A couple of years ago, I posted several articles about using Excel to help with genealogy research. I created my own version of Family Group Sheets and this week, I’ve begun making modifications to those to help me keep track of clues that I’m finding while I’m trying to determine if a certain family connects to mine. The time frame for this family is late 1700’s to early 1800’s so I’m not able to find potential birth dates based on census records or anything like that, so little clues from wills, deeds and court records can help me put the pieces together.
But I need to be able to keep these clues in an organized fashion – not on post it notes on my bulletin board or even in a notebook because sooner or later, I’ll lose track of those. So I’m using hidden rows in my Excel Group Sheet. The beauty of hidden rows is that I can print a regular group sheet
or I can print an expanded version showing the clues that I’ve been gathering. A Group sheet fits on one side of a sheet of paper, but these rows can be whatever size I need to add every little clue that I find and I won’t have to worry about it ruining the look of my group sheet. I can transcribe parts of documents or write out my thought processes to help me match potential ancestors with information I already have.
To include hidden rows in your Excel file:
1) Right click on the number of the row below the location you’d like to insert a row. Select “insert”.
2) I prefer for the row to be one cell with centered, red, italic print. You can select all of these options by highlighting the cells, right clicking and clicking on the options you’d like.
3) My group sheet has some areas for notes, but I usually add a hidden row under each child’s name and any other place which I might want to add information such as birth/death/marriage dates or parents’ names. To hide a row, right click on the number at the beginning of the row you’d like to hide. Select “hide” and the line will disappear. Notice that the number also disappears, which can be a reminder that you have a hidden row. If rows are hidden, they do not appear on your print out.
4) To make the row visible again, highlight the rows above and below, right click and select “unhide”. Once rows are unhidden, they will show up on your print out.
5) If you have more than one hidden row, you can reveal them all by highlighting the entire group sheet or a group of rows, right clicking and selecting “unhide”.
Using hidden rows keeps me organized. Knowing that I can add as much information as I want without messing up the look of my traditional group sheet makes it more likely that I will add the information to my sheet. I won’t have to worry about missing the clue that ties everything together.
Would you like a copy of the Group Sheet in Excel? Just click here!
The Shy Genealogist 
What a great idea! Thanks for the tutorial!
I love these helpful Excel tips! Thank you!
Hi Lisa, After finding your blog recently, I have been following your posts regularly. Because of that I am passing on to you the Ancestor Approved Award. If you aren’t familiar with it, please check out my blog.
Jennifer,
Thank you so much, I am honored! I’ll be checking that out!
What a great idea. I have just found your blog via Facebook
Thanks Nan! I hope you find some helpful ideas!
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Lisa. Have just found your blog and, being a bit of an Excel geek myself, have found it interesting. A little tip you might want to think about regarding your hidden line notes in your family group sheets. I find that ‘grouping’ lines with their respective note lines makes it easier to see on screen whether you have a note or not – rather than checking out the row numbers.
You just need to do a tiny bit of setting up first.
1. Go to the data tab on your ribbon
2. In the Outline section you will see the options Group, Ungroup and Subtotal, but at the bottom right hand corner you will see a small checkbox with an arrow – click on this
3. This will bring up the settings dialog and you will see two checked entries – so uncheck the ‘Summary rows below detail’ entry
That’s the set-up, but it will only apply to the sheet you are working on at present. You will need to redo this setup for each sheet which is great if you are using a template but might be a pain in doing it for a large number of sheets.
Once this is done, and after inserting a ‘note’ row you must have at least one cell of the note row selected, and then follow this process:
1. Go to the data tab on your ribbon
2. Select the Group option, and then the second Group option on the resulting drop down
3. You will then be presented with a dialog asking if you want to group rows or columns, so select rows (if you have selected the entire row, this dialog won’t show)
On the left of your worksheet, you should now see a minus sign which is the grouped row. If you click on the minus sign, it will change to a plus sign and that ‘notes’ row will now be hidden. That notes row is now ‘grouped’ with the actual line that it is linked to.
A really useful bit is that you will see some numbers at the top left hand side of your workspace. If you click on the 1, then all of the grouped notes rows will be hidden, and clicking on the 2 will unhide all of the grouped notes rows. Alternatively, you can just select individual + or – signs to hide/unhide particular rows.
As with hiding and unhiding rows, what you see on screen is what you will print, so if you click on the number 1 in the top left hand corner and hide all your notes rows, then they won’t be printed on your Family Group sheet.
Regards, and keep up the excellent work!
Thanks Steve!
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