Genealogy Chat

Help please! I have FTM 2006 and began entering names when I first got it. Then I didn't do anything for some time and now I am back to it I would like to erase everything that I initally put on there and begin all over again. Does anyone know how to do that? I sent a message to support but they have not replied. If anyone else has done this can you advise me? Many thanks Maggie

Well Im sure theres a way of doing it in one fell swoop, probably starting a completely new gedcom - if there isnt a lot on there, you can delete people and all their info by going to their name on the open page, clicking your cursor next to it and then going up to people and clicking on delete individual. But Im sure there must be a better way.

Create a report,descendant tree or ancestor tree for a family group, from the PEOPLE menu choose DELETE INDIVIDUAL IN (name of report or tree) Click YES to confirm. The above taken from the online help centre. You will have to do the above for each group,(unless you can try an all in one tree and delete the whole lot in one go.) Glen

Hi Heather I do have quite a few people on there. I got too enthusiastic in the beginning! I suppose if nobody has any better ideas there will be nothing left for me to do but delete each person one by one. Thanks for your help. Maggie

Hi Glen Thanks, I will try that. rgds Maggie P.S. Aren't those knickers scratchy?

They are a bit threadbare now,the reflection is a problem in the sun though.LOL Glen

All you need to do is to open a new file and call it a different name. I don´t have the program on this computer so can´t give you exact instructions - but just from memory - go to the top of the screen, left hand side - click on File - and then click on new ?? - open new file and call it something different from your other one. As I said I am working from memory here but Heather should be able to say if this is right or not !!!

If you want to delet everyone don't bother, If you start FTM and go to File / New you can start a new empty tree, just give it a new name, and start entering all the details.

Could you have two versions of a tree running parallel to each other? As in a birth family tree and an adopted family tree,or does selecting new file delete the old one? Glen

You can have as many trees as you want, just name them differently. I have one that I use for 'maybe's' , then if they turn out to be correct I add them to my 'correct' tree. You can also have them open at the same time to compare , edit etc

Glen I have FTM 2005 and I have 3 trees, my dad's side, my mum's side and my husbands. Lynne

What people say is correct, just start a new file with a different name, if you want to delete your old file, FTM stores your family file to it's own program folder. It's located in, My Computer, Local Disk C, Program Files, Family Tree Maker, open that folder and you will find 2 icons in there, one Blue & White and one Red & White with the name you gave to your family file, delete these from the folder and they are in the waste bin, gone. Family Tree Maker always opens on the last file it used so when you want to open a different file you may have to navigate to the above folder to find the family file you want to open but it's more than likely that when you click on File at the top left of the screen, all your files will be listed there and you can open whichever one you want. Ron www.genealogyprinters*com

Thanks everyone. As always you have come through. I am always amazed at all your knowledge out there!! Best rgds Maggie

Well I vaguely knew but not like the other guys who really knew. I thought you could start a new gedcom file thingy as I have about 10 on there now. Ron and other peeps, can I safely delete all the ftm files that are superfluous now? Ones where I made a gedcom to send peeps years ago?

Just want to say thanks for the 'two tree info'. Just spent a fw minutes starting the adopted family complete with four generations of certs,wish the birth family was as easy. Glen

You can safely delete any of your unwanted family files from the FTM folder, it will not affect any other folders or files. Just make sure you select the right family file name before you delete it, mind you it goes into the recycle bin so if you drop a clanger you can always restor it from there. Ron www.genealogyprinters*com (using the gaffers computer)

Thanks Ron, I thought it was probably ok but was scared Id lose all of them. Off to do that now.

Fred how do you have more than one file open at the same time, because I want to put some names onto one file and take them off another , and if I could do that could see which ones to delete thanks

Nudge for Elaine

Just a word of caution from one who has been caught out before. If you are removing files from the FMT directory do be sure that you are only removing old data, not any program files. If you remove a program file by mistake then FTM will need to be re-installed. I don't save my FTM data in the FMT Program file directory but have a separate folder in our shared documents area. This keeps it completely separate from the actual FTM program files. For those who are interested, my file structure look like this Top folder in Our Documents is FAMILY TREE MAKER which has two sub folders, FTM DATA FTM REPORTS FTM DATA contains the data file for my current live trees and their associated backups. The ones with the blue and red flags Also in FTM Data are two other directories FTM BACKUP FTM GEDCOM FTM BACKUP has all the copies I have taken from time to time. These are always saved with a date in the name. FTM GEDCOM contains copies of Gedcom type files that I have received from others or downloaded from GR. FTM REPORTS This is used to store reports that I have created, in PDF or RTF formats, usually to send to other researchers. Finally, the entire FAMILY TREE MAKER folder with all of its contents is backed up to CD periodically.