Often, through entering information and by importing records from other people you will end up with two or more variations of the same location in the Master Location List. These are spelled a little bit differently. For example, you might end up with:
Pompton Pl., Morris, NJ
Pompton Plains, Morris, NJ
Pompton Plains, Morris, NJ
Pompton Plains, Morris Co., NJ
Pompton Plains, Morris, New Jersey
Pompton Plains, Morris County, New Jersey
Pompton Plains, Morris, New Jersey, USA
All of these locations are obviously the same place and should be combined into just one, "good", location name. This is very easy to do in Legacy. To combine multiple locations:
1. Choose one of the locations that you want to keep. If it isn't exactly like you want it formatted, use the Edit button to fix it. This is now your "good" location name.
2. Highlight all the other locations in the group. If the group is contiguous, you can highlight the top location and then hold down the shift key while you click on the bottom location. The entire group will then be highlighted. If the various locations are not in a continuous block, highlight the first one and then press and hold down the Ctrl key while to click on each of the other locations in the group. Each one will remain highlighted as you click the others.
3. Click the Combine button at the bottom of the list. The caption on the button will now change to read Combine With.
4. Highlight the "good" location line by clicking on it.
5. Click the Combine With button at the bottom. All the "bad" locations are then combined with the "good" one and all the records in your family file that were pointing to the "bad" ones now point to the "good" one… (saving you potentially hours of editing).
The Master Locations List is reached by clicking the down arrow next to any location field. It can also be displayed by clicking on View on the menu bar and selecting Master Lists > Location.
You can see a free online video demonstration on combining locations by visiting http://www.millenniacorp.com/_videos/12step/12_step__preview.html
