Prune - Trim and an exhibits question

[BruceB 0]

Hi All:

 

Been a long time since I have been on here - you all know how life gets in the way of things that you actually want to do !!!

 

1: Prune and Trim (not sure that is a good description, but here goes!!)

 

I have a long lost cousin who has some info that I want to import and then add to my file and export back to her.

She has no use for my wife's extended family or other extended families, so I want to do a specific "focus group" that includes spouses and children and grandchildren.

I tried the focus group, but it only picked out 32 entries, and there are about/ around 100 in that branch.

 

I have read through the help file a couple of times, but got lost and so I am asking here.

I think that there may be a simple set of items to ask for, but I am unsure where to go.

 

Also I would like to make up a couple of different files from the 1 file that I have now.

Need to split my wife's family and my family into 2 files for easier use and maintance.

Currently I have over 8000 entries between the 2 families and things are getting ugly.

 

Pointers on how I can split things up would be appreciated.

It also makes it easier to share info with her family or mine, since the other side although courious about in-laws does not need the extra data.

 

2: 2nd item Exhibts:

 

I went through my exibit pictures the other day and after 8 hours of sorting them into "family group" sub directories, today when I did a reindex it threw all of them back into the original "Exhibts" directory.

 

I find it is so much easier to keep the exhibit pictures sorted if I do subs for - my grandparents and decendants - my wife's family - inlaws on either side.

All lumped together in a single directory gets to be a bit much to say the least when you are looking for a specific picture or file.

 

Any idea how I can fix this and get back to how it was sorted (the directories I created are still there) and make it so it does not happen again?

 

If I should ask these questions in 2 topics - let me know.

Just looking for experienced advice from the forums.

 

Thank you

Bruce B

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Edited February 4, 2014 by BruceB

[Terry Reigel 0]

 

I have a long lost cousin who has some info that I want to import and then add to my file and export back to her.

She has no use for my wife's extended family or other extended families, so I want to do a specific "focus group" that includes spouses and children and grandchildren.

I tried the focus group, but it only picked out 32 entries, and there are about/ around 100 in that branch.

Bruce,

 

Describe how the people you want to include in the Focus Group are related to each other (or to a common ancestor or descendant) and we can help you figure this out.

Also I would like to make up a couple of different files from the 1 file that I have now.

Need to split my wife's family and my family into 2 files for easier use and maintance.

Currently I have over 8000 entries between the 2 families and things are getting ugly.

My advice: don't! 8000 is not a lot of people. I have 19,000 in my project and that's no problem. Maintaining multiple Projects is asking for trouble. You can't include people in different Projects in a single report or website. Maintaining any customizations (like tag types, or source types) is difficult. Don't bother.

 

I went through my exibit pictures the other day and after 8 hours of sorting them into "family group" sub directories, today when I did a reindex it threw all of them back into the original "Exhibts" directory.

What exactly did you do? Re-indexing doesn't move exhibits. If you want to keep them separate you can. But understand you can't include them in a backup and restore of TMG, because TMG's restore will put them all in a single folder. You have to do backups outside TMG, which is a good practice anyway.

[BruceB 0]

Hi Terry:

 

Topic 15432 answered my question on the partial data set selection.

Seemed a bit clumsy at first, but if you follow the instructions to the letter it works well.

I was able to select the 122 people that I needed using this method, and then export to a gedcom file and then reimport to a newly created file.

I will do it in a more efficent manner once she sends me the gedcom file she has and then I can merge the 2 of them properly.

 

Now for the picture problem getting lumped into a single directory.

I do believe this is a problem when trying my best to keep all of the exhibits organized.

 

What I did was a backup and then closed my original file so that I could do a test import of a gedcom file into a new dataset.

(This was well before I went to the forum and finally found the answer!!)

 

When I was finished I reopened the original file and it asked something about the exhibits, but I did not understand what it was going to do.

Now all the work I did at moving the jpg files is for naught.

But it did leave the sorted files where they were put and just made copies of the jpg's where it thought they should be.

 

That being said I can redo the links to the sorted pictures in a shorter period of time than original since I know what and where.

 

I have several hundred pictures that I will be adding from my collections along with various cousins and in-laws from both sides of the family in the next year or so. My aim is to not have this happen again so my attempts at organization will lessen my insanity....

 

I do regular backups to my network drive (auto back up 3 times a week) so I know that I have the files secure.

But the way the TMG backup works if I save to a stick and restore/instal on my laptop it will put all the pictures back into a single location.

 

Any suggestions on this would be appreciated.

 

Thank you:

BruceB

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[Terry Reigel 0]

Topic 15432 answered my question on the partial data set selection.

Seemed a bit clumsy at first, but if you follow the instructions to the letter it works well.

I was able to select the 122 people that I needed using this method, and then export to a gedcom file and then reimport to a newly created file.

Bruce,

 

I'm glad to hear you got that part fixed.

What I did was a backup and then closed my original file so that I could do a test import of a gedcom file into a new dataset.

....

 

That being said I can redo the links to the sorted pictures in a shorter period of time than original since I know what and where.

There is an easier way. If you have copies of all the images in the locations you desire, change the name of the folder where the original copies reside. That will make TMG think they are "lost" when you re-open it. Then from the File > Maintenance menu run Verify File Integrity.

 

After the "This may take a long time" dialog you get the External Exhibits dialog. Check the box, then click "Specify the Folders to Search" button and tell TMG where the exhibits are supposed to be. When you then run the operation it will find them and fix all the paths to them.

I do regular backups to my network drive (auto back up 3 times a week) so I know that I have the files secure.

Good. That's essential if you are going to put your exhibits in a folder tree.

 

But the way the TMG backup works if I save to a stick and restore/instal on my laptop it will put all the pictures back into a single location.

That's right. You cannot use TMG's backup to move external exhibits if you keep them in a tree. You have to copy them separately. That is not necessarily a bad thing. Typically they don't change often, so you only need to copy any you have added since the last time. Or, if the laptop copy is for reference only, you may decide you don't even need to have the exhibits on the laptop. That's what I do when I put a copy of my Project on my laptop.

[Virginia Blakelock 0]

Bruce wrote:

I tried the focus group, but it only picked out 32 entries, and there are about/ around 100 in that branch.

 

Bruce -

 

A common problem when selecting people in the Focus Group is not first highlighting the people for whom you wish to add ancestors, descendents, spouses. See the forum message here for an example.

 

Whether you split your large file is a personal decision - and may be influenced by how much intermarrying there has been within your family lines. I am more comfortable working with 4 separate projects (my husband's parents and mine). You can try the split on a copy of your project and see if you prefer it.

 

Virginia

[BruceB 0]

Hi Virginia and Tim:

 

OK so the Focus group and pictures part is understood now and seems to work well.

 

Maybe I am just a bit thick this week, but I have tried multiple times to import and merge the 67 people from my cousin into my Ver 8.08 file.

 

I know that there are between 3 & 5 dupilcates between the 2 files.

 

I will step thru what I am doing and can you point to the spot where I go wrong?

 

1- I make a full back up of the file before I start (so that if all goes south I can recover the original)

2- Open Data Set Manager

3- selct Import

4-Simple Import

5-File type Gedcom

6-locate (I pick the GED file that she sent me from Ancestry.ca)

7-Add to current project in the default location

8-Finish to import (1830 Gedcom Lines)

9-Set to be Unlocked

 

I now look at the picklist and confirm that the data was imported.

The person I know that is in both files is there and has Person ID if 1:4474 and a second entry of 2:27

Just to confirm I go into the merge 2 people and pick both ID's.

The screen opens and I can not merge them.

Go back to Data Set Manager

 

1 - With file 1 highlighted (my original file) I select the Merge button

2- I merge A INTO B (the imported file into the original file)

3- Box says merge was successful

4- Close Data set manager

5 - Go back to Merge 2 people

 

I now have 3 copies of the same person with the following ID# 1:4474 - 2:27 & 2:4545

 

None of them will merge to make a single person.

 

Where did I go wrong??

 

I do not think it should be this hard to do.

This seems like a standard sort of thing that anyone would attempt so it (IMO) should be a lot easier.

 

But I have been wrong many times before.

 

Thanks:

Bruce B

[BruceB 0]

I just went back into the file and now I have double the number of entries in the picklist.

It has gone from about 10k to 21k??

 

There was another discussion that after you import and merge you are supposed to delete the imported file.

I tried that, but then all of the info that I imported went away.......

 

Bruce B

[Terry Reigel 0]

I will step thru what I am doing and can you point to the spot where I go wrong?

 

1- I make a full back up of the file before I start (so that if all goes south I can recover the original)

2- Open Data Set Manager

3- selct Import

4-Simple Import

5-File type Gedcom

6-locate (I pick the GED file that she sent me from Ancestry.ca)

7-Add to current project in the default location

8-Finish to import (1830 Gedcom Lines)

9-Set to be Unlocked

 

I now look at the picklist and confirm that the data was imported.

The person I know that is in both files is there and has Person ID if 1:4474 and a second entry of 2:27

Just to confirm I go into the merge 2 people and pick both ID's.

The screen opens and I can not merge them.

 

Bruce,

 

You cannot merge them because they are still in separate Data Sets within the same Project. You have to first Merge the Data Sets so everyone is in the same Project, then you can merge the duplicate people. But doing that is a bit tricky too. See my Merging article for details.