Quote from Tom Holden on 2022-05-15, 9:38 pm

I guess what you're asking (or my interpretation of it) may be possible but at what cost and how usefully and reliably is unclear. I'm not knowledgeable with what you are starting from now, what you had before you got into this mess, nor am I absolutely clear about what you expect or hope for as an outcome. If I understand correctly:

1. You had many independent citations of the same source.
2. You ran "Merge Duplicate Citations" in RM8 resulting in few independent citations of the same source and they are reused many times.
3. You made many more additions and deletions to your database before discovering the bad outcomes of Step 2.
4. You are now wanting to convert the many reuses of a citation to many independent citations (each with a unique Citation Name or just the Source Name per Naming Citations in Preparation for RM8 by @patjones ?)
5. And you want the new, independent citations to be populated with additional data from the associated event, the sort of differentiation that would have prevented Step 2 to have merged so many citations into one with multiple reuses.

The reason you want to convert reuses to independent citations rather than restoring a backup from before Step 2 is that you think the work involved would be less. It sounds complex, especially Step 5, considering that there may be multiple reuses for the same person or couple and that could lead to quite unwanted outcomes that might only be resolved by manual inspection and cleanup. Arguably, maybe it's time for a do-over, done right and focussed on those lines of greatest importance to you.

Quote from Wayne b on 2022-05-15, 10:25 pm

I guess  Tom I just wanted to create a base citation that had some info in it that eliminated some typing and replication of data already in the database. I know it will require a full recheck of opening every hint and rechecking the info again but at least the name is there and the Citation Name and Item Name and Name of person date of event etc are filled out rather than having to re-do the whole citation.

Sorry Tom I should have added the event info is only added to new citation if it known as part of original source info from Ancestry. So a place and Baptism Date is only added when the England Select Births and Baptisms is a source that has a place and date.

And you are right it is a mess.....

 

Regards Wayne b

Quote from Tom Holden on 2022-05-16, 9:05 pm

I'm unsure that the whole process is doable solely with SQLite. A higher level language may be needed for some string manipulations. Without a statistically significant sample of the existing citations and what you want them to look like, I can't project an approach. If you want to send me your file, an examination of it would give me a clearer picture.

Quote from Wayne b on 2022-05-16, 9:08 pm

I have attached what I hope is a better explanation, again without the .rmst file.

 

Regards Wayne b

Quote from Tom Holden on 2022-05-17, 9:49 pm

That's a tall order and I'm unsure that this user is up to it or even if it can all be done within SQLite. And maybe there is also the issue of the source media if there were any tagged to the original pre-merged citations. They would have been untagged by Merge All Duplicate Citations except for the remaining 'Master Citation'.

As for the RMST, perhaps uploading it as a ZIP file or even renaming it as a TXT file might work but I think for anyone to be effective in attempting to respond to your request they need your database file. You can message me privately to get my email address.

Quote from Wayne b on 2022-05-17, 10:28 pm

Thanks for your response Tom. I have included a zip folder for the rmst files. I understand the media link will be lost to any of the citations. It is already lost so during the check I will have to relink. This time I will manually save the media and then link. That's the way it is. In terms of a solution it is never going to be perfect and I am only trying to save a considerable amount of re-typing and creating the citation. Regards Wayne b