Release of Legacy 7

A couple days late, but "just in case" you haven't heard, Millennia officially released version 7 of Legacy on June 4th. Like many other users I've been patiently waiting for this release, especially the new sourcing feature. I would really, really like to get the new version right now, however, I am in the midst of a major scanning project, so upgrading Legacy is going to have to wait for a while, until I have some time to devote to it. Probably just as well since Millennia has been overwhelmed with orders. I'd say that's a good problem for a software company to have!

Details of the new and updated features can be found at http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/ but the five features I'm looking forward to exploring are:

1. Mapping – Use Microsoft Virtual Earth to automatically pinpoint and plot important locations in ancestors’ lives from within Legacy. See 3-D, satellite and bird’s eye images of where your ancestors lived. Now it is easy to track your ancestor’s migration.
2. SourceWriter – Cite your sources easily and correctly with the new SourceWriter. SourceWriter makes it simple for you to select the correct input screen so that you enter all the pieces needed to correctly cite any source of information in the thousands of formats that exist for them. The information you enter is correctly and precisely formatted to match the genealogy industry standards for source citations when printing footnotes, endnotes, and bibliographies. Multiple citations for an event can be combined into one paragraph, thus avoiding a long string of superscripted numbers within the report body.
3. New Relationship Calculator - See how any two people are connected, not only through direct blood relationships but also by marriage. A person might be the "great-grandfather of the wife of your 2nd great-grandnephew. You can also specify how many of these non-blood relationships you want to see.
4. More Powerful Searching – Searching your Legacy data is easier than ever before. You can now search for individuals that are missing parts of names, birth or death information, marriage information and much more. You can also search for missing source citations as you document your family files.
5. Edit Records from the "Used By" Lists - All of the master lists in Legacy have an option to view the individuals who use the items in the list. You can now edit those individuals right from the list instead of having to exit the list and edit them separately.

As always, no matter how much testing is done, there can be issues (program bugs, user hardware conflicts, etc.) with a release that has a lot of changes. I used to subscribe to the Legacy User List but got overwhelmed by the number of emails and quite simply didn't have the time to keep up with it all. The bickering and complaining was a bit of a drag too. The Legacy User Group Archives are a good place to see what kind of issues users are having.

Ordering and pricing information can be found at Legacy Family Tree. The "standard" version is free for downloading. It is the same program as the "deluxe" version with some features disabled. Want to see how Legacy stacks up to the competition? Check out their feature comparison page. Disclaimer: I am not associated or affiliated with Millennia is any way, except as a long-time, satisfied customer.