* Duplicate entries

[David Hawkins]

I have mistakenly entered a couple of my ancestors twice. Both of them were commonly known by different forenames, so checking for duplicates did not work. Each contains different (correct) facts as they came from different sources, so I can't just delete either entry. They are now totally embedded into my project.

Is there a simple way to resolve this, or will I have to amend each entry manually? If, as I suspect, there is no easy way, does anyone have any advice on a logical approach? I have already backed up my present data in case of any disasters during the correction process.

Many thanks, David

[tatewise]

David, how are those duplicated ancestors linked into the family tree?
I would imagine they must be very close relatives to each other.
e.g. Are they brothers or cousins?

Theoretically, it should be possible to merge the two Individual records and the associated Family records.
i.e. Use the Edit > Merge/Compare Records... command but don't do anything until we've reviewed the details.

It might help to post a screenshot of a Diagram showing the duplicates in their immediate family.

[KFN]

While this answer is out of the ordinary, one reason this Individual Attribute is present in the GEDCOM is for this reason.

When two Individuals are probably the same but you are either not 100% sure, or you think they are but have different "facts" you can use the Alias tag to point one Individual to the other. If you later determine they are actually the same person you can merge the two or if they are not then you can break the connection. GEDCOM defines this tag as:

An indicator to link different record descriptions of a person who may be the same person.

The case of two individual being thought to be the same but you are not sure, happens a lot during data collection. I use ALIA (Alias) when I have an individual with the same name as another but living at a different farm in the same community. It may come from a census and a church record that are a couple of years apart. The census places them at one farm but the church record indicates another farm. People in Norway who do not own a farm move around a lot to find work! At a later time I may find a third record that links the two by parent name or matching birth /death records or spouse name.

The ALIA tag would point an XREF to the other Individual and is found in the "All->Add Field->Add Miscellaneous

Just a thought!!

[David Hawkins]

Thanks Mike and Ken

The 2 people are Jenny Hutchings/Jane Hutchings (1758-1815) and Elizabeth Farley/Betty Farley (1736-1805). You are quite right about the close family relationships. It came about because I had researched each family independently before discovering the link between them.

Screenshot 1 shows Jane (at the bottom) with no ancestors, married to William Ashment (1757-1835). William's ancestry is shown, and they have 9 children. His parents are Betty Farley and William Ashment b 1733.

Screenshot 2 shows Jenny (at the bottom) with her ancestry but no children shown, and more details of her husband.

Screenshot 3 shows Elizabeth and more details of her husband William (1733-1810).

A consequence of all this is that both Williams (father and son) appear twice.

As you can see, the intertwined result is difficult to unravel.

[tatewise]

OK, it would have helped to include the Record Id of the Individuals to make it clear which are duplicates.
Howver, I think there are four pairs of duplicated Individuals:

1. Betty & Elizabeth FARLEY. Betty has no ancestors. Elizabeth just has (tenative) parents.
2. Jane & Jenny HUTCHINGS. Jane has no ancestors. Jenny has many ancestors.
3. William ASHMENT Snr x 2. The William married to Elizabeth has no relatives except his wife and son.
4. William ASHMENT Jnr x 2. The William married to Jenny has no relatives except his wife and father.

Please confirm the above analysis.

Are the only Family facts recorded the Marriage details for each couple?

I think the following approach should work.
Take a backup and make a careful note of the Names and Record Id of all eight records.

The first step is to unlink the four people in Screenshot 3 from each other.
That can be done in the Focus Window using right-click Unlink Record on the two wives Elizabeth & Jenny.
Then with Focus on William Snr use Unlink Record on William Jnr to remove him as son.

After that both Williams will be isolated Individual records, except perhaps their spouse Family records.
Elizabeth will have just her parents, and Jenny will have her full ancestry still attached.

Now it should be feasible to use Edit > Merge/Compare Records... on each pair of Individual records.
Choose the person with most relatives as the first of the pair is probably the best option.
Take care in the Merge dialogue to retain all the required details.

You may have to practise the process a couple of times before achieving the desired result.

[Jean001]

Further to Mike's instructions...

I remember how 'nerve-wracking' my first few merges were, so I adopted the following practice which I still use.

Having decided on the two Records to be merged, and which to keep and which to merge, to each individual's name I add KEEP or MERGE (before the first forename).

It helps me to be sure that I am working on the correct Records.

After the merge is done, simply delete KEEP from the Individual's name.

[David Hawkins]

Thanks Mike for the detailed instructions. Your analysis is correct. I shall keep the master open on my laptop and amend the copy on my desktop. I can then see the merged changes as I progress while still preserving the original. This should also help with confirming which individuals to keep.

Thanks for your advice Jean. In simple cases in the past I have put an x or y in front. Your suggestion makes more sense.

[tatewise]

David, I presume the FH Projects on your desktop and laptop are NOT synchronised via a cloud service such as OneDrive or Google Drive.

[David Hawkins]

A good point, I hadn't thought of that, but no, they are not linked in any way. I have kept my laptop connectivity to the outside world to an absolute minimum and backed up data to an external drive. There's nearly 30 years' worth of family research there.