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Tips for merging?

Replies: 11

Re: Tips for merging?

Posted: 16 Mar 2015 12:32AM GMT
Classification: Query
My first three tips are 1) make a backup, 2) make a backup, and 3) make a backup. I merge a lot. You won't believe how many times I said to myself "Easy merge, no problem." only to face a horrible task of undoing an operation for which FTM has no redo button.

My next tips are my approach to dealing with the inherent problems posed by merging. The problems arise because there are similarities of names among different people and many people have several names. So, even if you merged two identical databases, you will find duplicates as well as wrongly merged people. Try it on a small sample database with lot of medieval people. Part of the problem is that FTM only uses the facts of a given person to merge and not the constellation of relationships that person has.

Tip A: Only merge small portions at a time. This can be frustrating but it is quicker than undoing a merge. I try to keep it under 20. FTM has a nice merge window in which you can select the portion of the tree to merge. i.e. descendents, ancestors, filters, etc.

Tip B: Set the "Advanced", "Merge Threshold" to 200. This helps to ensure possible matches are not excluded.

Tip C: After the analysis, you get a window with proposed merges. Study it carefully. There are three categories: "flagged for review", "merged", and "new". "Merged" is for absolutely identical matches, but keep in mind that you might have two different people with identical facts. Do not assume they are correct. You can accept the proposed merge or merge the each import person to another in your base file. Unfortunately, you cannot view your file to see what other people to select as a merger. (There is a tiny sliver of the pedigree you can display.)

Tip D: Make temporary backup copies of both files to be merged, with the word "copy" in the name. Open those up, preferably on another computer, so you can actually look at the portions of each tree being merged.

When you are finished, you will have lots and lots of temporary files used to help. You do not want to delete them, since each is a stage in the merging process.

Tip E: Buy a cheap 1GB portable drive and store every single copy of every step in the process. That way they will be out of the way unless you need them. If you need one, they will be timestamped in the sequence you merged them.

Tip F: You will have to manually fix locations and sources. FTM only merges identical sources and places, and even then its not reliable. FTM errs on the side of not merging. To make this a little easier, I sometimes set the repository to a different name so the sources are not merged. Then its easy to delete the sources that are with the imported repository. I find that easier than trying to go though the whole list to see what was merged and what was not merged. Locations are made difficult by the behavior of FTM that wants you to name places according to their conventions, or pretend its unfindable.

Tip G: If you tree is not too big, consider importing without merging. Then you can go through people one at a time merging duplicates.
SubjectAuthorDate Posted
gramssearch 14 Mar 2015 7:03AM GMT 
wbalson 16 Mar 2015 6:32AM GMT 
gramssearch 16 Mar 2015 9:03AM GMT 
gramssearch 16 Mar 2015 10:47AM GMT 
silverfox3280 16 Mar 2015 3:25PM GMT 
gramssearch 16 Mar 2015 5:32PM GMT 
wbalson 16 Mar 2015 3:51PM GMT 
gramssearch 16 Mar 2015 5:33PM GMT 
silverfox3280 16 Mar 2015 6:44PM GMT 
gramssearch 17 Mar 2015 9:19AM GMT 
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