, but used in the given name field.
My ggg-grandfather's given name (he is the the first in this line) is entered as
Johann Jakob [[G1 L0 SG]].
This means that he is in the first generation, includes all lines, and stayed in Germany.
His first child is entered as
Maria Katarina [[G2 L1 SG]]
This means that she is in the second generation, the first line of descent, and stayed in Germany.
His second child is entered as
Johann Jakob [[G2 L2 EM1887 RR]]
This means that he is in the second generation, the second line of descent, emigrated in 1887, and is buried in Rose Ridge Cemetery.
Spouses (male or female) are entered with an "S" instead of a "G"
Amalie [[S2 L2 EM1887 RR]].
I've done this down through the first six generations. It's easiest to see that you've entered folks correctly on the Family View screen as three generations are shown at once.
This makes it much easier to work with unfamiliar names and lines. Every screen in Legacy that shows the given name will also show you the generation and line. If you want to see this notation on a report, you simply select the option to print hidden notes. And if the report is for distribution to others, you suppress private notes and it's gone!!! It also works when you export GEDCOM files.
This is searchable ... looking for "G5" in the given name finds all the descendants in the fifth generation ... looking for "S5" finds all their spouses (including multiple marriages) ... and searching for "L3" finds all the people in the third line of descent.
I'm sure that you folks will come up with many variations on this ... I think it solves some of the problems others have posed and doesn't require asking the Legacy people to add a feature.
Regards,
Bob
P.S. This worked well when first cousins married ... they are entered as
Him [[G3 L2]]
Her [[G3 L5]]and their children as
Child [[G4 L2L5]].
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