Cruise Vacation - Day 9 (Friday, 18 May 2012)

This was an "at sea" day between Liverpool and Edinburgh, Scotland.  The ship sailed north from Liverpool, between the islands of Skye and Lewis, across the top of Scotland heading for Edinburgh.

We were up early because this was a genealogy day at sea – five sessions on Legacy, Irish research and Scottish research in the Some Enchanted Evening lounge (deck 6, aft). After breakfast, the first session was a number of one-on-one sessions with the Legacy team. We clustered around the Legacy team members, who answered questions and demonstrated various uses of Legacy. I got my laptop set up and practiced creating sources.

Geoff presented “Legacy: Especially for Beginners” and demonstrated how to start using the software – including “Set Relationships” (which enables the relationship between my self and anyone else in my database), “Set Direct Line as Preferred” (which highlights the direct line – I chose my daughter as the key person),“Apply Ancestry Colors” (for my four grandparents lines) and setting Bookmarks (I chose myself and Robert Seaver). He also answered many questions about other features, including adding persons and spouses, and working in the Master Location List.

Luc Comeau presented “GENViewer, GENMatcher, GENCatalog and Research Guidance” in the next session, but he didn’t touch on Research Guidance (because we had no Internet connection) and didn’t mention GENMatcher. He demonstrated how GENCatalog works (it’s free at www.mudcreeksoftware.com) to find ALL genealogy database types on a computer drive. This is especially useful if you have databases for different programs in many file folder locations.

GENViewer permits a user to look at GEDCOM, PAF, TMG, FTM, RootsMagic, Temple Submission and Legacy database files for specific persons, can compare information between two files, enables the user to identify “islands” in their database, and more. It is available from the Legacy Store.

We broke up at 11 a.m. and I was greeted by Renee and Don, and invited to their cabin to see Don’s digital picture collection. He has an expensive camera and specializes in large digital photographs that are enhanced by a process that lightens dark areas and darkens light areas to create beautiful detailed images. Then I went to the Solarium and picked up Linda and we went to lunch. The ship was at sea all day today sailing from Liverpool to Edinburgh, and the ride was a bit rocky – it gave me a headache most of the day.

After lunch, I read my book, rested my eyes a bit in the library, and we were back in the lounge at 4 p.m. but the Bingo session ran long until 4:15 p.m. Geoff and his team scrambled to find another venue, but we ended up back in the lounge and Judy Wight started her “Key Genealogical Resources for Ireland” presentation at 4:25 p.m. She covered Civil Registration, Church Records and Census records (and substitutes) in great detail, and offered some excellent guidelines on doing Irish research. The syllabus material is comprehensive and very helpful to me as a “Beginner” in Irish research. There were only a couple of people who proclaimed themselves to be Advanced or Intermediate researchers. Judy’s second presentation was “Key Genealogical Resources for Scotland” and it was similar in content to the Irish research talk – mainly Census, Civil Registration and Church Records, although she covered other record types briefly.

I left at 6 p.m. to go get dressed for the second formal night for dinner – and we got to the dinner table at 6:10 p.m., and sat at Table 32 with four other couples, including Don and Renee.

After dinner, the Legacy group congregated on the stairs in the Centrum and had a group picture taken by the cruise photographers and, hopefully, by several other persons. Several couples had pictures taken in their finery also, including us. Then we went down to the Centrum dance floor and listened to the Blue Waters band play dance music – they were very good, accepted requests, and we danced and talked until 10:30 p.m. with Ken and Diane, and Christy and Steve.