Legacy Tip – how to record where you have lived AND a personal update

Geoff Rasmussen

03 Jan 2013

It has been almost two weeks since our family's move to the state of Idaho (brrrr…), so it is time to record our new residence in Legacy Family Tree. According to Legacy's Chronology View, this is the 20th residence of my 37-year-old life, and the 8th of my 15 years of marriage. In another week, I'll get to add one more residence event to Legacy (we're currently living at my mother-in-law's until construction on our new house is complete). Because of the way I have recorded these life events, Legacy created this map of where I have lived:

Clicking on the Mapping button in the main toolbar created a map showing all of the places we have lived. Zooming in to our current residence, and clicking on the Bird's Eye link displayed this terrific map:

Here's the step-by-step instructions of creating these residence events:

In the Marriage Information screen, click Add and fill in the fields.

If you do not like the default sentence of "They had a residence from 27 Oct 2004 to 21 Dec 2012 in 14710 North 129th Drive, El Mirage, Maricopa, Arizona", use the Sentence Override tab to customize specifically to this event, or you can click on the Edit Event Sentence Definition to adjust the sentence's template.

Adding a residence is the one time I stray from my own advice to not add the address to the place. I add them here for my personal residences so they are more-precicely plotted on the map.

Just had an idea…I would also like to add a picture of the house for each different residence event. That'd be cool, wouldn't it?

After clicking Save, our Marriage Events appear:

Now, when I click on the Chronology View, my entire life's timeline is displayed, including those residence events I have added for the places I lived before our marriage. Note to Geoff: remember to get pictures of every house – a picture timeline of these would be really fun!

For more about adding events, sources, and more, watch the Watch Geoff Live webinar series.

Personal update:

As you may know, we have lived in Arizona for the past 8 years. This past summer, we took a vacation to Idaho to see my wife's parents. In the end, we ended up wanting to extend the vacation permanately. I wrote about all this on my personal blog.

In our first week here, my 3-year-old experienced her first snow. I had my camera out to take a picture, but it was in video mode. I'm glad it was – I asked her what she thought of her first snow. She looked at me, gave me a weird face, and then replied, "I think I have to go to the bathroom," and quickly ran inside. So cute!

In our short time here, we've been able to enjoy the mountains, grandparents, Christmas, New Year's, cooler temps than we're used to, and have now found three good fishing holes. And the great thing about my job – I can do it from anywhere! I've been working really, really hard on a new project. Can't wait to announce it to all of you in the next month or so. Happy new year everyone!

Comments (13)

Anne – in the Individual’s Information screen, click on the Options button, then click on Sort. You can sort both ways.

It would be great if events could be sorted by type or date. This would make tracking careers & moves so much easier.

Thank you.

Marilyn – the individual residences usually just go in the Events section of the Individual’s Information screen. Yes, you can also link a picture to each event.

Geoff – You entered your residences in the marriage info.
Where did you enter your residences before you were married?
Also can you put the picture of the house with each of those entries?

I never considered or thought about listing residences in the marriage screen. I really like the idea! Thanks… I am going to start using this suggestion.. And again, welcome to the Great State of Idaho!!

During the holidays this year, we had everyone in my nuclear family in one place for the first time in 8 years. We spent some time huddled around the computer, using google earth to find the residences for all of the grandparents, uncles and aunts, and the house my mom was born in. And found that Dad’s childhood home had been torn down to create a university police department complex. I wish I’d saved the photo from a prior search. Even the internet archives doesn’t seem to have it.

Two terrific tips. I doubt I can even remember all the addresses I lived at (I wasn’t exactly and “army brat” but close) but I can certainly remember enough to start adding them. And pictures! As for adding places listed against names in obits-I guess I’d better go digging through my obit file….

Geoff,
Great idea of taking a photo of the prior home, I wish I had done that because all of my prior places where I lived as a kid or even adult are now torn down, drats.
I had not thought of including addresses with obits but that is another good idea to include.
I know I am safe in including it to my database because I do not post to the internet, my genealogy database is for my kids to have and know about their ancestry after I am gone.
Keep your great tips coming….

The obituaries were the first source of residences that I used. I just assumed that we were supposed to enter all of them. I have also found them helpful.

Hello. And Bye.

Geoff, what a great tip!

When I am adding obits, I now add residence events for everyone listed in the obit (assuming their place of residence is listed). I have only been doing this for about a year. I wish I had been doing this all along because knowing where a person lived during certain periods can lead you to new records. For example, I had a great uncle that was listed as living in Cheyenne, Wyoming in 1960. I had no idea he had ever lived up there (apparently he was only there for less than a year). This lead me to a 4th marriage record (married and divorced in that less than 1 year time span) that I would have never found had I not been paying attention to where he was listed as living in one of his siblings obits.

GR
Geoff Rasmussen

12 years ago

Anne – in the Individual’s Information screen, click on the Options button, then click on Sort. You can sort both ways.
AA
Anne Archbold

12 years ago

It would be great if events could be sorted by type or date. This would make tracking careers & moves so much easier.
MS
Marilyn Smith

12 years ago

Thank you.
GR
Geoff Rasmussen

12 years ago

Marilyn – the individual residences usually just go in the Events section of the Individual’s Information screen. Yes, you can also link a picture to each event.
MS
Marilyn Smith

12 years ago

Geoff – You entered your residences in the marriage info.
Where did you enter your residences before you were married?
Also can you put the picture of the house with each of those entries?
JC
John Calkins

12 years ago

I never considered or thought about listing residences in the marriage screen. I really like the idea! Thanks… I am going to start using this suggestion.. And again, welcome to the Great State of Idaho!!
P
PamD

12 years ago

During the holidays this year, we had everyone in my nuclear family in one place for the first time in 8 years. We spent some time huddled around the computer, using google earth to find the residences for all of the grandparents, uncles and aunts, and the house my mom was born in. And found that Dad’s childhood home had been torn down to create a university police department complex. I wish I’d saved the photo from a prior search. Even the internet archives doesn’t seem to have it.
C
CherieB

12 years ago

Two terrific tips. I doubt I can even remember all the addresses I lived at (I wasn’t exactly and “army brat” but close) but I can certainly remember enough to start adding them. And pictures! As for adding places listed against names in obits-I guess I’d better go digging through my obit file….
D
DonF

12 years ago

Geoff,
Great idea of taking a photo of the prior home, I wish I had done that because all of my prior places where I lived as a kid or even adult are now torn down, drats.
I had not thought of including addresses with obits but that is another good idea to include.
I know I am safe in including it to my database because I do not post to the internet, my genealogy database is for my kids to have and know about their ancestry after I am gone.
Keep your great tips coming….
VB
Virginia Beddow

12 years ago

The obituaries were the first source of residences that I used. I just assumed that we were supposed to enter all of them. I have also found them helpful.
C
cyncImpaica

12 years ago

Hello. And Bye.
FM
Fred Mattox

12 years ago

Geoff, what a great tip!
MS
Michele Simmons Lewis

12 years ago

When I am adding obits, I now add residence events for everyone listed in the obit (assuming their place of residence is listed). I have only been doing this for about a year. I wish I had been doing this all along because knowing where a person lived during certain periods can lead you to new records. For example, I had a great uncle that was listed as living in Cheyenne, Wyoming in 1960. I had no idea he had ever lived up there (apparently he was only there for less than a year). This lead me to a 4th marriage record (married and divorced in that less than 1 year time span) that I would have never found had I not been paying attention to where he was listed as living in one of his siblings obits.