keeping information of people I cannot place

[cvellaborda]

I seem to come across a lot of people in my family with the same name but different birth days, and it is taking a lot of time to place them and connect them to the right line. How can I keep such information handy so that I can go back to it until I make the right connection and place them in the family tree?
I have a Reunion 11

[Bob White]

Re: keeping information of people I cannot place

My method is very informal but works for me most of the time.

If you put the right hand column into "People" mode and enter the last name, those people with the same name are going to be adjacent to each other on the created list. Then you can click on each name to see your data for each and compare by looking. This works for me most of the time; on rare occasions, I have resorted to printing Person Sheets.

[cvellaborda]

Re: keeping information of people I cannot place

Thank you - I think I could use your method, it seems practical. However, now that I tried to apply what you told me I am stuck and need help again. I understood what you said about the persons with with same name will appear under "People" and I could easily click there. But where do I put the information of the persons that I cannot yet connect. I need to start a new box every time that is not connected to any of the family yet. I hope I am making myself understood.
For example I have three with the name Giuseppe Vella. One of them I know has been connected to the family and is placed. But the other two although I have their date of birth, I have no idea who their parents were so they are hanging in air. I would very much like to keep the information in Reunion so that when I need them I will find them.

[Mark]

Re: keeping information of people I cannot place

But where do I put the information of the persons that I cannot yet connect. I need to start a new box every time that is not connected to any of the family yet. I hope I am making myself understood.

What you'll want to do here is use the "Add Unrelated Person" option.

You'll find that in the Edit menu, which is in the main menu-bar at the very top of your computer screen (the one with the Apple icon on the left). When in the Family View you should see the "Add Unrelated Person" sub menu in that menu. Select an appropriate option in the submenu (e.g. "Female...") to start new entry that isn't linked to any other entries in the family file.

HTH

[cvellaborda]

Re: keeping information of people I cannot place

Thanks Mark, you solved it for me.

[Paul Reitz]

Re: keeping information of people I cannot place

What you'll want to do here is use the "Add Unrelated Person" option.

HTH

To organize those unrelated finds I create a "collector" person of the expected surname, but use a geographical region for given name. [E.g., Reitz, Philadelphia collector]

When someone is found who might possibly be related - even if not of the same surname - they get added as a "child" of the collector until they can be better linked. If I find their parents, they then take the place as child of the collector.

Works for me, but everyone has a unique organizational system.

-Paul

[cvellaborda]

Re: keeping information of people I cannot place

Makes sense too and at least like this they are kept in one place. I might use this for one person misplace as I have quite a few of these and I don't have to remember the name since they are placed together. thanks for the suggestion, Paul.
Christine

[Susan Freas Rogers]

Re: keeping information of people I cannot place

You can also create a flag called "Stray" and set that flag for each unrelated (stray) person. In preferences, you can then make your flags appear in the Person button, so if you were to click on their name in the Person column, perhaps wondering who they are (this is if you did NOT do the "person collector" thing, which I actually like now that I've seen this idea from Paul), and are in Family View, you would see "Flag: Stray" show up on their person button.

When I have electronic files (downloads or screen captures, for example) for people who I'm not sure are related, as part of the filename I'll type WHO? or RELATED? or similar in caps. Thankfully, the Mac system accepts question marks within a filename, so this makes it very easy, when I happen to be looking in Finder at a large collection of files in a Research folder for a specific surname, to know immediately which ones belong to people who I have not linked to my tree.

[cvellaborda]

Re: keeping information of people I cannot place

I had one family in one file and another family in another file. I have just realised that file A has a brother and file B has the other brother. The parents are the same, I need to combine these two files together. I tried pulling out a name into the other file but it seems it does not work like that at all. How can I combine the two files without having to re type everything again.
Would appreciate help. thanks]
Christine

[cvellaborda]

Re: keeping information of people I cannot place

You can also create a flag called "Stray" and set that flag for each unrelated (stray) person. In preferences, you can then make your flags appear in the Person button, so if you were to click on their name in the Person column, perhaps wondering who they are (this is if you did NOT do the "person collector" thing, which I actually like now that I've seen this idea from Paul), and are in Family View, you would see "Flag: Stray" show up on their person button.

When I have electronic files (downloads or screen captures, for example) for people who I'm not sure are related, as part of the filename I'll type WHO? or RELATED? or similar in caps. Thankfully, the Mac system accepts question marks within a filename, so this makes it very easy, when I happen to be looking in Finder at a large collection of files in a Research folder for a specific surname, to know immediately which ones belong to people who I have not linked to my tree.

yes, thanks Susan, but don't you find the flag a bit insignificant, I hardly see it, don't you think it should have been highlighted a little bit more to make it's presence known sort of.
thanks for your suggestions.

[Deb]

Re: keeping information of people I cannot place

I had one family in one file and another family in another file. I have just realised that file A has a brother and file B has the other brother. The parents are the same, I need to combine these two files together...How can I combine the two files without having to re type everything again.

Make a backup copy of each file before proceeding. Then, import file A into file B (or vise verse). This is done by opening one family file and choosing File -> Import -> Reunion Family File. Then, selecting the other file from the window that opens and clicking Open. Next, in the window that drops down, select the appropriate options (i.e., possibly All people, All sources, Import multimedia links, etc.) and click Import at the bottom.

Finally, you will need to use Reunion's Match and Merge People feature (by choosing File -> Match and Merge People) to merge the duplicated records (i.e., the parents and other ancestors) into one. Before using this feature, I highly recommend reading the manual page titled "Match & Merge People." It describes how the process works. One way to get to that section is to open your manual by choosing Help -> Contents. Then, click on the Bookmarks icon (the brown bookmark at the top of the manual page) and select "Match & Merge" from the menu.

I hope you find this information helpful in combining both family files

[cvellaborda]

Re: keeping information of people I cannot place

Thanks Deb, most helpful.

[Mary Arthur]

Re: keeping information of people I cannot place

Finally, you will need to use Reunion's Match and Merge People feature (by choosing File -> Match and Merge People) to merge the duplicated records (i.e., the parents and other ancestors) into one. Before using this feature, I highly recommend reading the manual page titled "Match & Merge People."

Make a back up of the new file, and be very careful of how you name all 4 of them, and, as soon as possible (but not too soon) delete the backups

[Paul Reitz]

Re: keeping information of people I cannot place

You can also create a flag called "Stray" and set that flag for each unrelated (stray) person. In preferences, you can then make your flags appear in the Person button, so if you were to click on their name in the Person column, perhaps wondering who they are (this is if you did NOT do the "person collector" thing, which I actually like now that I've seen this idea from Paul), and are in Family View, you would see "Flag: Stray" show up on their person button.

Yes, I use the 'unlinked' flag too. But with hundreds of them, among tens of thousands of people with similar names, listing by flag was too coarse.

My sub-par organizational skills often made me mutter "I know this family sounds familiar, but where'd I put them??" I was pleasantly surprised how well collectors by region work.

[Dennis J. Cunniff]

Re: keeping information of people I cannot place

My sub-par organizational skills often made me mutter "I know this family sounds familiar, but where'd I put them??" I was pleasantly surprised how well collectors by region work.

in Reunion 12, you can use the "islands" feature to keep track of who's connected to who.