* How can I refresh the Places record list

[Kim Travis]

I've made some edits in the Gedcom file to Places in Individual records, in order to regularise some county and parish names. But FH still includes the old Places which are no longer used in Individual records. Is there a way to make FH rebuild or refresh the Places record list? (I have a saved database before I made these edits.)

Thanks,

Kim

[tatewise]

FH generally does NOT and never has deleted unused records of any type with 0 Links.
So unused Note, Source, Repository, Media and Place records will remain until you Delete them.
See how_to:delete_a_large_number_of_records|> Delete Any Number of Records for methods of deletion.

However, I strongly advice you DO NOT EDIT the GEDCOM file, especially for Place names.
It is likely to lead significant problems, because unlike other records that are linked by Record Id so Names/Titles don't matter, Place fields are linked to Place records by the Place name only, so it must be unique.

Instead, use the Tools > Work with Data > Places or the Place records themselves to rationalise their names.
They provide ways to Edit &/or Merge the Place names.

[Kim Travis]

Thanks Mike. I had thought that the Place Records list was dynamically created from the INDI and other records. But then I spotted the Place Records towards the end of the Gedcom file... I'll wind back to my saved database. The changes will take 10x longer within FH, but thats life. I've rather taken to using Regular Expressions in Notepad++. One of the advantages of FH is that it stores all the data in a Gedcom file, but some of that advantage is lost if you can't safely edit the Gedcom file,

Kim

[Jane]

If you want a quick method to delete all unused place names try


Go to View>Record Lists>Places
Click the Icon to turn on the Named List pane
Select Lists>New Named List and create a "to delete" list
Alt Click on the Links column header to sort by number of links
Click and Shift click on the first and last zero usage Place and select all the zero reference places
Select Lists>Add to selected named list
Click on the Named list title
Select List>Delete Named List Records from the menu

The above is in the article Mike pointed you to.

This looks like a long process, but it takes a few seconds once you have done it a few times. You can edit a Gedcom if you want, but it's easier and safer to use the options as Mike suggested. Place records are very useful as you can attach media and notes to places. I do this a lot to add small old maps and Church photos which can then be included in reports for everyone with events in a place, FH does not tidy up place records as you would lose this information and or the Geo-coding information. Also it's possible to "seed" new projects with records from another Gedcom, useful if you are doing a Project for someone else in the same area.

[Jane]

Just to Add if you use the Find and Replace in the Edit menu you can search and replace in places inside Family Historian with out using an external editor. I do sometimes make changes to gedcoms outside of FH, but that's normally because I am changing "bad" gedcoms, unless you are completely confident with how all the inter-relationships of records are held, it's generally easier to use the tools inside FH to change things.

[tatewise]

WARNING: Don't use Edit > Find and Replace with Place names, as it creates new Place records for the new Place names, and unlinks the original Place records, which may hold important details.

It is much safer to use Tools > Work with Data > Places or edit the Place records directly.

Why do you say the changes will take 10x longer in FH?
Please give some examples.
Perhaps you are unaware of some of the FH features.

[Kim Travis]

For example I have a lot of Places in Prestwich cum Oldham parish, but I have phrased the name of the parish very inconsistently. To go through c500 place records and edit them each will take a long time. Easy in Notepad++. Doable with Find and Replace within FH, but you have explained why this is a bad idea.

Thanks for the the advice - I appreciate it,

Kim

[LornaCraig]

As Mike said, the problem with using Find and Replace within FH is that the original Place records will become unlinked and may hold important details. However, if you have never worked directly with Place records you probably don't have any media linked to them, or any notes in them. In that case the only thing that would be lost is the geocoding. If you have adjusted the automatic geocoding that would need to be done again, but if you have relied solely on FH geocoding that will be done again by FH.

However, do try using Tools > Work with Data > Places. If you have comma separated parts in your place names you can sort on any column to bring together places with similar names in that column, which may speed up the process of making your changes. In some cases a simple merge of two or more places may be all that is needed.

[Jane]

Don't forget when you use the Merge option in Work With places you can select 20 records or as many as you need and merge them into one all at once.

[tatewise]

If it is doable with Edit > Find and Replace then it will be doable with Plugin Search and Replace that has strategies for keeping Place records linked to Place fields (or not as required) when names change. It also supports LUA Patterns that are similar to Regular Expressions that you may be familiar with in Notepad++.

[Kim Travis]

Work with Places is extremely useful. But for my particular challenge, the Plugin sounds good Mike. I'll give it a go,

Kim

[tatewise]

Checkout its Help & Advice > Usage Examples for plugins:help:search_and_replace:usage_examples#place_name_changes_in_fh_v6|> Place Name Changes in FH V6 to ensure you use the best strategy, and also see LUA Pattern Mode examples.