* Deleting data for Living Persons

[rfj1001]

I'm wanting to create a gedcom file that I can upload onto a public website. I'm making good progress but need a bit of advice in two areas :

- is there a particularly good query to use to identify living persons. (Working on date of birth and death doesn't seem to be sufficient as it will leave living people with no date of birth or death but who have a date of marriage in some cases as recent as last year.

- once I've identified the Living Persons I need to keep them in my tree but delete all other data and links to multimedia. I'm not sure how to do that.

Any advice or help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Robin

ID:4948

[tatewise]

The best approach is to set the Living flag on all Individual Records for people that are alive.
You can also set the Private flag on Individual Records you want to exclude entirely.

To start setting the Living flags, look at the FHUG Downloads that offer Queries and other techniques for managing living people data.
See http://www.fhug.org.uk/wiki/doku.php?id ... vingpeople in general,
and http://www.fhug.org.uk/wiki/doku.php?id ... lag_living in particular.
Also http://www.fhug.org.uk/wiki/doku.php?id ... iving_list adds a Living tick list column to your Individual Records Window to easily visualise who is 'Alive'.

Then when it comes to using Internet > Create a Website or File > Import/Export > Export > GEDCOM File you can use Living/Private options and Add/Remove using Query selections.

See my ancestry web pages for examples of living people with minimal details, but other people with full details:
http://www.tatewise.co.uk/ancestry/fhindex.html
For example Mike TATE and my wife Beryl TATE are alive but our parents are not.

[tatewise]

Postscript.
My reference to a Living tick list column in your Individual Records Window relates to a Living Named List not the Living flag - Sorry!
To add a column for the Living flag use the following:
Open the Individuals Records Window.
Use menu bar Lists > Configure Record Window Columns.
Scroll towards bottom of Item list and select Living  Flag.
Click the > button in the middle to add to right-hand Column.
Use the up/down arrows below to position the Living column.
Finally click OK.

To set the flag manually, right-click on an Individual Record name and use Set Flag > Living.

[rfj1001]

Thanks,

I've now got all my records with a 'Living' or 'Deceased' flag against them - partly done through queries and then manually adjusting where the query was obviously giving the wrong answer.

I'm not clear on the next stage and that is how to delete the facts, multimedia, etc. for records where the flag is set to 'Living'. The end file format still has to be gedcom.

It seems I can do the data removal using 'Create a Website' but that seems to produce html files as output; if I go the export route, it seems to delete the whole record of the person - both of which I want to avoid.

Any advice would be appreciated

[Jane]

If you are using V4 you can use the File/Export Option and select records using a Query to select records with the Deceased Flag and ensure the 'Exclude records not linked is selected.

For V3 you need to use Split Tree Helper on a COPY of your file and select Delete all found by query 'In List' living.

[PeterR]

Have you thought of using Res Privata?  It is downloadable from FHUG and described here:
http://genealogysoftwareguide.com/res-privata/

[rfj1001]

Hi Peter, thanks for the suggestion

Yes, I'd started with resprivata. Understandably, it gave a rather messy interpretation of who was/was not living when my data was incomplete so that was why I went over to FH queries and flags with a manual tidy up at the end.

Additionally, and I did not realise it immediately, even though I had every tick box checked for data to be deleted in resprivata, it did not clear all the attribute and event entries for people identified as Living. So it wasn't as Private as ideally I need - there was too much remaining legacy info.

If only resprivata had two additional boxes, 'Select by Flag' and 'Delete all associated events and attributes' it would be a 30 second job with no manual intervention required

I'm not sure if there is a better way I can use resprivate; at the moment the manual task of finding and individually deleting all these legacy entries each time I create a respriv output would be impractical.

I'll keep trying. In the meantime, any other suggestions would be very welcome.

[tatewise]

I have experimented with a technique to excluded all Facts for Living Individuals.
It creates two copies of your GEDCOM, one with no Facts for everyone, the other with all Facts but no Living individuals, then these two GEDCOM files are Merged.
The process is a bit long winded but produces what you have requested, and throws up some decision points around Multimedia/Media Files, and Family Facts for Living Individuals.

Step 1
Open the original master project database.
Use File > Import/Export > Export > GEDCOM File > Add All button, tick every Exclude ... records option.
Click OK and Save with filename LivingData.ged in the Public folder, and to Do you wish to view the exported file? answer Yes.
On LivingData.ged use File > Split Tree Helper, select Delete all facts listed below, click Edit List button, click >> button to select every Fact, click OK and Delete button.
Close this Family Historian window (you can skip the backup).

Step 2
Back in the original master project database.
Use File > Import/Export > Export > GEDCOM File > Add All button.
Untick Exclude all records which are not linked to the selected Individual records (Otherwise all Multimedia records and any unlinked records get excluded).
To exclude Multimedia Records and External Files, then tick Exclude Multimedia records.
Click OK and Save with filename PublicData.ged in the Public folder, and to Do you wish to view the exported file? answer Yes.
On PublicData.ged use File > Split Tree Helper, select Delete all Individual records found by the Individual query below and choose Has Flag query.
Select each Delete Note/Multimedia/Source/Repository Records left with no links to them option, click Delete button, select Living flag, and click OK.
However, the Do not delete any Note/Repository Records options may be preferred to retain unlinked Note or Repository Records.

Step 3
On PublicData.ged use File > Merge/Compare File > OK, select LivingData.ged file, click Open, choose Suggest candidate matches for merging and click OK.
The Individuals tab should list Null Merge for most Individuals and * Add * for the Living Individual records with no Facts.
The Families tab should list Null Merge for most Families and * Merge * or * Add * for Family records with Living Individuals.
The * Merge * cases are where one spouse &/or a child is Living and you need to decide if the Family Facts are to be kept or deleted.
Expand each * Merge * case in turn and if desired select every Family Fact and click Discard button (typically where a spouse is Living).
The other tabs should all simply list Keep for every record.
Click Merge button, click OK button to not all checked warning, untick Create a new Source record ... and click OK, finally click Close.

This should result in a PublicData.ged with no Facts for Living Individuals except possibly some Family Facts if you wish.
Full Source Citations and Mutimedia (if desired) are retained for all retained Facts.

[rfj1001]

Thanks tatewise,

It worked a dream[grin] so many thanks for both the general solution and the detailed instructions.

For anyone else interested, although the instructions look complex, the whole process took just a couple of minutes

Is there a way this can be put into the Knowledge Base as the solution is too good to lose?

I've got just one final hurdle to overcome and that it is to rename the living people 'Name Withheld' and I'll be ready to publish. I'll see if that is covered elsewhere on the forum.

Again thanks.

Robin

[tatewise]

There is a twist in the tail of this technique.
Although all the Facts have been excluded from the Individual Records for Living people, there may still be Source Records containing details of these Living people.

For example, the deceased parents of living people may still have Occupation, Residence, or other Facts with citations to Birth or Marriage or other Source Records with details of their living children!

So, not only must the Facts for Living Individuals be deleted, but also all the Source Records linked to those Facts must be deleted, even if they are linked to the Facts of other Individual Records.
I cannot think of a way to list those Source Records and deleted them.

The tale does not end there, because those Source Records may link to Multimedia Records with details of Living Individuals and linked to other Source Records.
So, those Multimedia Records also need to be listed and deleted!

The tale does not end there, because those Multimedia Records link to Files in the Media folder of the Project, and those Files also need to be listed and deleted!

[tatewise]

For a full description of these and related techniques see the Knowledge Base entry Delete Data For Living People at:

http://www.fhug.org.uk/wiki/doku.php?id ... ing_people