Starting over, but not really

[j2sacks]

Having recently retired, I decided to get serious about my genealogy. I have a Reunion file that has 500ish people in it, but it is a mess. I've been working on "structural" issues such as source templates and documenting decisions in logs, so now I'm ready to tackle the people in a systematic and consistent fashion. My issue is that I'd like to "reset" the people. For instance, Family #1 is made up of Person #302 and 169. Is there a way to do this? If I export a small starter set (14) of people to a new Reunion file, the logs and templates don't come with and they keep the original numbers. If I manually start a new file, I'm typing everything in from scratch.

[theKiwi]

Why is this important to you?

And you can't achieve what I suspect you're aiming...

If you make persons 1 and 2 be family 1, then who goes in family 2 - and it only gets more out of whack the more you enter.

Many many many years ago I reconfigured my database so that the first 511 numbers used were my ancestors - i.e. their ahnentafel numbers. It seemed like a good idea at the time, and I've stuck with it, despite about half of those numbers effectively used - they're being "held" by being named Unknown.

I wouldn't do it again if starting over.

Roger

[Keith Bage]

I agree with theKiwi. A person ID is just a unique identifier for which you can perform numerous activities. Don't get hung up on them being sequential. If you really want something that fits a structure, you could also consider using a USER ID, which you can define yourself.

For what its worth, I am in a similar position to you. Newly retired, and wanting to get serious with my research on both my own family and my one-name study. There are several things I might have done differently, but you can change as you go. Just be systematic about your approach i.e. standardise on place names, source structures, etc before adding more people to your tree and enjoy the journey.

Keith