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Bookworm

Focus Group Filtering

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I have a large database and a cousin would like a GEDCOM of her family data, including all the spouses and children and descendants of those children, even those from other marriages. I can get all the direct ancestors and their spouses, but I haven't been able to figure out how to get the "extra" spouses and their children. I am using the Focus Group to collect everyone and then copying everyone to Project Explorer and then exporting the GEDCOM with all spouses. It works fine for the direct ancestral line. Can I just change the filter in the Focus Group (and change it to what?) or am I on the wrong track altogether? I did think of going to the top-of-the-tree people and filtering for their descendants, but there were a lot of them and it seems awkward. Thanks in advance- Bev

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Bev,

 

First, you don't need to copy to the Project Explorer - you can use the Focus Group directly to control the export. But the challenge then is getting all the right people in the focus group.

 

I don't know what you mean about changing the filter in the Focus Group - Focus Groups don't have filters. So let's start from scratch.

 

The Focus Group is designed so you can add one or more people, then use the "Add Others" feature to add people related to those already in the Focus Group. For that to work, you need to think carefully about how those you want to add are related to those already in the group, and also keep in mind how those you don't want to include are related, so you don't get them included by accident.

 

The other thing you need to keep in mind is that the "Add Others" feature doesn't automatically apply to everyone already in the group, but only to those you have selected.

 

So, making assumptions about who you want to include, I'd suggest something like this:

 

1. In an empty group, add your starting person, who I'm guessing is your cousin.

 

2. Select that person, check the Ancestors box under Add Others, set the number of generations to a high number, make sure Descendants and Spouses are unchecked, and click the Add Others button. You just added all the ancestors of your starting person.

 

3. Click the Select All button to select everyone already in the group, uncheck Ancestors, check Descendants and enter a high enough number of generations, and click Add Others again. You have now added all the descendants of the ancestors previously added - that is the siblings and cousins.

 

4. Click Select All again, uncheck Descendants, and check Spouses. Click Add Others, and you have added all the spouses of the descendants you added in the last step, plus any "other" spouses of the Ancestors.

 

5. Click Select All, uncheck Spouses, and check Descendants again, and click Add Others to add the children of those spouses by other marriages.

 

6. Do step 4 again to pick up "other" spouses of those spouses, as well as the spouses of their children.

 

7. Now click Select All, uncheck Descendants, check Ancestors and click Add Others to pick up the parents of the spouses. You may want to limit this step to one generation to avoid getting a large number of ancestors of spouses that you don't really intend to include.

 

That will probably do it, unless you have some even more remote relatives you want to include, in which case you would repeat the steps above to get them, or add them manually.

 

Now, you can use the Focus Group to make your export.

 

My article on Using People Filters provides more details on this method, and others, for collecting a set of people, and may be helpful.

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