Family Historian User Group

I would like to create a copy of one of my projects in order to do a 'source do-over' now that I'm more familiar with FH7 and the different ways my data is displayed in reports, diagrams, etc, and my resolution to become a method 1 source splitter.

Ideally the copy would be identical except that sources, multimedia, facts, repositories, places, research notes, etc are deleted -- so that names and relationships (and potentially named lists containing individual records) are maintained, but otherwise the project is essentially 'empty'.

Can this be achieved using the 'Copy Project...' functionality and editing it, or would it be better to export a GEDCOM, make changes there (somehow) and then reimport into a new project? I had a quick look at the Export Gedcom File plugin, but I'm unsure if that suits my needs -- and I quickly became confused by all the fields and options!

Thanks!

I can think of one way that should be very easy. Like you, I find the myriad of different options in the various exporting and extracting routines confusing, so developed my own "one-click" GEDCOM export for Ancestry sync that exports only individuals, families and key events, with everything else stripped out. It would be a trivial change to modify it to exclude all events, so all you get is a GEDCOM consisting of a bare tree of names and relationships.

I can post that tomorrow if nobody comes up with an immediately available option in the meantime.

Have a look at the Split Tree Helper
Make a copy of your project using File > Project Window... , select the project then More Tasks and Copy Project.

Open the COPY Project and run File > Split Tree Helper...

Do not delete any individual records.
Choose the options to delete the records and facts you don't want.
Perform Tasks will then leave you with the individuals and their relationships intact.

Note: Your media FILES will be unaffected.

I would agree with Helen's suggestion to use the Split Tree Helper. However, although it offers many options unfortunately it doesn't include options to delete Place records or Research Note records. These can be deleted from the resulting project afterwards, as explained in Delete One or Many Records

IMO, the Split Tree Helper would be easier to use and find if it had a more appropriate name. It's really a "bulk deletion tool", so why not call it that?

The standard Family Historian Export, can export excluding place, media, source and repository records. Obviously when you open the exported file in FH the place records will be recreated.

.... but I don't think the standard FH Gedcom export can delete all facts, as required by Sarah. It has options for facts with fact flags, but no global fact deletion.

Regarding Place records, it's probably still useful to start by deleteing them all because that clears out any unused Place records. Only those which are actually used will be recreated.

LornaCraig wrote: ↑

28 Sep 2021 10:57

Regarding Place records, it's probably still useful to start by deleteing them all because that clears out any unused Place records. Only those which are actually used will be recreated.

And if all Facts have already been deleted, there won't be any places used.

To clean out the facts this plug would get rid of everything other than BMD, and could easily be changed to remove them as well.

viewtopic.php?f=42&t=16432&p=89133#p89133

Jane wrote: ↑

28 Sep 2021 10:42

The standard Family Historian Export, can export excluding place, media, source and repository records. Obviously when you open the exported file in FH the place records will be recreated.

LornaCraig wrote: ↑

28 Sep 2021 10:57

.... but I don't think the standard FH Gedcom export can delete all facts, as required by Sarah. It has options for facts with fact flags, but no global fact deletion.

Regarding Place records, it's probably still useful to start by deleteing them all because that clears out any unused Place records. Only those which are actually used will be recreated.

Yes, I tried the standard export but there was no option to remove facts...

Mark1834 wrote: ↑

28 Sep 2021 10:28

IMO, the Split Tree Helper would be easier to use and find if it had a more appropriate name. It's really a "bulk deletion tool", so why not call it that?

I had not even considered this tool -- probably because, as you say, the name isn't exactly descriptive about what it really does! This has worked perfectly and I now have a clean copy of my original project to work on. However (and this is extremely nit-picky, I know) -- is there a way to reset the record numbering in this new project? I just created a new source and it's numbered 507 instead of 1... I understand this has no bearing on my project at all, but ideally I'd like to start at 1 again!

Check out Tools > Record Identifiers and Generate New Record IDs... starting from 1, for each of the record types you want to renumber.

Note: don't do this for records where the ID is used as a reference elsewhere if this matters to you.

Mark1834 wrote: ↑

28 Sep 2021 10:28

IMO, the Split Tree Helper would be easier to use and find if it had a more appropriate name. It's really a "bulk deletion tool", so why not call it that?

I think the Split Tree Helper was originally conceived to meet the need which often arises when a user wants to send details of one branch of a tree (optionally with some types of facts and notes removed) to another person whose own family overlaps with that branch. The user needs to 'split off' just that branch and its related sources, media, etc. Hence the name, which is appropriate if you are searching for how to split your tree.

The fact that the tool works by deleting 'unwanted' records from a copy of the entire project, rather than by exporting just the 'wanted' records, means that it is in fact a bulk deletion tool. But if the name were changed I suspect that users who want to split their tree wouldn't find it!

To me, "helper" implies some sort of wizard process, where it leads the user by the hand step by step, so it's wrong on two counts - it doesn't help, and it doesn't split the tree, it deletes part of it, which is not the same thing at all.

As ever, it's a balance call - make it clearer to newcomers or keep the old faithful happy by not changing things. Whatever CP do, somebody will complain .

sbell95 wrote: ↑

28 Sep 2021 23:06

<snip>
I had not even considered this tool -- probably because, as you say, the name isn't exactly descriptive about what it really does! This has worked perfectly and I now have a clean copy of my original project to work on. However (and this is extremely nit-picky, I know) -- is there a way to reset the record numbering in this new project? I just created a new source and it's numbered 507 instead of 1... I understand this has no bearing on my project at all, but ideally I'd like to start at 1 again!

Thanks for asking this question! I had no idea it was possible to create a clean tree with this tool. Very useful

Good luck with your source do-over. In an ideal world, I would do one as well...

Teresa