Family Historian User Group

Please could anyone tell me if there is a quick way of putting all the direct ancestors in captital letters, I have quite a few and would take ages to do them all individually. If there is a better way I would appreciate it. Maybe additionally/instead, if they are a certain colour, could I list all the aunts/uncles/ cousins in different colours. Would be very helpful as I dont follow spouses families backwards and at the moment there is no way to tell the difference in names on a spreadsheet. Thanks for any help.

I don't know if this will help, but I was also trying to more easily and quickly identify (for other reasons) about 15% of the individuals in my tree. I solved it by creating a new flag, setting the new flag against all of the individuals concerned, and then adding the flag as a column in the records list. I now have a "Y" against all the individuals concerned.
It took a bit of time, but not as long as re-typing all the surnames would have done!
You have referred to having the names on a spreadsheet? I assume if you intend to export your tree into a spreadsheet, the flag would also be exported as a column, but this is not something I have tried.
Hope this is of some assistance. Good luck

A slightly better solution, is to add them to a named list. Run the direct ancestor query, select all the people in the result list, then add them to a named list. Whenever you need to create a query to run on direct ancestors only, you just select those in the named list.
Sadly I can’t help with Capitalisation, but you can easily export the named list to a spreadsheet, with no need to worry about flags.

It is not easy to convert nominated names to capitals. It would need a custom Plugin.
Anyway, I bet you will probably want to convert them back a some time in the future.

What process are you using to get your data exported into a spreadsheet?
I presume you are running a Query and then using the Save As CSV option.

A variant of an earlier suggestion is to add a column to your Query results to indicate direct ancestors.
The function required is =IsAncestorOf(FileRoot(),) that will put Y in the column when true.
That column will be included in the CSV file and easily identify the direct ancestors.
That assumes that you are set as the File Root person, but there are other options, and gives you flexibility to identify direct ancestors of anyone in your data.

Thanks all of you for your help. Would there be any chance of talking me through how to do this. Maybe a better way would be how to show people that are not actually related (only through marriage), so I know from the spreadsheet who I dont need parents or information for. I am running a query like Tatewise said and saving it as CSV file. Thanks again

If you are running a Query, then it could filter out the people you are not interested in.
Thus the Query only lists the ancestors you want to research for parents or information, etc.

Therefore only those people of interest will be exported to the spreadsheet, and no indicators are needed.
OR
You could simply print the list, or save it as a PDF file.

Why did you believe you needed to use a spreadsheet ?
What processing had you in mind ?

Tatewise, thanks for replying. My husband helps me find information on everyone on my tree. We put all the columns on the spreadsheet ie birth,baptism, marriage, census, death etc., and then when he finds them he colours them a certain colour to say he has found them so not to search again. Its just that there is no way of telling which are the spouses which I only need birth, marriage etc. Dont need any information about their parents/brothers and sisters etc., unless I come across them in some way. Hope you understand, I am not very good at explaining. Really my main problem is that he ends up searching and saving everything about everybody when its not needed. Thanks again Tatewise

Why don't you add a Relationship column to show how the people are related to you, that way you can see at a glance what relation they are and if you need to search.

Thanks Jane, I will try that, not got my thinking head on this morning, thanks again

Sorry Jane, please could you explain how to add a relationship column to a query, cant seem tofind out how. Sorry if I dont understand

Set the Expression to the function:

=Relationship( FileRoot(), %INDI% )

assuming you want the relationship to the File Root person.

See how_to:understanding_expressions|> Understanding Expressions under Examples for Relationships.

You could also inspect any of the Standard Queries that report Relationships or the Records Window in the Individuals tab.that has a Relationship column.