IN one enormous tree, I completely filled out all info that I know, PLUS some, then decided that I should have started separate trees that had different surnames. Now they are all combined. Is there a way to 'import' or 'copy' this info into a new tree without manually doing the entire thing over??

There is- but why bother?

IF any of the people would appear in more than one tree is is best to leave them all in one tree- otherwise, when yous start putting them in different trees you have duplicates, etc.

If they are all in one tree people can still find them using a search.

I find it *very* irritating to find the same person in multiple trees that have all been posted by the same person when doing a search.

I've never understood the logic. Maintain all your people and all your connections in one tree and simplify your life and the lives of all those searching for people in your tree.

OK. I can see why that makes sense. Thank you!

My reason would be that I want to give a many-times removed cousin his branch of the tree so that he and his family can do their work that would contain their relatives which wouldn't be in any way related to me and, therefore, not a part of my tree.

Regards -

That is one reason keeping everything in one file is good- you can always split off a branch for someone else who needs it without trying to keep more than one tree.

What I was advising against was one person trying to maintain multiple trees on their separate lines.

Gotcha. Thanks!

You say that you can always split a branch off for someone who needs it. This is exactly what I need to do. My nephew (who is on my tree), wanted to research his father's side of the family (no relation to me, thus not on my tree). Over the weekend, we added some of his relatives, now I want to take his ancestors and make a separate tree just for him so that his other side of the family is not on my tree. I can 'view his tree' under my tree, but I can't find a way to copy or export just that tree. I'm sure it can be done, anyone know how??

Just select File then Export. Then you can select Partial and select just the ancestors of the desired person.

This is something I want to do also, but where is there a "File, Export" in an Ancestry (.com) Family Tree?

File is the leftmost menu item (at the top of the window).