Cleaning Out the Tree

[jorghes]

Just wondering if anyone has found a way to clean out Sources and Places that are not linked to any individuals that doesn't require deleting every source group/place individually?

I'm trying to clean up a tree and while it was easy to delete individuals and media - I am still left with a lot of superfluous places and sources that are not linked to anyone and as just taking up space.

Any ideas?

 

[Kate]

Which software are you using? I can purge unused on Legacy and I imagine other software has similar.

 

[jorghes]

Which software are you using? I can purge unused on Legacy and I imagine other software has similar.

Family Tree Maker 2019.

 

[Kate]

I am sorry, I haven't used that for years. Does the software have a forum or help section?

 

[peter]

I am sorry, I haven't used that for years. Does the software have a forum or help section?

Don't worry, Kate - there are lots of FTM users on the forum, and I'm a little surprised that none of them responded so far.

I don't really use FTM myself, but I do know there is a Compact file tool - presumably that doesn't do what you want, jorghes?

 

[jorghes]

Don't worry, Kate - there are lots of FTM users on the forum, and I'm a little surprised that none of them responded so far.

I don't really use FTM myself, but I do know there is a Compact file tool - presumably that doesn't do what you want, jorghes?

I have compacted that file, but it doesn't seem to delete unused places or sources already in the file. I have been searching all over for something that will allow me to delete more than just going source by source... but it's not even in "Managing sources". (You can delete a set of sources, but then the menu "resets" and you have to click back into managing sources again.)

Googling a question along those lines got me nothing.

I am quickly coming to the conclusion that this is no way to clear unused/unlinked sources or places in bulk.

 

[jorghes]

Update: while I haven't figured out how to delete the unlinked places, I have discovered how to delete all sources in one hit (although that doesn't solve the issue of just deleting those sources that are unlinked.)

To delete all source references, do the following:
On the Source page, click on the drop down menu "List" at the top of the left pane. Change it to "By All Source Citations". Then you can select the source citations in the upper middle work panel (Control-A will do it) and you can press the delete button and hey presto, you can delete all the sources from your tree.

Still haven't found a way to just delete anything that isn't linked to an individual. Will keep looking.

 

[Kate]

Jorges, I am wondering if tou resolved your problem?
I am a Legacy user considering moving to FTM mainly because it synchs to Ancestry so my family can view it. At the moment I upload a gedcom periodically then invite them to view. FTM also seems have lots of bells and whistles, however I am interested in the screen view which I can't seem to find. I just thought you tube may have something so I will look there. I had Family Historian once but got so fed up with it that I stopped researching!
I also need to consider how easily and accurately a gedcom uploads as I have quite a big tree, plus I have my DNA matches tagged on Legacy....to be honest I am putting myself off now. Will FTM be bringing out a new version soon as it is 4 years old and they are selling the download for half price on their own site? Sorry, I am rambling now but someone may have ideas!

 

[Tim]

Just wondering if anyone has found a way to clean out Sources and Places that are not linked to any individuals that doesn't require deleting every source group/place individually?

I'm trying to clean up a tree and while it was easy to delete individuals and media - I am still left with a lot of superfluous places and sources that are not linked to anyone and as just taking up space.

Any ideas?

Hi,

So I looked in FTM today to see if I could help. There is a way to identify them, but not a way to mass delete them. As you can see below, this source has no records and there is no icon displayed next to it in the list. You can now right click on it and delete it.

 

[canadianbeth]

I had just barely glanced previously at the Sources tab on FTM so out of curiosity I just looked again. It lists 145 source groups. I only found five sources listed with a zero beside them. Looking at the Places one I see 1296 but the first one states place 1 could not be found.

 

[jorghes]

Jorges, I am wondering if tou resolved your problem?
I am a Legacy user considering moving to FTM mainly because it synchs to Ancestry so my family can view it. At the moment I upload a gedcom periodically then invite them to view. FTM also seems have lots of bells and whistles, however I am interested in the screen view which I can't seem to find. I just thought you tube may have something so I will look there. I had Family Historian once but got so fed up with it that I stopped researching!
I also need to consider how easily and accurately a gedcom uploads as I have quite a big tree, plus I have my DNA matches tagged on Legacy....to be honest I am putting myself off now. Will FTM be bringing out a new version soon as it is 4 years old and they are selling the download for half price on their own site? Sorry, I am rambling now but someone may have ideas!

Hi,

So I looked in FTM today to see if I could help. There is a way to identify them, but not a way to mass delete them. As you can see below, this source has no records and there is no icon displayed next to it in the list. You can now right click on it and delete it.

As per my post (#7) above, the only thing I have managed to do is delete all the sources citations that are there - but it doesn't remove the "categories" for the sources. The only way to delete them is to do it one by one... which is extremely painful.

I have not found a way to purge the places which are not connected to people.

 

[peter]

I wonder what would happen if you created a new tree by synching with Ancestry?

 

[jorghes]

Not sure!

 

[cfbandit]

As per my post (#7) above, the only thing I have managed to do is delete all the sources citations that are there - but it doesn't remove the "categories" for the sources. The only way to delete them is to do it one by one... which is extremely painful.

Now wait, why did you want to delete all the source citations from your tree? Because that's essentially what it sounds like you did...

The way to remove just the ones unlinked with a person is to go to the bottom of the list to the "unlinked" section and there it will show sources that are unlinked to any individuals. You actually want to keep the source groups as you may end up using them again in the future, i.e. 1870 census can hold all of the individual source titles for 1870 census links. Those do not take up any space and unless you made duplicates, they can just sit there forever without looking at them.

Just wait until you clean up repositories too, loads of fun there...

I have not found a way to purge the places which are not connected to people.

First, make sure you've run the "resolve place names" function and joined any together that are the same thing, written badly - I do it regularly, as I'll often write Leics when I meant Leicester, Leicestershire, England, United Kingdom etc. and I can make the correction so it all gets the facts put to the proper places and the number of errors is clear.

Then you need to change the view from the nested to flat, and you can go through and just hit the down arrow and the delete key. I've done it before with a macro recorder on the keyboard to make easier work of it. You can't mass delete them because there are error messages the deletion will provide, and if you have one in there that has a fact associated, it will provoke an error message as well.

 

[cfbandit]

Jorges, I am wondering if tou resolved your problem?
I am a Legacy user considering moving to FTM mainly because it synchs to Ancestry so my family can view it. At the moment I upload a gedcom periodically then invite them to view. FTM also seems have lots of bells and whistles, however I am interested in the screen view which I can't seem to find. I just thought you tube may have something so I will look there. I had Family Historian once but got so fed up with it that I stopped researching!
I also need to consider how easily and accurately a gedcom uploads as I have quite a big tree, plus I have my DNA matches tagged on Legacy....to be honest I am putting myself off now. Will FTM be bringing out a new version soon as it is 4 years old and they are selling the download for half price on their own site? Sorry, I am rambling now but someone may have ideas!

I've got Legacy, FTM, and RootsMagic on my machine. I actually prefer FTM over Legacy for easy of use and the syncing feature. Legacy is better for when I'm writing citations and trying to make sure I have all my data ducks in a row for targeted researching. I also like FTM for the free image downloads from Ancestry, which is very handy if I want to refer to something and am working offline for focus. RootsMagic works fine too, like FTM for syncing, but I just found it didn't work with my workflow. Nothing against the program, it just wasn't for me. I've actually got the latest HEREDIS as well trying it out. Software is a fun area of genealogy for me.

GEDCOMs are fine in the system, but they are different. I find small differences between the ones in the different programs. It will not remember your coloring of DNA matches, but FTM does have a similar system if you want to set it up there. It just depends on what you want your primary system to be - if you're using Legacy as your primary and then FTM as the backup, I find it works quite well. I tend to then flip it when I run an Ancestry month or two - I'll run FTM as my primary and then transfer to Legacy when the paid time is over.

MacKiev are probably working on the new update but with the pandemic and then the war in Ukraine, I'm sure everything has been delayed - normally we get a new version about once every three years. They DO actively patch and update when things go off, so we just got a big patch in November, for example, to ensure syncing would work properly.

 

[Kate]

Thanks for that. It is something to think about but if I do buy FTM I think it will be when the new version comes out.

 

[jorghes]

Now wait, why did you want to delete all the source citations from your tree? Because that's essentially what it sounds like you did...

The way to remove just the ones unlinked with a person is to go to the bottom of the list to the "unlinked" section and there it will show sources that are unlinked to any individuals. You actually want to keep the source groups as you may end up using them again in the future, i.e. 1870 census can hold all of the individual source titles for 1870 census links. Those do not take up any space and unless you made duplicates, they can just sit there forever without looking at them.

Just wait until you clean up repositories too, loads of fun there...

Mainly because my tree had become corrupted and had to be reloaded, which meant that I had a lot of sources that were linked to nothing and erroneously linked to the wrong information and the wrong people - which also happens when you merge trees in FTM. It seemed more useful to me to simply remove and re-add the sources rather than attempt to find all of the bad sources, delete and re-add them one by one. And all the 1871 census records do not all appear in just one 1871 source repository - there are usually more like 20-30 of the same source repositories in the list.

The tree I am talking about is not my properly sourced tree - those are all offline. This is one of my ancestry trees, where I would prefer my sources to be correct rather than accidentally lead anyone in the wrong direction, which of course, they do plenty of on their own. Some people still have one of my ancestors producing children in rapid succession in Sussex and South Australia at the same time.