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whbos

Remove Entire Descendant Line

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I have decided after so many years that a particular line is most likely not related at all, or I cannot find adequate proof that they are related. I would like to remove one person and all of the descendants below him. To do this manually would take a long time and I don't want to delete the wrong ones. Is there an easy way in version 6.12 to do this. I don't need to separate them to a their own file, but if there is a way to do this and delete from my main data file I don't mind that either. As long as I can get rid of them from my main file.

 

Anyone have any ideas or solutions for doing this? I looked all through the menus and can't find any other way except to do it manually.

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As you know you cannot delete an entire group at once. But you can move them to another Data Set and then delete that, or keep it in a separate project if you want.

 

Do do this, first open Data Set Manager (File menu) and Add a new data set.

 

Then, either add all the people you want to delete to a Focus Group, or Select them in the Project Explorer.

 

Once you have them "gathered" use Move Person(s) (Edit menu) to move them all to the second data set.

 

Once they are in the second data set, you can simply delete that data set with Data Set Manager. Or, if you want to keep the data, you could copy the Project, in the copy delete your main data set, and in your main Project, delete the second data set.

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As you know you cannot delete an entire group at once. But you can move them to another Data Set and then delete that, or keep it in a separate project if you want.

 

Do do this, first open Data Set Manager (File menu) and Add a new data set.

 

Then, either add all the people you want to delete to a Focus Group, or Select them in the Project Explorer.

 

Once you have them "gathered" use Move Person(s) (Edit menu) to move them all to the second data set.

 

Once they are in the second data set, you can simply delete that data set with Data Set Manager. Or, if you want to keep the data, you could copy the Project, in the copy delete your main data set, and in your main Project, delete the second data set.

 

Can you move them by selecting the descendants of a particular person, or do you have to select each of the individuals? If the latter, this should be something for the next version. In Family Tree Maker, which I also use, you can select by "Outline Descendant" and delete everyone at once. This would be a nice feature in the next version of TMG. I played around with the Focus Group, but didn't see any useful way to get rid of these people.

 

I will try your instructions and let you know. All of these people came from someone else's file and I'm not researching these people anymore so see no reason to keep them in the main file. I saved them in FTM as a separate file.

 

Thanks for the quick response!

 

Edited to Add:

Forget the manual edit. I just noticed that it is changing my ID numbers. This is probably not something that I should do. I'm glad I backed up before attempting this.

Edited by whbos

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I had created a Focus Group, but found no way to import it into this new data set. I think this is a terrible way to get rid of descendants of one person. Wholly Genes, take note. I guess I'm going to have to do it manually. I know this probably isn't something that people do every day, but there are probably occasions when someone wants to export (and delete) a particular line from their main data file and keep it in a separate file.

 

Thanks for your response, but there doesn't seem to be an easy way to do this. These people have been in this data file since TMG 4 so deleting manually is probably the best way.

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Personally I'd just disconnect the top of the line from your lot (by going to each of the parents and deleting the son/dtr link) and leave them in the dataset.

I have heaps of unrelated people floating around in mine and use accents based on flags to differenitate lines.

Anyone without a colour of some sort isn't proven to be related, yet.

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Can you move them by selecting the descendants of a particular person, or do you have to select each of the individuals?

Yes, that's easy with the Focus Group. Just add the starting person to an empty focus group, select that person, and use the Add Others button to add the descendants.

 

I had created a Focus Group, but found no way to import it into this new data set.

Once you have the Focus Group, use the Move Person(s) function as I described above.

 

I know this probably isn't something that people do every day, but there are probably occasions when someone wants to export (and delete) a particular line from their main data file and keep it in a separate file.

Yes, that's exactly why the Move Person(s) function is there.

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Yes, that's easy with the Focus Group. Just add the starting person to an empty focus group, select that person, and use the Add Others button to add the descendants.

Once you have the Focus Group, use the Move Person(s) function as I described above.

Yes, that's exactly why the Move Person(s) function is there.

 

I got it to work, but a real big problem. All of the ID numbers have "1:" added as a prefix which removes them from the families where they belong. This doesn't seem to be anything that TMG6 can do without screwing up your family file. Maybe I'll just leave well enough alone and leave this mysterious family intact. The only thing is I generate my TMG file to my website with John Cardinal's SecondSite program and wanted to leave these people out since I don't think they below. I also use TMG exclusively with all of my family photos as well.

 

I guess I can live with this dud family that I can't get rid of. Thanks for all of your help.

 

LornaHenderson: I've never used the accent feature. I use the Surety numbers for sources that are good, bad, or uncertain, but the accent feature might be worth a try instead. Thanks for the suggestion.

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I got it to work, but a real big problem. All of the ID numbers have "1:" added as a prefix which removes them from the families where they belong.

The "1:" prefix is only there until you remove the second data set - it tells you which data set the person is in. Once you remove the second data set it will disappear.

 

I don't understand how that removed people from their families - everyone in the original data set will have the "1:" once you create a second data set - it has nothing to do with how they are related to other people in the same data set.

The only thing is I generate my TMG file to my website with John Cardinal's SecondSite program and wanted to leave these people out since I don't think they below.

Lorna has suggested that you leave them in, which I'd agree with. It's easy to leave them out of your site by creating a Flag in TMG, then using the flag to control in Second Site who is included or excluded.

I guess I can live with this dud family that I can't get rid of. Thanks for all of your help.

I've never used the accent feature.

See my article on Accents for some ideas how to use them, including use of a "Connected" flag to mark people who are not connected with your main lines.

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They're gone just like you said they would be after deleting that data set. I just hope I didn't lose anyone else along the way. I have the project saved prior to and afterward. I should do a comparison.

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Yes, that's easy with the Focus Group. Just add the starting person to an empty focus group, select that person, and use the Add Others button to add the descendants...

remember that if you also want to remove the spice of the descendants you also need to then select all and add spouse

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Just calculated the numbers:

 

Old File (records)

people: 1400

names: 1560

 

New File (records)

people: 1328

names: 1483

 

Focal Group (the descendants to get rid of):

people: 72

names: 77

 

I guess no one was lost. I hope I don't regret this later on. Anyway, still have the old file backed up, but don't want to have to add to it as well as the new file in case something got screwed up.

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