* bulk unlink children

[KiwiPeterHill]

I have a problem with one of my family groups, where one person has 18 children. I know how to unlink/relink but can I BULK unlink all these 18 in one go so I can sort and oput them back in their right groups.

Hope you understand this.

At the moment the 18 are linked to one father with no mother, every time I link the father back in, of course the 18 are back as well. They are not all his children,but too many Georges, does not a family make....

[wulliam]

Hi,
I'm not sure this will do what you want, but this is what I'd do...

Go through each of the 18 children and prefix each surname with an unlikely letter. Perhaps 'q' for one group who are actual siblings, 'z' for another group.

Having done that, right-click on each one in turn to unlink the record.

Now go to the correct parents for one of the groups, and link them back in... having a strange prefix will enable you to find them quickly and accurately.

Once you're happy that you've attached them to the correct parents you can remove the prefixes.

I don't think there's such a thing as a bulk unlink, but even if there was you might struggle to find them again if your database is large...I have about 150 Donald MacLeod's and keeping track of them is a challenge!

Hope this is some help!

[davidf]

I think doing it individually may be easier ...

However if a significant number of the children do share a father - just not the one you have specified, it may in some cases be easier to detach the father from his family (F), rename him to the father of a number of the children and add in a new individual to family F with the original name of the father.

To bulk detach children, you need the "all" tab of the family and then just "delete" (delete key) each of the unwanted ones - to delete their link to the family.

From the "All" tab of the father's property box find the "Spouse Family" and click on "<no-wife>"

Father's "All" tab showing "no-wife" Spouse Family

Screenshot from 2020-05-04 07-43-39.png (23.55 KiB) Viewed 2357 times

This takes you to the Family property box; if you then select the "All" tab, you will see the children listed

Family's "All" tab showing Children

Screenshot from 2020-05-04 07-44-04.png (20.84 KiB) Viewed 2357 times

If you then click on the Child tag "Child" and press delete, you delete the link between the child and that family

[tatewise]

There is no bulk unlink for Children from a Family record.
I suggest you manage the change via the Focus Window as explained in how_to:removing_unwanted_relations|> Removing Unwanted Relations.
BUT first ensure the [Record Ids] are shown via the Customize View... options and make a note of them for each child.
Then after unlinking them all, you have unique Record Id to select when relinking them to the correct parents.