Use of Filter - update

Here is an update based on the previous two messages:

How to identify Civil War Family Members

How to Identify Civil War era members of your tree (revised)

I wanted to understand what was going on a little what the difference was.

Created a test file with three (3) names. no other information. Using the same steps in the previous blog posts, the use of the Birth fact, "is blank" did not remove anyone.

I then added a birth place to one of the three. Same result, no one filtered out.

To make sure I wasn't missing anything, I filtered out Birth Place is not blank, and the person I had the birth place was filtered out.

Then, Birth Date is Blank, filtered out the same person. So far, it appears that this "logic" works when there is a Birth Fact in use for the person.

Going back to the see how to Filter Out anyone not using the Birth Fact, can be filtered out by using the Birth fact, Any Data, Does Not Exist will Filter Out that condition. Meaning not using the Birth Fact.

The observation from all of this is that the fact must be used to be Filtered Out. Or, If the fact isn't in use, then the conditions in the Filter will not evaluate the conditions in the Filter

Copyright © 2011 by H R Worthington

How to Identify Civil War era members of your tree (revised)

As a follow up to: How to identify Civil War Family Members posted earlier today, it appears that the final step (Birth record Blank) did not remove everyone without a Birth Date by using that Filter. 

After reading a comment in that post, I re-ran the final filter with a much better set of results. I will include the text from that earlier message here.

The first screen is in the People Workspace, Family View, with the Index in the Left Hand Panel. In this file, I have 8,252 people. At the Bottom of that screen is the FILTER feature.

 

Clicking on Filter, will bring up a window where we will start to Filter people who meet our parameters. The first thing we need to do, is to click on Include All >>. This will move those 8,252 people from the Left Window to the Right Window. This is like Selecting ALL or everyone.

 

Notice the same number is in both sides of the window. Now we want to < Filter OUT certain groups of people. In this case, we will Filter Out all Females. So, select Sex from the list of Facts, then Equals, and select Female and click OK.

 

We have a new number (4,343) (see below). Our next Filter will be to < Filter OUT everyone who was born BEFORE 1818, in this example. Selecting the Birth Fact, "is before", and entering 1818. (you can use any date you wish).

 

Again, we have a new number (3,101) (see below). Next, < Filter OUT everyone who was born AFTER 1846. Again select the Birth Fact, "is after", and enter 1846.

 

Down to 2,491. Will now < Filter OUT anyone who Died Before 1861. Selecting the Death Fact, "is before" 1861 will do this.

 

Here is where the change is. In the < Filter OUT window, select the Birth Fact, but this time select "Any Date", just below the Birth Fact, and select Does Not Exist.

 

We now have reduced our list from 8,252, down to 197.

 

Looking at the results again, there are still some names without Birth Dates in the list. BUT each of those people have a Birth Place. Go back to the < Filter OUT, Select the Birth Fact, and in the menu just below the Birth Fact, select Place, then select "Is Not Blank". This action took my list down to 102.

The list of people with the Filter Applied, are Males, who were born between 1818 and 1846 and how have not died, but have Birth Date information. A good place to start to look for your Civil Wars family members.


Note: Will have to do some more investigation into why the last filter in the previous blog post didn't work as expected.



Copyright © 2011 by H R Worthington

How to identify Civil War Family Members

As we celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, How can we identify who might have served in the Civil War? Perhaps we know some of them, but maybe not all of them.

Here is how to Filter your file down to identify those people.

The first screen is in the People Workspace, Family View, with the Index in the Left Hand Panel. In this file, I have 8,252 people. At the Bottom of that screen is the FILTER feature.

Clicking on Filter, will bring up a window where we will start to Filter people who meet our parameters. The first thing we need to do, is to click on Include All. This will move those 8,252 people from the Left Window to the Right Window. This is like Selecting ALL or everyone.

Notice the same number is in both sides of the window. Now we want to Filter OUT certain groups of people. In this case, we will Filter Out all Females. So, select Sex from the list of Facts, then Equals, and select Female and click OK.

We have a new number (4,343) (see below). Our next Filter will be to Filter OUT everyone who was born BEFORE 1818, in this example. Selecting the Birth Fact, "is before", and entering 1818. (you can use any date you wish).

Again, we have a new number (3,101) (see below). Next, Filter OUT everyone who was born AFTER 1846. Again select the Birth Fact, "is after", and enter 1846.

Down to 2,491. Will Filter OUT anyone who Died Before 1861. Selecting the Death Fact, "is before" 1861 will do this.

Reduced to 2,338. Now to Filter OUT anyone without a Birth Date. Birth Fact, "is blank".

This reduced the 8,252 people in my file to 2,304.

To remove the Filter, remove the Check Mark, on the Filter Line, and that will restore your file to everyone.

Copyright © 2011 by H R Worthington

People Workspace - How To Resize Panels

How to change the size of the Panels in the People Workspace.

Here is the normal view of the People Workspace. The LH (Left Hand) Panel is the Index, or list of people in your file.

In the Center Panel, at the top, is the Pedigree View of your tree, based on the selected person. Below that, is the Family View, listing Parents and Children. The RH (Right Hand) Panel, is selected (user selected fact from the Custom View) information about the hilighted or selected person.

The Index and the Family View parts of this screen can be reduced or removed. Each panel can be selected to drag (open or close) these two portions of the screen, or resize them.

Look at this next screen to see how to Hide these two panels.

You will notice a Left Pointing arrow at the Top of the Index Panel, and a down pointing arrow above the Family View.

Clicking on either of these arrows will Hide that part of the screen.

See the Index (LH) Panel being closed.

And the Family View Closed.

Those same two arrows will allow you to restore the LH Panel or the Family View back to the original configuration.

Copyright © 2011 by H R Worthington