Plugins and Language Packs for Family Historian

Split Addresses from Places Quick Start

🏠 To split addresses out of your place names
  1. Make a backup of your project, then run the Split Addresses from Places plugin
  2. Click Select Places… and choose a batch of places that are laid out in the same way
  3. Set Address columns to the number of columns that make up the address
  4. Click Preview and Exit, and check the Result Set
  5. Run the plugin again, click Previous Selection, then click Apply and Exit
  6. Check the Result Set. Use Edit > Undo Plugin Updates if you need to put things back

What This Plugin Does

Family Historian 7 had no Address records. If you wanted a street-level location on a map, you had to put the street in the place name, so that the Place record could be geocoded. Many trees now hold places such as this:

Before 158, Cole Valley Road, , Hall Green, Birmingham, England
After: Address 158, Cole Valley Road
After: Place Hall Green, Birmingham, England

Family Historian 8 has Address records. An Address belongs to a Place and can hold its own geocode, notes and media. Split Addresses from Places divides each of your old place names into an Address and a Place, then points every fact, source and note at the new arrangement.

  • You say how many columns, counting from the left, make up the address. The rest stay as the place
  • Blank columns are kept exactly where they are, because you may have used them to line places up. Blank columns at the end of the address are dropped
  • If a place with the new name already exists, the old place is merged into it, so you don’t end up with duplicates
  • Geocodes, notes and media move to the address (or stay with the place, if you prefer). Nothing is thrown away
  • Preview shows exactly what will happen before anything is changed, and one Undo Plugin Updates reverses a whole run
💡 Tip: This plugin is for Family Historian 8 only, because earlier versions have no Address records.

Before You Start

  • Make a backup. The plugin edits places and everything that refers to them. Apply asks you to confirm, and it is worth having a backup to hand
  • Save your project. If you have unsaved changes, the plugin offers to save them first, so that it works on up-to-date data. Say Yes
  • Run Preview first. It changes nothing and shows you every place, with what will happen to it
💡 Tip: Try your first run on a small batch of places. If you don’t like the result, Edit > Undo Plugin Updates puts everything back.

Step By Step

Step 1: Choose the places

The list starts with any places you had selected in Family Historian. Click Select Places… (Ctrl+I) to add more. This opens Family Historian’s own picker, so you can use its filters or its Named Lists tab. Places you add are put on the end of the list, and duplicates are ignored. Tick places and click Remove Selected (Del) to take them out again, or Clear List (Ctrl+T) to start over.

Choose places that are laid out in the same way. The next section explains why.

Step 2: Set the number of address columns

The Settings for this run section of the window has a dropdown for Address columns. The first columns, counting from the left, become the address. The default is 3.

For 158, Cole Valley Road, , Hall Green, Birmingham, England the first three columns are 158, Cole Valley Road and a blank one. Everything after them is the place.

The other dropdowns say where the geocode, standardised value, notes and media go. The defaults suit most people. You can change them for this run here, or change your standing defaults in the Options menu.

→ All the options explained

Step 3: Preview

Click Preview and Exit. The window closes and Family Historian’s Result Set lists every place with what will happen to it. Nothing has been changed.

Check these columns:

  1. New Place and Address: do they look right?
  2. Action: is each place going to be renamed, or merged into a place that already exists?
  3. Country: this is the last column of each place. Sort by it to spot places from different countries, which often need a different number of address columns
  4. Notes / Warnings: look for ‘Check split’, which means a place has a different number of columns from most of the others

If some places look wrong, don’t apply the run. Set aside the odd ones for a batch of their own and change the number of address columns for them.

→ Reading the Result Set

Step 4: Apply

Run the plugin again. Click Previous Selection (Ctrl+P) to reload the places from your last Preview, so you don’t have to choose them again. Check the settings, then click Apply and Exit. You are asked to confirm. Click Yes to go ahead.

Step 5: Check the results

When the run finishes, the Result Set lists what did happen to each place. The New Place and Address columns link to the records, so you can open them and look. If a place was kept rather than deleted, the Notes / Warnings column says why.

If you’re not happy, choose Edit > Undo Plugin Updates in Family Historian. It reverses the whole run. Then run the plugin again with different settings.

Working In Batches

One setting for Address columns can’t suit every place in your project. A UK place may have a house number and a street in front of the town. A North American place may have an extra county level, so it needs one column fewer in the address.

For example, 48, Iron Street, Youngstown, Mahoning, Ohio, USA has six columns, the same as 158, Cole Valley Road, , Hall Green, Birmingham, England. With 3 address columns it would be split as address 48, Iron Street, Youngstown and place Mahoning, Ohio, USA. With 2 columns it comes out right: address 48, Iron Street and place Youngstown, Mahoning, Ohio, USA.

So work through your places in batches:

  1. Start with the biggest group, such as your places in England, using the usual number of columns
  2. Preview, check, and apply
  3. Choose the next group (places in another country, or with a different layout), set the number of columns that suits them, and repeat

You don’t have to be tidy about the order. If a later batch produces a place name that already exists, it merges into it. Include places with blank address columns, such as , , , Acocks Green, Birmingham, England, in the same batch as the places that split to the same name. They lose their blank columns, and the plugin deals with them first so that the others can merge into them.

💡 Tip: Preview warns you when a place has a different number of columns from most of the places you chose. Treat that warning as a hint that the place may belong in a different batch.

What Gets Changed

  • Facts: each fact gets the new place and the address. If a fact already had an address, the address from the old place is put in front of it
  • Sources and source templates: fields that can’t hold an address are given the new place and an ‘Address:’ note, so the street isn’t lost
  • Links in notes: a note anywhere in your project that links to the old place now links to the new address instead, or to the place if there is no address. The link keeps its old wording, so the note still reads as it did before
  • The old place: it is renamed, or merged into an existing place and deleted. Its geocode, notes and media go where you chose
  • Places that can’t be tidied away: a place in a named list, or one with something the plugin doesn’t recognise, is kept and reported

→ The full detail, reference by reference

Common Questions

Q: Will I lose any information?
A: No. Facts, sources and notes keep their links, and the street-level detail moves into the address. Coordinates are never discarded: if the place you merge into already has different ones, it keeps its own and the old ones are written into a note. Notes are added to, never overwritten.
Q: Can I undo it?
A: Yes. Edit > Undo Plugin Updates reverses the whole run, as long as you haven’t closed Family Historian since.
Q: Why are there blank columns left in my addresses?
A: The plugin keeps blank columns exactly as you had them, because many people use them to line places up. Only blank columns at the end of the address are dropped. A place that is blank in every address column is tidied: , , , Acocks Green, Birmingham, England becomes Acocks Green, Birmingham, England, with no address.
Q: Does it work in Family Historian 7?
A: No. Family Historian 7 has no Address records, so there is nothing to split into. You need Family Historian 8.

→ More questions and troubleshooting

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