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Viper2004

How to delete a complete family branch?

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Hello!

 

I would like to delete a whole familybranch from one of my projects along with all cousins, partners of cousins, their kids, etc. If i disconnect one of the couples i would have 2 separate trees and one of them i would like to get rif of. Is there a way to do so?

 

Thanks, Philipp

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You basically need to use the Project Explorer to build a Focus Group of all individuals whom you want to delete. You can probably collect most of the individuals with filters (and you might need to use a flag if multiple filters are required). These can be added to the Focus group. Then you can add any stragglers individually. Once all individuals are in the Focus Group, add a new data set, and move the members of the Focus Group to the new data set.

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Hello!

 

I would like to delete a whole familybranch from one of my projects along with all cousins, partners of cousins, their kids, etc. If i disconnect one of the couples i would have 2 separate trees and one of them i would like to get rif of. Is there a way to do so?

 

Thanks, Philipp

As Jim explained, you can do that.

 

But, why? What is gained? Memory is now cheap. You do loose all of that research. Can you be so sure of what your future genealogical interests will be? Think about it. Answer these questions to and for yourself, only.

 

As you mentioned, by deleting 2 links, you can prevent those people from appearing on your ancestor or descendant charts and reports. TMG can handle hundreds of thousands of people and many so called trees with no problem. You don't have to look at those that you don't want.

 

Best wishes, whatever you decide,

Mike Talbot

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Thank the both of you.

The background is that i'd like to create a website using Second Site 2 for a special branch of my family. (And i want this with all relations, sidebranches, cousinlines, etc.) And i don't want the other branches to appear there.

So i thought i'd copy all data to a new database (so i won't loose any since i keep the original DB) and delete all people i don't want to have on the website.

- Philipp

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Thank the both of you.

The background is that i'd like to create a website using Second Site 2 for a special branch of my family. (And i want this with all relations, sidebranches, cousinlines, etc.) And i don't want the other branches to appear there.

So i thought i'd copy all data to a new database (so i won't loose any since i keep the original DB) and delete all people i don't want to have on the website.

- Philipp

 

You can set a flag on individuals in TMG that you want to appear on your web site and have SS include only those individuals with the flag set...no need to copy and delete....

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Setting Flags per person might be a way, but not the best, as i think: I've got abot 5000 people in the DB that i want and about 500 that i dont want to have. So it would be a awfull lot of work. I am really surprised, that there isn't a "delete everyone who is not related to this branch Button".

- Philipp

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Setting the flags does not have to be done "per person", it is much easier than that. First create a custom flag (maybe called INCLUDE) with some default value that is appropriate for most of your people (e.g. 'Y') and at least one other value for the people you want to not include (e.g 'N'). Just creating the flag sets it for everyone in the dataset to the default value all at once. Build a Focus Group of the small group as mentioned by Jim above. With the ability to add descendants to multiple generations and "spouses" in one click this should be very quick. Then run a "List of People" report where the Subject(s) of the report is that Focus Group. Under Options under the Secondary Output tag tick the box to Change Flag and choose the INCLUDE flag to be set to 'N'. You probably also want to tick the box to Suppress output. Running that report will set the flag for all the people in that Focus Group at once. Actually, setting this flag may actually be easier than deleting the people. And your project can stay this way with your flag already set whenever you update your SS site without need to again delete these people.

 

Hope this gives you ideas,

Edited by Michael Hannah

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Philipp,

If you will tell us what those 500 people have in common, like descendants of a certain ancestor, or all born in TN, we can tell you how to filter the list of persons to create your flag. It will take only a few minutes to set up and then you can keep the other 4500 people in your database. Believe me, you will want those people later. :)

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For the sake of argument, I too want to do this and I'm glad to see some how-tos. I'm preparing a site to write to CD for a cousin. Since she has no relation to my husband, I want to delete his entire ancestry. I've made a copy of my project for her that I can manipulate to my heart's content. I tried using filters to create a new dataset, but it was far too confusing. I've always had a lot of trouble with anything but simple filters - so a big job like this was just not the way to further my education! :-)

 

I've also got census people, cemeteries, etc., to remove.

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Kathleen,

 

What I do is I create a new flag just for SS, let's call it COUSIN.

 

In COUSIN, I want all her ancestors, and all her descendants+her and her spouses.

 

So I first filter the LIST OF PEOPLE for

 

Is an ANCESTOR of (put in her ID number) and have the secondary output set to Y.

 

Then I am going to do another LIST OF PEOPLE for

 

Is a DESCENDANT of (put in her ID number) and have the secondary output set to Y.

Next I set the flag to Y manually for her and any spouses.

 

Now in SS, select to INCLUDE anyone whose COUSIN flag is set to Y. You can then exclude living people or not based on your needs.

 

 

That's really all there is to it.

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OK, I gave it a try and to a certain extent it worked, thank you. However, I need the ancestral line complete with siblings and spouses and their children. This is where I start tearing my hair out. I know better than to just start checking the boxes in the menu box all at once, but how do I proceed?

 

I was terrible at programming macros, too. :-{

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When you do the filter, you can select Spouses, Ancestors and/or descendants.

 

What I would do if I were you is try it with each box checked one at a time. Definitely you are going to want to check the spouses box.

 

So let's say you have all her ancestors, all her descendants and her spouses. But you really want their spouses as well, so you'd check that box.

 

Now when you are getting all her descendants, you probably have all their ancestors, (at least on her side) but if you also want to include them on her husband's side as well, then click the ancestors box when you run the LIST OF PEOPLE filtered for is a descendant of.

 

Now it can get tricky when you are filtering for is an ancestor of and you select descendants. If your husband is her 14 cousin 2 removed, he will be picked up in that filter UNLESS, you limit the number of generations. One thing I often do when I run that filter is limit the generations to 2-3 generations. That way I am only sharing the children and grandchildren, and maybe great grandchildren of her ancestors. That way she still gets those first few vital descendants, but not 1000s of people who are so distantly related to her that she could care less.

 

So go ahead and filter for Is an ancestor of and include DESCENDANTS of those people to 2 (or three, you pick) generations. See who gets picked up in the flag.

 

 

If you get someone in the flag you don't want, you can always run the LOP for ALL PEOPLE and reset the flag back to ? and start all over.

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