* merge

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pete56
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merge

Post by pete56 »

How does one merge two same people into one? I have four people who are the same and need to merge them to get rid of the duplicate. When I merge them I then get two sets of them in the people page. This is where I get confused. If I merged them why then do they show up in the split creen? Thanks
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tatewise
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Re: merge

Post by tatewise »

Pete, it would really help if you used the FH names of windows, etc.

What do you mean by the people page?
What do you mean by the split screen?
Do you mean the Focus Window, or the Records Window ~ Individuals tab, or something else?

To merge two Individual records, use the Edit > Merge/Compare Records... command.
In the Select Records To Be Merged dialogue, select the records on the left and add > them to Selected Individual Records on the right, then click OK.
The resulting Merge Records dialogue lets you decide which details to Keep and Add before clicking the Merge button.

After merging the Individual records, you may also need to merge Family records for Spouses.
Mike Tate ~ researching the Tate and Scott family history ~ tatewise ancestry
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LornaCraig
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Re: merge

Post by LornaCraig »

Mike's reply came in before mine, but I suspect you are looking at the Focus window and what you are seeing are duplicate Family records, referred to in his last sentence. If the four people are two married couples you need to merge the family records as well as the individual records.

In the Records window go the the Families tab. (If this is not showing, use Tools>Preferences>RecordsWindow, and set the Families tab to 'Always Show'.) Family records are sorted alphabetically by husband's surname. Enter the husband's surname in the Filter box at the top, and you should find there are two family records for the husband with the same wife. Select these two records then use Edit>Merge/Compare records. Repeat for the other couple.
Lorna
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tatewise
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Re: merge

Post by tatewise »

Further to Lorna's reply, the 'duplicate' Individuals may have the same Record Id.

To ensure that Record Id are shown in the Focus Window then do this:
Click the Customize View link at the top of the Focus Window (or use Tools > Preferences > Focus Window).
Ensure that Record Ids lower left is ticked.

Now in the Focus Window, each Individual will show the Record Id in [square brackets] after their name.
You cannot merge such 'duplicate' Individuals if they have the same [Record Id] because they are the same record.

As Lorna says, they appear twice because they have duplicate Family records.
That may have happened if you have used the File > Merge/Compare File... command and did not check the families tab.
Alternatively, you may have accidentally entered the Spouses twice.

To be sure we give you the best advice, it would help if you posted a screenshot of the problem Individuals.
See Forum Usage Tips and follow the Attachments and Taking Screenshots sections.
Mike Tate ~ researching the Tate and Scott family history ~ tatewise ancestry
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fhtess65
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Re: merge

Post by fhtess65 »

LornaCraig wrote: 19 Sep 2021 18:21 <SNIP>
In the Records window go the the Families tab. (If this is not showing, use Tools>Preferences>RecordsWindow, and set the Families tab to 'Always Show'.) Family records are sorted alphabetically by husband's surname. Enter the husband's surname in the Filter box at the top, and you should find there are two family records for the husband with the same wife. Select these two records then use Edit>Merge/Compare records. Repeat for the other couple.
I am in the same boat as the OP, however, the Merge/Compare record screen is very confusing compared to the Manual Merge one in RootsMagic or even the one in Legacy. What exactly do I do?

Thanks,

Teresa
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Teresa Basińska Eckford
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http://writingmypast.wordpress.com
Researching: Spong, Ferdinando, Taylor, Lawley, Sinkins, Montgomery; Basiński, Hilferding, Ratowski, Paszkiewicz
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tatewise
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Re: merge

Post by tatewise »

I have to admit that I am confused too, even after clicking the Help button and digesting the advice for Branch Merge.

Firstly, it helps if you widen the columns labelled Merge Into and Merge From so you can see all the labels.
Drag the vertical divider in the header to the right.

Then you will see there is a Spouse Family entry for ...with Henry Sherrell in both panes.

The Help for Branch Mege says:
Initially, Branch Merging is exactly like Basic Record Merging for an Individual or Family record. What turns it into a Branch Merge is that instead of simply merging the selected records, you look at the links to other records from your starting pair of records, and if the linked records appear to be duplicates you match the links. To match them, select each link (click on the link label, which typically will be 'Parents Family' or 'Spouse Family' or similar) and press the Match button. Press-and-hold the Ctrl key to select the second link without unselecting the first. Ordinarily you would not be allowed to match links to as-yet-unmatched records, but in this case you will be asked whether you want to match the linked records (assuming that they can validly be matched). If you answer Yes, the 2 linked records will be added to the list of records to be matched. You can then examine their links to see if they too are linked to yet more pairs of duplicates. If so, you can repeat the process indefinitely, gradually building up a list of duplicated records that are all linked together forming 2 duplicated branches.
However, when I select two Spouse Family links (such as those to Henry) and click Match it says it cannot be done and not asked whether I want the linked records matched. So either I have misunderstood the process or the program has a fault.
Mike Tate ~ researching the Tate and Scott family history ~ tatewise ancestry
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fhtess65
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Re: merge

Post by fhtess65 »

Well, I must say I feel much better knowing this has you stumped as well, Mike!

At this point, I may just delete one of the instances in a copy of my database just to see what happens.

Thanks for the input!!

Teresa :)
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Teresa Basińska Eckford
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http://writingmypast.wordpress.com
Researching: Spong, Ferdinando, Taylor, Lawley, Sinkins, Montgomery; Basiński, Hilferding, Ratowski, Paszkiewicz
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tatewise
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Re: merge

Post by tatewise »

Deleting one instance of an Individual record can have significant consequences.
It depends on what relationships exist beyond what you can see initially.

In this case, they both have a Spouse family relationship with a Henry Sherrell.
What is not clear is whether that is the same Henry Sherrell for both of them.
If they are different Individual records then they may have different family relationships with parents and children and other spouses. Those spouse/descendant relatives will have to be resolved separately.

If the pair of Individuals you were merging also had Parent family relationships, then the ancestral consequences need resolving separately.

You are lucky that there are no facts in either merge record. If there were extra facts in both of them, then deleting one is not a viable option.

I even tried the same exercise on FH v6.2 with the same negative effect despite the Help giving the same advice.

Does anybody else have any experience of using the Branch Merge feature successfully?????
Mike Tate ~ researching the Tate and Scott family history ~ tatewise ancestry
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