Family Historian User Group

I'm looking to upload a gedcom file of just my ancestors with only the basic BMD info. The following is an extract of a post of many years ago on the forum of exactly what I'm looking for but the thread went cold and, of course, FH has moved on a few versions.

"....which will strip a Gedcom file down to just Birth-Bap/Chr-Death-Burial-Marr Info. i.e just date and place of the event."

I can easily get to a list of ancestors via the built in query. But what would be the steps from there to a gedcom with just the info above.

Thanks

The key steps are given in how_to:exporting_gedcom_with_multimedia|> Exporting a Family Tree with/without Media under Export to Website Without Sensitive Data.

The process involves exporting a GEDCOM file for just the Ancestors required and without Media.

You may not need the Clean Unwanted Fields, Clean Living Persons, or Trim Date and Text Fields Plugins.

The File > Split Tree Helper command allows any unwanted Facts and Notes, etc, to be deleted.

Finally, the Export Gedcom File Plugin should be used to remove other unwanted data and create a GEDCOM file compatible with the target online product.

Thanks Mike, just what I needed

Just taking a full backup before I start deleting anything

You don't need to Backup your master Project, because the 1st step is to create an Exported GEDCOM File that is completely independent of your Project.

I thought I'd sent this post previously but its not on the board so I'm resending just in case something went wrong.

Made good progress following Mike's guidance and I now have a gedcom just with ancestors, no media or media links and all source info deleted

I am now left with the info I want to upload plus a lot I still need to delete (eg education, miltary service, residence, census). As a quick check I looked at one person record and there are between 15 and 20 different fact types that I need to delete.

I ran the Clean Unwanted Fields Plug In but I can't see how to use it without entering an individual line of code for each fact type I want to delete (not that I know all the fact types I would have to enter). Am I missing something?

Is there any way I can select the fact types I want to keep (Birth/Bap/Marr/Death/Burial/Crem) and for a plug in or query to delete the rest? If possible it would seem a lot easier and, I guess, with uploading of gedcoms to DNA matching sites becoming more popular, it might be something other users will find useful.

Tx

It seems you are not following my guidance as close as you should.

I said you probably don't need to use any of the Cleaning Plugins.

I did say the File > Split Tree Helper command allows any unwanted Facts and Notes, etc, to be deleted.

The Facts (events/attributes) pane lower right works much like many Reports and allows you to choose a list of Facts to include or exclude depending on whether you select Delete all facts listed below or Delete all facts except list below.
Select the latter and Edit List to include Birth/Bap/Marr/Death/Burial/Crem that you need, so all other facts get deleted.

The Notes option bottom left allows all local Notes to be deleted.

You can also Delete all Flags and Delete all Named Lists.

So to summarise my advice:

• Use File > Import/Export > Export > GEDCOM File to eliminate unwanted Individuals and Media
• Use File > Split Tree Helper on that GEDCOM file to delete unwanted Facts, Notes, etc
• Use Export Gedcom File Plugin to format that GEDCOM for target product using (-) Brief Data mode, etc

Thanks MIke,

I'd just missed seeing the drop down option box on the split tree helper to keep the selected facts I wanted

Sorted

@ tatewise - I had a similar need and the process you suggested was great and does almost everything I wanted

I just wanted a bare tree with names and dates of birth/death and the Split Tree Helper did a great job of that....

But I had a lot of personal information relating to death facts in the "Cause" and "Note" fields that I did not want to upload to ftDNA - but as you also suggested the Clean Unwanted Fields plugin did the rest, just had to faff around with a custom query first to get the correct text e.g. %INDI.DEAT[1].ADDR% etc

Many thanks to both of you for posting this question and answer

Split Tree Helper has a Notes setting to Delete all note fields within records bottom left.

The fact Cause field data ref would be %INDI.DEAT[1].CAUS%.

It's worth noting that the new Ancestry Synchronization plugin does exactly that in one easy step. Configure it to export just BMD facts as explained in the help, and everything else is excluded automatically.

Ignore all references to RM, and just upload the GEDCOM file to your site of choice. IMO, it's far simpler than the multiple steps involved in earlier processes.

I'm due to update the plugin soon to incorporate user comments, so I might add that as an option to make it even simpler. Tick one box to get a stripped down GEDCOM file with just basic BMD who, where and when in one simple step - no editing required.