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Author Topic: Family Tree Maker 2008  (Read 236 times)
elin
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Family Tree Maker 2008
« on: Tuesday 29 April 08 17:08 BST (UK) »
My son bought me the latest version of family tree maker for Christmas.  Mostly I am very happy with it,  now that I have got to grips with it.  The problem is however that I have not been able to rectify initial errors that I made. 

I made some mistakes at first when I was merging new information from ancestry with the result that several individuals appear to be married to countless unknowns. I have been unable to delete these.

I have children in some marriages appearing two or three times and I have children attributed to their stepmother.  If I try to delete them I lose all info on them and the programme does not allow me to transfer offspring to their rightful mother.Cry

I am quite pathetic when it comes to computing and I am sure that I must be missing something. Roll Eyes

Anybody any ideas?

Thanks,

Elin
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Foxwell (Wotton Under Edge and South Wales), Howell (Stroud & Wotton Under Edge), Jones (South Wales) Merrigan (Liverpool), Kelly (Liverpool)
downside
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Re: Family Tree Maker 2008
« Reply #1 on: Tuesday 29 April 08 19:43 BST (UK) »
You should be able to detach children and then attach them using the People menu from the toolbar and selecting the Fix Relationship option.

There is also an option Move Child From on the People drop down list of options.

CAUTION
Before attempting any of these things make sure you make a backup of your current .ftw file so that you can restore it if anything goes wrong.  Your current data file might be a mess at the moment but it could be an even bigger mess if things go wrong after attempting some of the suggestions above.  Open FTM and select File and then Backup.  Select a different location to save the backup and write down where you are going to save it.

To find out which relationships have mistakes you can run a report:

1) Alternate Facts
2) Data Errors
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elin
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Re: Family Tree Maker 2008
« Reply #2 on: Tuesday 29 April 08 20:09 BST (UK) »
Hi Downside,

Thanks a lot for your kind reply and your suggestions.  I do not appear to have a drop down people menu.  I know what you mean though because I used to use Family Tree Maker 2006 and that  did have it.   Maybe it is a problem with my software because I have spent ages trying to work out what to do and coming up with nothing.

Thanks again,

Elin
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Foxwell (Wotton Under Edge and South Wales), Howell (Stroud & Wotton Under Edge), Jones (South Wales) Merrigan (Liverpool), Kelly (Liverpool)
tangobravo
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Re: Family Tree Maker 2008
« Reply #3 on: Wednesday 30 April 08 06:33 BST (UK) »
Hello Elin,
               I think you should be looking for the "People menu from the toolbar" as per note from Downside and not a pull down menu.
I have FTM2008 so will try and put steps in some detail as you say you are not too computer literate....

a) Under title bar or 2nd line is toolbar with PLAN - PEOPLE - PLACES - etc  = click on PEOPLE
b) Make sure you are on correct person you want to work with - eg: to delete child from  - by clicking on PERSON tab - on 4th line which has FAMILY & PERSON tabs
c) Also click on Relationships from 5th line which has FACTS - TIMELINE - RELATIONSHIPS

So now you should be on relationship of person you want to detach child from,etc. by clicking mouse once on child that has relationship to that person - say daughter, OK ?

d) To make changes go to 5rd line which has FILE - EDIT - VIEW - PERSON - TOOLS - HELP and click once on "PERSON"
e) This gives a pull down menu from which you mouse over ATTACH/DETACH PERSON that then gives another pull down menu to DETACH SELECTED PERSON
f) clicking on this should fix one relationship.

You can also detach spouse by clinking mouse once on spouse before going to these pull down menus.

Hope above helps - it sure sounds complicated put in words compared to actually doing it  Wink 

However PLEASE remember to do backup as recommended by Downside before any changes.
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downside
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Re: Family Tree Maker 2008
« Reply #4 on: Wednesday 30 April 08 11:46 BST (UK) »
I think the term is Drop Down menu when you click on the People option on the toolar menu.

The reason why things go wrong when merging files is to do with matching names.  For instance:-

John C Smith
John Charles Smith

will be considered to be 2 different people because they are not exact.  If you think they look similar it is because you are human.  A machine does not think, it just obeys instructions.  Here is another example:-

John C Smith born 1823
John C Smith born 1824

To human eyes they look like the same person but there is a discrepancy in the date and the merge program may consider them to be different people.

The best thing to do before merging 2 files is to go through both of them and make sure that each duplicate individual has identical entries before merging and that way you will reduce the chances of mis-merging the data.
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Cheshire: Gradwell
elin
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Re: Family Tree Maker 2008
« Reply #5 on: Wednesday 30 April 08 15:58 BST (UK) »
Hello Downside and tangobravo,

Thank you both very much for your clear and patient explanations, it is much appreciated.   I tend to panic when trying to fix things and then make disastrous mistakes.

I am well on my way to sorting out the errors now.  Cheesy

I hope you don't mind if I ask if either of you could explain to me  how to get rid of the green shaky ancestry leaves when they are not relevant to me.  On ancestry you can just click ignore but I haven't found a way to do it on FTM.  I just  merge the individuals and then delete them to remove them.  Sometimes they come back again.  Roll Eyes 

Thanks again,

Elin
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Foxwell (Wotton Under Edge and South Wales), Howell (Stroud & Wotton Under Edge), Jones (South Wales) Merrigan (Liverpool), Kelly (Liverpool)
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