Legacy Tip: Working with Obituaries

Geoff Rasmussen

07 Apr 2008

Locating obituaries for our ancestors is rewarding, although sometimes challenging. Legacy Family Tree makes the experience easier by helping you locate those ancestors for whom you have not yet located an obituary.

I’ve been trying to learn about my end-of-the-line ancestor, Lewis King, who was born about 1807 in Germany. Experience has taught me that clues to his ancestry may be found in the records of his children and grandchildren.

I previously located and recorded the obituaries for some of Lewis King’s descendants, and now it was time to work on the remaining family members. To see which descendants were missing obituaries, I clicked on Legacy’s Descendant tab. Click on the image below for a larger image:

Notice that at the far right is an Obituary column. If there is information in the Obituary column for the person, then I know that I have an obituary for them. To achieve this, follow these steps:

First, when you find an obituary, in the Individual’s Information screen, click on the Add button to create a custom fact/event. Add the Event’s name (Obituary), its date and place. Then in the Notes section, transcribe the obituary.
To add the Obituary column in the Descendancy view, first click on the Descendancy tab.
Click on the Options button on the right and click on Customize Columns.
Where there is an empty field name, click on the button with the three dots.
In the Field Names to Display screen, select Event, then select the event name of Obituary.
Click Select, then Close.

Now you are easily able to not only view the person’s descendants, but you can also easily visualize which of these descendants do not yet have a recorded obituary.

If you have a favorite Legacy tip and would like to share it with others, please send us an email.

Comments (14)

If you want to list all the individuals with obituaries using the Name List, use this search:
Look for Whom——Where to look—How to look—-What to look for
Individual———Event-Name——Equal To——-obituary
Second Condition
And
Individual———Event-Notes—–Not Equal to—(blank)
here (blank) means leave the field blank.

Thank you for the tip. It really works! Now to put all the obituries in Events.

Just want to further address BR’s comment about not having the “Obituary” listed under “Field Names to Display”. I, too, was scratching my head about this one until I realized that I missed a step. Under “Under Field Names to Display”, you must click on “Event” and there is the list where you will find “Obituary”.

Thank you for this tip! I would have never thought to look for the option, but can see that it would be helpful for search many different fields. Like figuring who is in which cemetery when planning a trip!

The tip re: Obituary in Descendent Tab is so cool. I tried in the Index tab as well and it works! Now I just need to enter the obituaries I do have, lol. Great tip

Great idea! That assumes one is creating a custom fact/event field and putting the obituary there. Last I checked one should not make assumptions in Genealogy.
What about all of us that actually put an obituary in the death notes section which make more sence? What do we do?
Legacy is great software but they lag behind in some respects.
I have been hoping to see them allow for same sex marriages for quite some time. Most other top softwares do. I may not agree with it but they are a fact of life and it would be nice if those that I have in my database could be entered as they should.
Thank you.

Thank you for the trial version of Legacy Charting. I appreciate it’s still in its early days but I think it’s a good tool! Question: can I colour-code my direct descendants so that they stand out from all the other indirect ones? And what is the best way to print these charts – as some of them are very large. Printing on A4 paper and sticky-taping together is looking a bit grim…

Phil, it’s just the magic of photo editing software.

Wonderful Tip. In the example you show the obituary column in a color. How is that done? I know where the Colors are but—–

B.R & Geoff – Perhaps the instructions should have specified that there are two OPTIONS options. One is on the top menu bar and is NOT the one referenced. The second is on the right hand vertical frame. That is the option button to use for the instructions to become meaningful. I hope this helps to clarify the problem.

Took me a minute, too, but only because I was trying to do it in five steps instead of six. 😉
This is really a great tip — I had no idea that the program had this capability and it’s going to be a great help for spotting all kinds of “holes.”
Thanks!

I have been putting obituaries under Death Notes since forever. Death Notes is not an option under Customize Columns. There’s alot of other options there like General Notes, Research Notes and Medical Notes. Any reason why Birth, Christening, Death and Burial Notes were left out?

B R – at the end of the article are instructions for how to get the obituary column to appear.

I’ve no idea what version of Legacy the author is using, but I do not have a ‘Obituary’ column in my descendant list, nor is it in the list of columns to add. Great tip, but how to implement it is a bit shaky.

TM
Tom M.

16 years ago

If you want to list all the individuals with obituaries using the Name List, use this search:
Look for Whom——Where to look—How to look—-What to look for
Individual———Event-Name——Equal To——-obituary
Second Condition
And
Individual———Event-Notes—–Not Equal to—(blank)
here (blank) means leave the field blank.
K
Katherine

16 years ago

Thank you for the tip. It really works! Now to put all the obituries in Events.
EC
E Caldwell

16 years ago

Just want to further address BR’s comment about not having the “Obituary” listed under “Field Names to Display”. I, too, was scratching my head about this one until I realized that I missed a step. Under “Under Field Names to Display”, you must click on “Event” and there is the list where you will find “Obituary”.
R
Robyn

16 years ago

Thank you for this tip! I would have never thought to look for the option, but can see that it would be helpful for search many different fields. Like figuring who is in which cemetery when planning a trip!
DH
Diane Hazeu

16 years ago

The tip re: Obituary in Descendent Tab is so cool. I tried in the Index tab as well and it works! Now I just need to enter the obituaries I do have, lol. Great tip
H
Hugh

16 years ago

Great idea! That assumes one is creating a custom fact/event field and putting the obituary there. Last I checked one should not make assumptions in Genealogy.
What about all of us that actually put an obituary in the death notes section which make more sence? What do we do?
Legacy is great software but they lag behind in some respects.
I have been hoping to see them allow for same sex marriages for quite some time. Most other top softwares do. I may not agree with it but they are a fact of life and it would be nice if those that I have in my database could be entered as they should.
Thank you.
KT
Kerry Trotter

16 years ago

Thank you for the trial version of Legacy Charting. I appreciate it’s still in its early days but I think it’s a good tool! Question: can I colour-code my direct descendants so that they stand out from all the other indirect ones? And what is the best way to print these charts – as some of them are very large. Printing on A4 paper and sticky-taping together is looking a bit grim…
GR
Geoff Rasmussen

16 years ago

Phil, it’s just the magic of photo editing software.
PH
Phil Husband

16 years ago

Wonderful Tip. In the example you show the obituary column in a color. How is that done? I know where the Colors are but—–
PB
P. Baun

16 years ago

B.R & Geoff – Perhaps the instructions should have specified that there are two OPTIONS options. One is on the top menu bar and is NOT the one referenced. The second is on the right hand vertical frame. That is the option button to use for the instructions to become meaningful. I hope this helps to clarify the problem.
K
Kris

16 years ago

Took me a minute, too, but only because I was trying to do it in five steps instead of six. 😉
This is really a great tip — I had no idea that the program had this capability and it’s going to be a great help for spotting all kinds of “holes.”
Thanks!
JB
JL Beeken

16 years ago

I have been putting obituaries under Death Notes since forever. Death Notes is not an option under Customize Columns. There’s alot of other options there like General Notes, Research Notes and Medical Notes. Any reason why Birth, Christening, Death and Burial Notes were left out?
GR
Geoff Rasmussen

16 years ago

B R – at the end of the article are instructions for how to get the obituary column to appear.
BR
B R Buckingham

16 years ago

I’ve no idea what version of Legacy the author is using, but I do not have a ‘Obituary’ column in my descendant list, nor is it in the list of columns to add. Great tip, but how to implement it is a bit shaky.