Hi Maryann, I haven't lost a family yet so I'm not sure what screen you see when you open your game so I'll just go by what I do know and hope it helps. If you only had the one family and you didn't add any mods, the easiest way to start over is to click the Start Over button on the game screen (see image #1 below). This will wipe out all the game slots (probably any mods) and start the game from the beginning again.

If you don't see that screen when you you start up your game but instead see a screen with options at the bottom that look like image #2 below, then just click the Menu button and it will take you to the screen that will give you the Start Over option.

*****************
If you choose not to use the start over button because you have other families running in the other game slots then look closely at image #1. See where it says "Click name to change player"? If you click in that box (in this case mine says Kathy) you'll see something similar to image #3 shown below (I have 5 different families). Click "Delete" for the family that you want to delete. You will then be able to start over just that game slot and all of your images will be untouched.

You might be saying to yourself "What? I can have more than 1 family at a time??? The answer is "YES!!!" Just give each a name and you can shuffle between them using the screen in image #1.

**********
Here's how to backup your savegame files. Remember to Pause each game BEFORE making your backup copy. Otherwise the family will age right along with the original one and the backup will be of no use.

Hope I didn't confuse you! -Kathy