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Before you share with relatives

A report for your cousin, a GEDCOM file for a researcher in another branch, or a printout for the family reunion. This checklist helps you share what you want — and only that.

What are you sharing?

You want to share Use Keep in mind
A summary about a person or family A report as PDF: person profile, family sheet, ancestor chart, or descendant chart Choose under Share safely above the report, and read through the PDF before you send it
The family tree or the network as an image The family tree's PDF export The export dialog has the same Share safely as the reports
An image showing who's in it The print button on the image, Image with details The tagged people follow the choice for living persons
The whole tree with someone who uses another program GEDCOM export The export dialog shows what's included. Photos and documents are in the ZIP file
Everything, for yourself on another computer Backup Never share it — it contains the whole database

1. Living persons

By default, PastPaths hides living persons when you share: the name becomes "Private", and dates, places, events, notes, sources, and images are left out. This applies to the reports, the family tree PDF, printing an image, and the GEDCOM export.

You can choose otherwise:

  • Show everything — when the report is only for yourself.
  • Name only — for example for the family reunion, where everyone knows who's alive but dates and places don't need to be spread.
  • Leave out completely — the person isn't included at all. In the family tree PDF, this becomes "Private", since the tree can't draw the lines without the person.

Deceased children, grandchildren, and partners of living persons are hidden too, since they can reveal who the living persons are. By default, the tree stops at the first living person. A partner who is an ancestor of a living person, for example a deceased father whose widow is alive, isn't hidden.

Still, consider asking your living relatives whether it's okay for their details to be passed on, especially if you choose Show everything.

→ Share safely in the reports

2. Persons without dates

A person with neither a date of birth nor a date of death counts as living — and their deceased descendants are then hidden too. This often affects persons from the 1700s and 1800s who only have a name registered.

The reports page and the GEDCOM export dialog show how many this applies to, with the Show in the person list button. Enter an approximate year of birth or mark the person as deceased, and the person and the descendants are shown again. → Uncertain dates

3. Private events

An event marked as Private is shown with a padlock in PastPaths. The reports, the family tree PDF, and the GEDCOM export leave private events out unless you check Include private events. The box is empty to start with. A private birth or death then takes the person's birth or death details with it, and a private marriage takes the marriage date with it.

4. What you've written yourself

PastPaths can't hide what you've written as free text. A name in a biography, a note, an event's title, or an image caption is included as it is. So read through what you share, especially the person profile and images with details.

5. Does the report look the way you expect?

  • Is someone shown as "Private" even though they died long ago? The person probably has no dates, see point 2.
  • Marriage banns or wedding missing? The family sheet and the person profile take them from the couple's events. Both spouses must be linked to the event as Primary person or Spouse. If there's no marriage event, the partner relationship's date is shown, but without a place.
  • Does it say "1850" where you expected a full date? The report shows dates with the precision that's known, and writes out Around, Before, and After for events. → Uncertain dates
  • Several people with the same name? Partners are shown with years of birth and death after the name. If the years are missing — fill in what you know.
  • Does the ancestor chart follow the wrong parents? Choose Biological parents or Parents who raised them under Parents in the ancestor chart.
  • The PDF contains the same details as the report on screen. Review it in your PDF reader before you print — a large tree can run to many pages.

→ Reports

6. GEDCOM to another program

  • Go through the export dialog. It shows private events, living persons, descendants and partners of living persons, media files, and submitter, and how many are affected by each choice. → The export dialog
  • Photos and documents are in the media folder of the ZIP file. Ask the recipient to extract the whole ZIP file, so the program finds the images. By default, only media belonging to the persons in the export is included. Images where a hidden person is tagged are never included.
  • Say who you are. Check Include my details as submitter, so the recipient knows where the file comes from. You enter the details under Settings.
  • The events' own titles are included as TYPE, and marriage banns, marriage, and divorce are written under the family when both spouses are known.
  • Source citations on places aren't included — GEDCOM has no place for them.
  • Let the recipient undo. Ask whoever receives the file to make a backup before the import, or to import into an empty tree.

Checklist

  1. Share safely: the right choices for living persons and private events
  2. Persons without dates: the warning gone through
  3. Free text: biographies, notes, and image captions read through
  4. The PDF read through in the PDF reader
  5. GEDCOM: the export dialog gone through, the submitter chosen, and the recipient knows to extract the whole ZIP file

See also