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dave browne

Splitting Project file

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Now have over 8000 names in one project file and want to split it on husband - wife connection. How can I do this?

Hi,

 

one method could be to copy the project and then delete the unwanted persons.

 

But why sould you? At present, I have more than 12000 people (and even more names) in my project, tendency increasing. Without problems.

To differentiate between "my" family and that of my wife, I defined a flag (like ANCESTRYBRANCH) indicating the part (actually , I am using five values: one for my wife's part ond one for each of my grand-parents). I did also set accents using this flag, so I can see immediately to which part of the family the individual belongs to.

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Another option is to create a filter that identifies who you want, then run a List of People report, and have the Secondary Output Options of that report create a new project of just those people.

 

But I agree with Helmut, why do you think your project is too large?

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Dave,

 

Like the other two posters, I recommend against splitting. If you do, you will be unable to create reports that include people from both separate Projects and any custom tag types or source types you create will have to be duplicated in both, among other inconveniences.

 

Nevertheless, it can be done. You cannot delete people who are connected to other people by marriage or relationship tags, so as a practical matter deleting large numbers of people from a project is not feasible. So while you can create a separate project with the List of People report as Michael describes, you will still be left with everyone in the first Project. One solution would be to then create a second new Project with the other group of people.

 

Another approach is to create a second Data Set within your current Project, and use the Move People function to move certain people to the second Data Set. You can then copy the Project, and delete on of the Data Sets in each copy.

 

A problem in such splits is defining who is to be included in each new Project. You say you want to split it at a husband/wife connection. Would then then keep each spouse in the other's Project for completeness? Their parents? Their children? Others? If you do you end up having to maintain these people in both Projects. If you don't you can't include them in reports.

 

That aside, you can easily define all the ancestors of one spouse or the other to make the split. But do you have others you need to include as well? Such as siblings of ancestors, their children, the spouses of those cousins, the parent of those spouses, etc. Or Witnesses who are not any of the above? You need to use care to get such folks included in the move if you do make the split.

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... But do you have others you need to include as well? Such as siblings of ancestors, their children, the spouses of those cousins, the parent of those spouses, etc. Or Witnesses who are not any of the above? You need to use care to get such folks included in the move if you do make the split.

 

Yes, you have stated the question, Terry. Now, how do we construct a filter to cut off a branch?

 

My wife has a genealogy file with token entries for my family, and I have token entries of her family in my file. I would like to cut off my line from her file, and her line from my file, then make a merge. So, what does a filter look like that removes a person and all their predecessors (ancestors & aunts & uncles & cousins)?

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Richard,

 

As I understand it, you have a Project with some of your wife's relatives, and she has a Project with some of yours. But each Project really focuses on it's own line. So you want to remove the "stray" relatives from each, then merge the two resulting Projects, right?

 

Also, it appears that the "stray" entries in each Project do not include anything of value that's not in the main Project for that family, right? If so you can do that, but will take a bit of care.

 

First, there is no single Filter that will gather ancestors, aunts, uncles, and cousins. You have to gather them by stages. There are two methods available:

 

1. Use the Focus Group, adding the people you want to include with the "Add Others" function until you have them all.

 

2. Create a temporary Flag, then use repeated runs of the Secondary Output of the List of People report with appropriate filters to mark all the people you want to remove.

 

Both methods are described in my Using People Filters article. I think the Focus Group method is the easiest for your needs.

 

The problem with either method is that in your case you and your wife appear in both Projects and are linked by marriage, I assume, so the steps to collect ancestors, aunts/uncles, and cousins will try to "climb" up the spouse's tree and collect them too. So you need to take steps to avoid that.

 

****Make sure you have a good backup before you start something like this, just in case***

 

Here's what I suggest... In your project, go to your wife's Person View and delete the links at the top of the screen to her parents. In her project, do the the reverse - remove the links to your parents. That will keep the steps that follow from finding the spouse's family.

 

Then, in your Project, say, open the Focus Group, and empty it if it contains anyone. Add one of her parents to the empty Focus Group. Use the following steps to then add all the rest of her ancestors and extended family:

 

1. In the Add Others Box, check the Ancestors, Descendant, and Spouses boxes. Set the Generations for both Ancestors and Descendants to a bit higher than the number of generations present.

 

2. Click the Select All button, then the Add Others button. Note the number of Names in the group at the top left corner of that screen.

 

3. Repeat step 2 until the number of names stops increasing.

 

You now have all her ancestors, etc., collected. You should review the list of people in the Focus Group to be sure you agree. Now you can remove them with these steps:

 

4. Open Data Set Manager (File menu) and add a new Data Set - say "Junk." Close Data Set Manager.

 

5. Open the Move Person(s) function on the Edit menu. Choose the third option, "People in the Focus Group, and in the "To data set" drop-down, choose your new Junk Data Set. Click OK.

 

6. Open Data Set Manager, and delete the Junk Data Set.

 

That removes everyone in the Focus Group from the Project. Then do the same with the other Project, removing the other spouse's family.

 

Note ... what I described here leaves you and your wife and any descendants in both Projects, to be merged manually after you merge the Projects and the resulting two Data Sets. I left you and your spouse in both to preserve any joint events, like marriage. If one of the Projects has a complete set of events for any descendants, you could remove those descendants from the other Project by manually adding them to the Focus Group for that Project before you do the Move. That would leave just you and your spouse to merge manually after the Project merge.

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Richard,

 

As I understand it, you have a Project with some of your wife's relatives, and she has a Project with some of yours. But each Project really focuses on it's own line. So you want to remove the "stray" relatives from each, then merge the two resulting Projects, right?

 

Also, it appears that the "stray" entries in each Project do not include anything of value that's not in the main Project for that family, right? If so you can do that, but will take a bit of care.

 

First, there is no single Filter that will gather ancestors, aunts, uncles, and cousins. You have to gather them by stages. There are two methods available:

 

1. Use the Focus Group, adding the people you want to include with the "Add Others" function until you have them all.

 

2. Create a temporary Flag, then use repeated runs of the Secondary Output of the List of People report with appropriate filters to mark all the people you want to remove.

 

Both methods are described in my Using People Filters article. I think the Focus Group method is the easiest for your needs.

 

The problem with either method is that in your case you and your wife appear in both Projects and are linked by marriage, I assume, so the steps to collect ancestors, aunts/uncles, and cousins will try to "climb" up the spouse's tree and collect them too. So you need to take steps to avoid that.

 

****Make sure you have a good backup before you start something like this, just in case***

 

Here's what I suggest... In your project, go to your wife's Person View and delete the links at the top of the screen to her parents. In her project, do the the reverse - remove the links to your parents. That will keep the steps that follow from finding the spouse's family.

 

Then, in your Project, say, open the Focus Group, and empty it if it contains anyone. Add one of her parents to the empty Focus Group. Use the following steps to then add all the rest of her ancestors and extended family:

 

1. In the Add Others Box, check the Ancestors, Descendant, and Spouses boxes. Set the Generations for both Ancestors and Descendants to a bit higher than the number of generations present.

 

2. Click the Select All button, then the Add Others button. Note the number of Names in the group at the top left corner of that screen.

 

3. Repeat step 2 until the number of names stops increasing.

 

You now have all her ancestors, etc., collected. You should review the list of people in the Focus Group to be sure you agree. Now you can remove them with these steps:

 

4. Open Data Set Manager (File menu) and add a new Data Set - say "Junk." Close Data Set Manager.

 

5. Open the Move Person(s) function on the Edit menu. Choose the third option, "People in the Focus Group, and in the "To data set" drop-down, choose your new Junk Data Set. Click OK.

 

6. Open Data Set Manager, and delete the Junk Data Set.

 

That removes everyone in the Focus Group from the Project. Then do the same with the other Project, removing the other spouse's family.

 

Note ... what I described here leaves you and your wife and any descendants in both Projects, to be merged manually after you merge the Projects and the resulting two Data Sets. I left you and your spouse in both to preserve any joint events, like marriage. If one of the Projects has a complete set of events for any descendants, you could remove those descendants from the other Project by manually adding them to the Focus Group for that Project before you do the Move. That would leave just you and your spouse to merge manually after the Project merge.

 

Terry, Thank You. You did understand the question question. I will work with it next week and let you know. But, of course, you already know it will work.

 

And one detail I didn't explain is that our data is in two Data Sets in one .pjc file. I think I can figure that part out. I suspect that it doesn't make much difference in the process. I just Enable one Data Set at a time.

 

Thanks, Richard...

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