Highlighting Ancestors in Family Historian

When working in Family Historian I often work using a diagram so I can easily see the branch I am working on.  As my tree is quite large I normally have the diagram root set to the Ancestor I am working on so the standard ancestor colouring options which are based on the diagrams root do not help.

However it is pretty easy to add an expression on the diagram options to highlight them on what ever diagram you are using.

The “magic” code is

=IsAncestorOf(%INDI%,Record(1,”I”))

You simply need to replace the number 1 with your record id if it’s not 1.

Then with your diagram displayed go to the Diagram>Options and select the Boxes tab and click “Add Condition” and select “Expression”.

and paste in the “magic” code.  Once done the Box Features option will appear and you can select the look you want to apply.

Then simply click OK a few times to return to your diagram to get:

As you can see although this is a descendant report for Samuel Groves my ancestral line is highlighted.   You can of course get a similar effect using the “Family Connection Mapper”, but the nice thing about this method is if you set it as the default it works on any working diagram.   You can even add additional expressions with different record IDs to highlight your Spouses or other ancestors.

 

4 thoughts on “Highlighting Ancestors in Family Historian

  1. Instead of Record(1,”I”), you can also use %CUR_FILE_ROOT% or %CUR_DGM_ROOT% or any other Diagram Contextual Data References. By using %CUR_FILE_ROOT% and adjusting the File Root Individual the highlights will automatically apply to any nominated root person.

    1. Yes and very useful they can be, I use the Record method as I don’t want it to change with the file or diagram root as I have quite a few different coloured lines set up for different people, and regularly change the file root.

  2. Hmm,
    When I put this in, I get an error message “Expression is not valid”. I am inserting this expression:
    =IsAncestorOf(%INDI%,Record(196,”I”)).

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