Legacy Tip – Who Was Alive in 1939? Or in ____?

Geoff Rasmussen

15 Dec 2015

Which of your ancestors were alive in 1939? Or in 1880? Or in 1861? Or in fill in the blank?

With the recent announcement of the new 1939 Register for England and Wales lots of us (myself included) are wondering if our cousins are included in this wonderful collection. A special tool in Legacy Family Tree makes it simple to know who would have been alive and living somewhere in England in 1939. OR, who would have been alive to be counted in the 1880 U.S. census? OR, who would have been alive at the start of the Civil War? OR, fill in the blank….

Here's how to get a list of who would have been alive on a certain date.

1) In Legacy Family Tree go to Search > Census List.

2) Fill in the place (England), the date (1939), and deselect the age and gender options (since we're looking for everyone in 1939 in England) and click the Create a Search List button.

My Search List shows 44 individuals:

Instead of clicking on the Create a Search List button, clicking on the Preview a Census List Report displays the results in this format:

Here, the birth date, death date, age on date, and possible location (with a percentage of likelihood they would be found there) are shown.

And it keeps getting better. Before printing the report, turn on the options for "include married names for wives" and "include surrounding relatives". Both options would make it easier to find them in the records.

This so-called "Census List" report really could be renamed to "Who Was Alive On?" What other ways could the report be used?

Who was alive during the ____ War (now look for their military records)?
Who was alive when the printing press was invented?
Who was alive during the great potato famine?
Who could I find on the 1892 New York state census?
And so on…

The Census List tool is a deluxe feature of Legacy Family Tree. To upgrade to Legacy Deluxe, click here.

Comments (7)

Boyd – you can type in any location.

How about extending the list of countries that this type of search can be applied to – maybe open it up to any country and county/province.
If you need a list please put the list in alphabetical order.
Boyd

Jim – the % isn’t calculating the fact that he could have been alive then, rather it is estimating the likelihood that he would be living in the place that Legacy is suggesting in the report.

Great tool. I don’t quite understand the % though. My G GF died in 1945 so wen I did 1940 it had him at 50%. He was definitely alive. Am I interpreting tis incorrectly?
Thanks,
Jim

Bob – you could first do a search for everyone with a certain surname, and then on the Census List tab, choose the option that says “only search the search list”. Then your list will only be those that meet your conditions and they will only have the surname of Smith.

A good option but my list went for more than 200 pages.
As a suggestion, could you include an option of entering a family name to search, e.g. Smith?
This would allow us to narrow the search initially to those families in which we are more interested. As families are eliminated from these searches the broader search should suffice.
Keep up the good work.

Oh yes! I keep forgetting the search options hidden under “Census List” – A better name for it would be “Advanced Lists” since there are so many more options other than Census searches.
I’ve now got several lists of people for the 1841 England Census, to help me remember who I still need to find, where, on that early census. Love the %age ‘possible location’ on the list as well. And then I started to do more searches, and finally decided they could wait until after I’ve finished the current task!! 🙂 Merci.

GR
Geoff Rasmussen

9 years ago

Boyd – you can type in any location.
BM
Boyd Miller

9 years ago

How about extending the list of countries that this type of search can be applied to – maybe open it up to any country and county/province.
If you need a list please put the list in alphabetical order.
Boyd
GR
Geoff Rasmussen

9 years ago

Jim – the % isn’t calculating the fact that he could have been alive then, rather it is estimating the likelihood that he would be living in the place that Legacy is suggesting in the report.
JW
Jim Wormelle

9 years ago

Great tool. I don’t quite understand the % though. My G GF died in 1945 so wen I did 1940 it had him at 50%. He was definitely alive. Am I interpreting tis incorrectly?
Thanks,
Jim
GR
Geoff Rasmussen

9 years ago

Bob – you could first do a search for everyone with a certain surname, and then on the Census List tab, choose the option that says “only search the search list”. Then your list will only be those that meet your conditions and they will only have the surname of Smith.
BT
Bob Taylor

9 years ago

A good option but my list went for more than 200 pages.
As a suggestion, could you include an option of entering a family name to search, e.g. Smith?
This would allow us to narrow the search initially to those families in which we are more interested. As families are eliminated from these searches the broader search should suffice.
Keep up the good work.
CL
Celia Lewis

9 years ago

Oh yes! I keep forgetting the search options hidden under “Census List” – A better name for it would be “Advanced Lists” since there are so many more options other than Census searches.
I’ve now got several lists of people for the 1841 England Census, to help me remember who I still need to find, where, on that early census. Love the %age ‘possible location’ on the list as well. And then I started to do more searches, and finally decided they could wait until after I’ve finished the current task!! 🙂 Merci.