Bill, In performing a selection for a gedcom file (or any use of the Advanced Focus/Filter List) - The Relationship Filters can be used in a cumulative fashion - for example, you can select someone's ancestors then select their descendants and you will get a combined selection - you do not need to do separate selections followed by a merge. In using the Relationship Filters - Ancestors, All Ancestral Related, Descendents, All Descendants Related - you need to have a clear understanding of how they work - I have added a copy (below) of the User Guide definitions. Regards, Stewart . Ancestors. Use this relationship filter to select an individual and his or her spouse, parents, siblings, and direct-line ancestors. You can decide how many generations of ancestors, how many generations of descendants, whether to include spouses, and whether to include all parents or only the primary parents. . All Ancestors Related. Use this relationship filter to select an individual and his or her parents, siblings, and ancestors; all of the ancestors' siblings, parents, children, and spouses; and each one of those individual's ancestors. This search gives you an individual's direct line and all collateral lines. If two or more lines have intermarried, this relationship filter gives the same results as the All Related relationship filter, and it may select everyone in the .paf file. . Descendants. Use this relationship filter to select an individual and his or her descendants. You select how many generations to include and whether to include spouses. . All Descendants Related. Use this relationship filter to select an individual and his or her all descendants of the individual, and the descendants' siblings, parents, children spouses, and each one of those individual's ancestors. If two or more lines have intermarried, this relationship filter gives the same results as the All Related relationship filter, and it may select everyone in the .paf file. -----Original Message----- From: Bill Williams [mailto:billwilliams25@juno.com] Sent: 30 August 2005 02:51 To: PAF-5-USERS-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [PAF-5] Merging in PAF (Or in any program) I have three cousins in Wales. We are all researching the same Jones family. I have purchased three copies of PAF 5.2 and plan to send the program to each of them along with the data that I have in my PAF file. I have performed a file split from my Williams file and set up a gedcom Jones file using "descendants" of our most remote ancestor. Now I want to do another split using the "ancestors" of my mother (a Jones) to set up another gedcom file so that all the relations will be included. My assumption is that I would then perform a merge of the "descendants" and the "ancestors" to set up a complete Jones family gedcom file. Will this work or will one overwrite the other? Am I on the right track to send my cousins the complete data of only the relevant families. Bill Williams ==== PAF-5-USERS Mailing List ==== FamilySearch Internet Genealogy Service http://www.familysearch.org/