Family Historian User Group

Hi, years since I've had to call on your help, so here goes.
After managing to avoid this scenario for years I have finally managed to update two versions of FH at the same time, ie created two masters(I change the file name monthly - ie Sayer November 2009, Sayer December 2009, etc and usually remember to work on the latest version!

Fortunately I've only entered a week's worth of data on my old version - about 30 records, with a few new individuals but mainly census and marriage record data. I see it is not possible to copy and paste from one Family Historian project to another.... or is it? I dont know whether the Import function would work (last time I used it, admittedly years ago, it fouled things up a bit, and with 16,000 records...). Any good ideas to avoid renetering all the data manually?

many thanks
laurel

ID:4202

The #1 rule is -- before you do anything, make a backup of the files, so if what you try goes wrong, you can go back to where you were, and start over.

And the #2 rule is -- make a backup. [grin]

If your new entries are highly localized in one branch of your tree, what about splitting off that branch in the November file with the split tree helper, and merging that bit only into your December file?

I haven't worked with the split tree helper much, but I'm sure Jane and the others will be along shortly to offer more advice.

Good luck!

P.S. did I mention that it's a good idea to make those backups before you do anything else? [wink]

Jan (who, as you might guess, got into similar trouble and forgot to make a backup first) [oops]

Another option is

1. Backup
2. use the File Merge Compare to merge your older file into your newer one. FH should match any records you did not change.

If you then sort the tabs by last changed date on the 'old file with the new entries, you can check it's got them all correct, watch out if you have changed any names as FH won't match them directly with out help.


Hits for using Merge Compare:

1. Don't start it at 10pm

2. Don't start it when you have only 5 mins.

3. Take your time and check all the tabs carefully.

4. When you have finished do a couple of trees to check for spiders nests of duplicate lines, a sure sign on merge problems, (except for one line of my family who were very very keen on marrying their cousins).

More hints can be found in
[wiki]glossary:merge_compare_files[/wiki]

If you would rather go the Split Tree route see
[wiki]glossary:split_tree_helper[/wiki]

Sorry, of course it's too late for any advice in this case, but... My policy on this is always (in all projects I'm involved in, not just genealogy) to maintain one master copy of whatever it is, and if you want to keep a periodic snapshot, copy it all (whether it be a single file or an entire project folder) and rename the copy as November (for example), then carry on working on the current one.

As for your immediate problem, it might be worth adding the Updated Date to the records window, and sort by that, so you then have a convenient list of the records you need to worry about. Keep that safe somewhere whatever you do next.

Then you can probably use Split Tree Helper with a query based on the updated date to produce a Gedcom containing only those records, which you can then Merge with your latest version. At least this reduces the Merge problem to a size that's much easier to check through by eye to make sure it's doing what you need.

If you always backup the file at the end of each session (as I do!) do you need to start a new file each month or is there a special reason for doing it that way?

If you don't have backup enabled go to Tools>Preferences and select the Backup tab. Make sure that 'Prompt for Backup on Exit' is checked and that you have selected a folder for backups.

Gerry

Some programs encourage monthly backups (e.g. the mail agent Pine, which offers at the end of each month to move your sent-mail into a monthly folder), so I can see where someone might get into the habit of making a monthly snapshot.