A second cousin asks for the tree. What they mean is "the part that connects us". What they would get, if sent the whole file, is your children's birthdates, your in-laws' family, and forty years of research on lines they have nothing to do with. Splitting off a branch gives them what they asked for.

What a branch is

Usually: everyone descended from a chosen ancestor, plus their spouses. Sometimes: one person with their spouses and children, all the ancestors of someone, or the father's or mother's side alone. GED-VIEW's Split tree tool offers those choices, shows the count next to each before anything happens, and never leaves anyone floating: whoever would be left with no link to the rest of the family goes into the same file.

The workflow

  1. Open the file and open Tools > Split tree. Type the name of the common ancestor you and the relative share, or pick them on the small tree the tool draws (drag a box around the people, click a card to add or remove one). Several people can be chosen.
  2. Choose the side next to each: just this person, the person with spouses and children, descendants, all ancestors, the father's side, the mother's side. Every side shows how many people it means.
  3. Look at "Who is included" and untick anyone who should stay behind. Four hundred people when forty were expected means the starting point is too far back. Adjust.
  4. Read the Review: what goes into file A, the branch, and what file B, the rest of the file, loses (the families that lose a member, the people who lose a link).
  5. Choose an ending. Download, Open in app and Accept all save both files, the branch (file A) and the rest (file B), under names you can edit on the Result step; file A is the one that opens. Preview colors every page: file A in blue, file B in purple, so you can walk the tree and check before Accept saves the files.
  6. Open the branch and check it looks like what was intended. Then run Tools > Privatize living people on it before sending, unless there is a reason not to: the sharing guide covers that step.

The original file is never modified. The same page, as Remove branch, does the opposite job: it takes a branch out of the file you keep.

Sources and media

Sources, notes, media and repositories that the included people still use come along; those used only by excluded people do not. Media references come along as file names, but the images are still on your disk; to send those, convert the branch to a GEDZIP with the media included (Tools > Convert), or send the matching files from the media folder.

Alternatives

Every desktop program can do this too; RootsMagic and Family Tree Maker have "selected people" and "privatize living" options in their export dialogs. GED-VIEW's tool exists so it can be done from the viewer, with the result checked on every page before it is saved.

Next

Once there is a branch file, the sharing guide covers how to send it and what to tell the relative to do with it.