Legacy 7
Same-Sex Instructions

The following information and wording comes directly from Technical Support, Legacy Family Tree. I suspect this information will change the longer Legacy 7 is used following release.

From Technical Support, Legacy Family Tree

Before you start, back up the family file. The first steps are exactly what you do when entering a straight couple. The change in sex is made in Microsoft Access. (If you do not have MS Access, you can send your family file as an email attachment (if not too large) or snail mail it on a CD to Legacy Family Tree, Technical Support, for assistance.)

Note: Open source database applications, such as StarOffice Database will also open your Legacy database.

Here is how you enter a person in the Male or Female box:

1. With the mouse cursor, click anywhere to the right of the labels in the Male/Female box.   As soon as you click here, it turns blue, and the husband’s/Wife’s Information window appears.

2. Enter the given names of this individual.

3. Move to the next field, which is the Surname field, by pressing the tab key or by clicking inside the field with the mouse.

4. Enter the last name.

5. Continue entering all the information you have.

6. When you are finished, click the Save button.

 Adding a partner to an individual is exactly the same as adding the individual in the first place:

1. With the mouse cursor, click to the right of the labels in the middle of the Male or Female box.   The Information window appears.

2. Enter the given names of the individual.

3. Move to the next field, which is the Surname field, by pressing the tab key or by clicking inside the field with the mouse.

4. Enter the last name (often called surname).

5. Continue entering all the information you have.

6. When you are finished, click the Save button.

 To enter the Marriage/Partnership Information:

1. Click the Marriage Information button in the middle of the main window, just below the Husband and Wife boxes (They have changed from Male and Female to Husband and Wife).  The Marriage Information window appears.

2. Fill in the marriage date, if there is one.

3. Tab to the Place field and fill in the location where the marriage was performed.

4. Enter the status.  If you would like to see a list of current and default entries, click the button to the right of the field.  You can make a new status if none on the list fit the partnership situation.

5. If you know that this couple had no children, you can check the This Couple Had No Children box.   This situation will then be shown on the Family View.

6. Change the Wording Options to fit the partnership situation.  The customized Wording Options are used when printing reports.

7. When you are finished, click the Save button.

 Open the Legacy family file in Microsoft Access:

1. Rename the Legacy family file to replace the .FDB extension with the .MDB extension.

2. Open Access.

3. On the File menu, click Open.

4. Click a shortcut in the left side of the Open dialog box, or in the Look in box, click the drive or folder that contains the family file.

5. Double-click the family file.

 Change the gender of one of the partners:

1. Open the table named tblIR.

2. The IDIR field holds the RIN numbers.  Use these to find an individual.

3. The Surname and GivenName fields are self-explanatory.

4. The Gender field holds the sex of the individual: Male = "0” and Female = "1".

5. Change the gender to be the same as his or her partner.

6. Save the file and close Microsoft Access.

 Check the same-sex partnership in Legacy.

1. Rename the family file back to the .FDB extension.

2. Open the family file in Legacy.

3. Check the gender of each partner in his or her individual information window.

4. Running Check and Repair in Legacy does not change the gender back to the partner's opposite. It only lists it as a problem in the Error Log. Just ignore it.

Limitations of This Process

 As with any “work around” where a process must be designed to accomplish an action the software is programmed to disallow, there are limitations to making a change of gender in your Legacy database. Here is what has been reported by users:

	Clicking on Edit and selecting “Swap Husband and Wife” will change the gender of one of the same-sex partners. Don’t do it unless you want to go back into MS Access and change the family file again.
	Relationships - Relationship names shown in Family View and on the Relationship Report for one of the same-sex partners may be wrong. Relationships are built from one starting person, called "Self" and are set by clicking Tools and selecting "Set Relationships."
	Reports — Some reports work fine with the changes to gender. Both Family Group and Pedigree reports work fine, providing information about both members of a relationship. Descendant, Individual, Timeline, and apparently some book reports do not include information about the spouse.
	Chronology View — This feature acts oddly. In one quick test, the partner record did not include the relationship or information about the spouse. When switched to the other partner, the relationship and spouse were present.
	Changing Views - Switching from Chronology View to Family View can result in a same sex partner appearing without his or her partner and a grayed out Spouse button that indicates no spouse. This happens when a partner in Chronology View does not include the relationship or information about the spouse.
	Back Arrow - When the above problem results in a same sex partner appearing without his or her partner and a grayed out Spouse button that indicates no spouse, the Back button (blue arrow in the upper left area of the main Legacy screen) doesn't work. This indicates a "History List" problem.

There may be other Legacy 7 problems that haven't been discovered yet.

 Legacy Add-Ons (Programs that directly read the Legacy Family File)

	Genelines for Legacy — Excludes spouse and children resulting from changing genders in the Legacy database.
	Legacy Charting Companion - Excludes spouse and children resulting from changing genders in the Legacy database.
	TreeDraw Legacy — Excludes spouse and children resulting from changing genders in the Legacy database.

Not every add-on program has been tested. There may be problems with other add-on programs that haven't been discovered yet.