In Family Historian most data entry tasks involve the Property Box. It is here that you add details of important events in a person's life - dates, places, etc - as well as notes, and much more. You can also, if you wish, use the Property Box to add spouses, children and even parents. But you do not use the Property Box for deleting records or for removing relationships. Here are some common ways (not the only ways) to delete a record, change a relationship, or perform other common tasks:
| HOW TO |
COMMON METHODS |
|---|---|
| Delete a person's record | Select the person in the Focus
Window by clicking on their box, and press the Delete
key. You will be asked to confirm. If the person is not currently visible in the Focus Window, there are numerous ways to find them. One way would be to open the Records Window (Individuals tab), find their entry there, and click the Focus button on the main toolbar, to show them in the Focus Window. If you are viewing the person in a diagram, you can delete them there too. Click on their box and press the Delete key. In this case, you will be asked what type of deletion you require. You should take the option to delete data record(s) if that's what you wish to do. |
| Delete the record for a person's son or daughter, spouse or parent | This is the same thing again, and the method is the same, assuming that you really do want to delete the record (if you don't, see the next paragraph). It doesn't make any difference whether you are viewing a person as a parent, or as child, or as a spouse or grandparent, or as none of these things. If you want to delete their record, and if you can already see it in the Focus Window, click on their box and press the Delete key (see above). If you can't see their record in the Focus Window, follow the instructions in the paragraph above for showing them in the Focus Window. |
| Remove a relationship without deleting any records | Suppose you have a person called John Smith, and you have added
a son for him, called Peter Smith. You now realise that
Peter Smith was not John Smith's son after all. Suppose you
don't want to delete your record for Peter Smith or for John Smith
- you just want to remove the relationship that links them as
father and son. In Family Historian, this is called unlinking.
One easy way to do this is to show John Smith in the Focus Window,
pick a tab which shows his children (e.g. the Spouses and
Children tab) so you can see Peter Smith listed as a
son. Then click on Peter Smith using the right mouse button
and choose Unlink Record from the menu that
appears. You can use the same technique to unlink spouses
and parents. Alternatively, you can also select a person, in any context, and click Unlink From on the Edit menu, and follow the instructions. |
| Create new relationships without creating new records | In our previous example, we changed the relationship between
John Smith and Peter Smith, so that the latter was no longer the
son of the former. Now suppose that we have discovered that
Peter Smith was really the son of Arthur Smith - and we already
have a record for Arthur Smith so we don't want to create a new
one. How do we link Peter Smith as the son of Arthur
Smith? One easy solution is to arrange to show Arthur Smith
as the focus person (box at the top) in the Focus
Window, and then, in the Spouses & Children tab,
click on the Add Child link to add a child for
him. You will be asked if you want to Create a new
Record or Link an Existing Record. Take the
latter option. If Arthur Smith has a recorded wife, and Peter Smith is her son too, this technique will work fine. If he has more than one spouse, make sure you pick the Add Child link for the right spouse. If Arthur Smith has one or more recorded wives, but Peter Smith is not the son of any of them, don't click on any Add Child link. Instead click on the Add More Relatives for Arthur Smith link, at the bottom of the Focus Window, and follow the instructions. A very similar technique can be used to add spouses or parents. You can also select Arthur Smith and choose appropriate options from the Add menu. |
| Change the ordering of Spouses and Children | Suppose now that you have added Peter Smith as the son of Arthur
Smith, but he has been added as the last child, and you know that
he was the first. To correct this, make sure that the Focus
Window is showing Arthur Smith as the focus person.
Then, on the Spouses & Children tab, select Peter
Smith's record where he is listed as the last child of Arthur
Smith, and click the Move Up button on the main
toolbar, as many times as our needed to move him to the correct
position. To change the order of a person's spouses, if he or she has more than one, make sure you are showing the person's details in the Focus Window (again, you want them to be the focus person at the top), then click on one of the spouses and press the Move Up or Move Down buttons on the main toolbar, to move them to the correct position. You can also re-order spouses and children in the Main tab of the Property Box, when viewing an Individual record. This tab can have up to two sets of its own, small, move up/down buttons. One set is used for re-ordering spouses and is only available when the Individual record shows two or more spouses. In that case, the move up/down buttons display on the right-hand side of the Property Box, opposite the Spouse label. There is another set which is used for re-ordering children. This set is in the top-right corner of the child list. The buttons in this set are always visible, but may be greyed if no child is selected, or if no movement is possible. With these buttons you have to click on the row for the child you want to move, to enable the buttons. |