* Filtering a Diagram

[Altair]

I am trying to find a living relative who should share my Y-DNA. It would be a great help if I could routinely call up a filtered version of my earliest male-line ancestor's Descendants Diagram that showed only his male-line descendants. Trying to do this would take me well outside my comfort zone with FH, and I don't even know if it is possible. Could someone give me a pointer as to where I might start?

[TimTreeby]

Yes is extremely simple.
First need to create a Custom Query which contains the rows as below.

Query.JPG (41.92 KiB) Viewed 8027 times

Then create Descendants Chart for your Male Ancestor.
Then from Menu choose Diagram->Selection & Marks->Set/Clear marks using Query
Choose Query as created above
Choose Run Query, Select your Male Ancestor, then OK
Then choose Diagram->Hide/Show Boxes->Hide Selected Boxes.

You now have a diagram, showing just Male Descendants of your Ancestor.

[LornaCraig]

Altair: you said you wanted to 'routinely' call up this diagram. To avoid having to follow this procedure every time you want it, once you have created it use Diagram > Save Diagram As > Family Historian Chart, and give it a meaningful name. Then to see this chart again use View > Saved Charts and select it from the list.

Are you familiar with creating queries? Once you are looking at the Rows tab in the query window, to create the first two rows in Tim Treeby's query you will need the Relations tab at the bottom. For the third row you will need the General tab at the bottom. Just ask if you need more help.

[Altair]

Hi Tim and Lorna,

Many thanks for both your helpful replies. I'm familiar with queries in Excel and Access, so I imagine I can follow your guidance and get a result in FH - my project for this weekend! I'll post again if I get stuck.

Mike (Altair)

[tatewise]

Mike, FH Queries are similar in principle but rather different in practice.
See how_to:creating_a_query|> Creating a Query and the Writing Custom Queries Chapter in Getting the Most From Family Historian.

[Altair]

Thanks to all for the help - problem solved. However, I'm now getting more ambitious and finding some more things I don't understand, despite reading the book. I'd be grateful for some more guidance. In particular, I would like to be able to keep updating my complete data set, but to have a way of periodically revising sub-sets for public release in a consistent manner.

If I design a query in Excel I can save it complete with parameters, so that if I change the underlying data set, simply re-running the query will give me an up-to-date subset. If FH works in the same way, I must be missing something. It seems to me that a FH query is generic - that is to say, if I want to filter out a group of individuals related to me, and a similar group related to my wife, I design only one query and run it twice, with different parameters each time - not difficult if the query is simple, but leaving room for error in more complex cases. Can I save two instances of a query complete with parameters so that it can just be a case of click and run?

[tatewise]

Yes, I think you can save a Query with Parameters preset, but you will have to save each instance using a differ Query Name in order to preserve the distinct Parameter values.

Putting it another way, when you run a Query with a set of Parameter values, they get set as the defaults for subsequent runs, and are automatically saved to preserve those defaults. But if you run the same Query with different values, then they became the new defaults. So, by saving each instance under a different (but similar) Query name, each set of values will be preserved.

Regarding producing database subsets for public release, there are often other considerations such as hiding details of living people, and using suitable Gedcom dialects for the public tree product. See how_to:exporting_gedcom_with_multimedia|> Exporting a Family Tree with/without Media and especially how_to:exporting_gedcom_with_multimedia#export_to_website_without_sensitive_data|> Export to Website Without Sensitive Data.

[Altair]

Thank you, Mike. I would expect to have to save one version of the query for each sub-set I want to create, but as far as I can see I'm not being given the chance to save the parameters (essentially, just the ID of the root person I want for each sub-set), and I'm being asked for the parameter each time I try to re-run it. In other words, no default seems to be set. I'll take another look at it to see what I'm missing.
Regarding hiding details from public releases of my data, I was going to incorporate exclusions in my query design. However, thanks for the links, which I'll take a look at to see if I can simplify things.
Regards,
Mike

[tatewise]

My advice was based on a recollection that I thought was correct, but after some experiments you are correct that defaults are not saved.

However, if you only wish to select a root person, then they can be chosen before running the Query and will be the default.
Alternatively, you could hard code each root Individual into each instance of the Query and do away with the Parameter.

You cannot exclude sensitive data using a Query. As its name implies it only queries the database and never changes any data.
e.g. If you wanted to change the Name of all Living people to say PRIVATE then a Query cannot do that.
If you exclude those Living people from the dataset using a Query, then you lose the relationships between their ancestors, i.e. their grandparents will be in distinctly separate trees, and I am not sure how online trees handle such isolated branches.

Whereas, the Clean Living People Plugin can selectively edit each Individual record depending on your chosen criteria, and change their Name and any Facts whilst retaining their position in the tree, such that in the extreme case they have an anonymous Name and no Facts at all, so are just a place-holder linking two branches of the tree.

[Altair]

Thanks again, Mike. I think my last post was a bit too abbreviated. My intention was to form a couple of subsets of the complete data base, excluding my own descendants, and to export these as GEDCOMs. I hadn't quite thought through how I would deal with living people of my own generation or older who, as you suggest, cannot easily be excluded without breaking linkages. I've taken a look at the links you posted, and may well choose to use the plug-in.
However, a simple question to keep me on the right lines - when you say I could hard code the root person into the query, how do I do this? Do I just, for example put it in as a parameter then copy the parameter's text, remove it and paste it in as fresh text? Or is there, yet again, a simpler option I've overlooked? Maybe it will all become clear when I have another go!
Regards,
Mike

[tatewise]

If for example you have a Starting Person parameter is will look like ["Starting Person"] in columns and rows.

To select a specific Individual record you would use Record(345,"I") instead, for Individual Record Id 345.
(May need =Record() if it is not inside another function.)