Help needed to reverse merges that predate 2012
Username: Luanalg
Helper # 73564
Concerns John Davis L4SN-MYVK -- to be called John #1
married to Nancy Leach; John’s parents in FT are Archibald Buchanan Davis and Kesiah Dixon. [These are not the correct parents for John #1 and I don’t think they are correct for John #2. Archibald’s son was John S Davis and had North Carolina connections. Maybe this is all a bigger mess than I know. See Archibald LXMD-YVF] Temple work for John #1 was done between 1996 and 2010 – but I cannot see the history before 2012.
My husband is related to John #1. The daughter, Sarah Elizabeth, married into my family
As I worked on this couple and discovered Nancy’s real maiden name, I discovered a duplicate couple. I believe the death date currently in FT for John #1 is incorrect. I have traced him and Nancy to Knox County, Indiana where she died in 1887, he appears in a local city directory published in 1888 (info gathered for the publication before that) and then I lose him. He was a wagonmaker – easier to trace than a farmer.
And Concerns John Davis 2HS8–LZD -- to be called John #2
John # 2 currently has 2 wives in Family Tree (Nancy Leach and Emily Drake), to whom he is married concurrently, but the marriage dates are different and the families are in different states. Obviously John #2 has a confusing past in Family Tree. 4 of his temple ordinances were done before new.familysearch. I cannot see any change history before 2012. I do note that John #2 has the alternate names of John R Davis and John M Davis, which alternates according to my research of John #2 and Emily, belong to John #2.
John #2’s parents in FT are Benjamin Davis and Sarah G Gilstrap. These parents really belong to John #1. This leads me to believe that John #2 and another version of John #1 were merged in the past.
I have researched the John #2 with a wife Emily and found that later in life he began using the name John R Davis. He and his wife are buried in Cowley County, Kansas. I have not added sources on purpose. I want to wait and add them after the Johns have been surgical separated by a FamilySearch wizard (you). [If you want to see how unhappy John #2 is about this confusion, just look at his picture at findagrave.com (John R Davis died 1899 in Cowley County, Kansas. You need a smile in the complicated work you do.]
My goal is to know who each John Davis was originally intended to be and have their temple work restored to them. I did not want to do any merging and make the water muddier. If you can separate them and notify me of their ID#’s, I am willing to put the pieces back together and get the sources connected to the correct John, and add the sources I have accumulated. If after separating them, you prefer to do the needed merges, I am okay with that. I just want to know any new ID#s so I can add the sources.
Please feel free to contact me if we need to discuss any aspect of this case. I have tried to make this as clear as possible. I thank you profusely!
Answers
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Thank you for your question in the Community. We are enclosing an article to help you with this issue.
You can find it tedious to correct inaccurate records. FamilySearch includes a process to unmerge or restore a person in Family Tree. This enables you to fix incorrectly or inadvertently merged records.
For detailed steps on how to perform this and the following suggestions, see the articles linked at the bottom.
Here are some tips for resolving records that contain information about multiple people.
Clues to bad merges in Tree
- The Other Information section of the Details page for a person contains many alternate names, some of which are completely different from the actual name of the person.
- The Family Members section contains spouses, children, and parents that do not belong to that person.
- Latest Changes show that someone deleted alternate names.
- Look for discussions for the ancestor.
- The sources or memories seem to be about different people with the same or similar names.
Fixing the records
- Identify all pertinent facts to understand the scope of the problem.
- Research and gather as much information as possible for each person.
- Identify what information belongs to the person represented in your family tree and what you should move to another record. It is better to do the research and not guess. Your research gives you sources to add to validate the changes.
- Verify the vital information for each person.
- Search to see if another record already exists for one of the incorrectly merged people. Do not create a duplicate record, if possible.
- Add sources and reason statements to help other contributors reach correct conclusions. Select standardized dates and places.
- Carefully review all attached sources, and be sure they are attached to the proper record after you unmerge 2 records.
- Keep careful notes to help prevent confusion as you research the incorrectly merged people.
- Create a new, unconnected person whose record contains all of the right information.
- Create one new record for each person whose information is mixed up within the record of the ancestor in order to separate the lines. Keep track of the IDs so you can easily move between records as you work.
- Move the appropriate information to the correct person's record.
- Move the appropriate sources and memories to the correct person's record.
- Make sure each record has the correct relationships to spouses, children, and parents.
- Delete any incorrect relationships.
Ordinance concerns
If you have concerns about the ordinance duplication, here are some options:
- You can reserve the ordinances and hold them in your reservation list.
- When FamilySearch Support moves an ordinance, it should drop from the reservation list.
Some sources have notes such as, "This extracted record was used to create this person in Family Tree":
- When the source clearly does not belong to the person to whom it is attached, this indicates an incorrectly merged person. Please attach the source to the correct person, and remove it from the incorrect person.
- Use the source to re-create the person that was lost from the Tree, and transfer the source to the new person. The new person shows with all ordinances available.
- Ordinances for the other person can show in an incorrect merge.
FamilySearch has a tool that allows administrators in FamilySearch Support to move ordinances from one person to another in Tree. With this tool, FamilySearch Support can see the information that was present when the ordinance was performed and can get the correct ordinances to display. Please contact FamilySearch Support if you need further assistance to resolve an issue.
Wishing you success in separating all the John Davis's.
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Thank you for you question in the Community about the John Davis mix up. Use the information below to help separate the various individuals.
You can find it tedious to correct inaccurate records. FamilySearch includes a process to unmerge or restore a person in Family Tree. This enables you to fix incorrectly or inadvertently merged records.
For detailed steps on how to perform this and the following suggestions, see the articles linked at the bottom.
Here are some tips for resolving records that contain information about multiple people.
Clues to bad merges in Tree
- The Other Information section of the Details page for a person contains many alternate names, some of which are completely different from the actual name of the person.
- The Family Members section contains spouses, children, and parents that do not belong to that person.
- Latest Changes show that someone deleted alternate names.
- Look for discussions for the ancestor.
- The sources or memories seem to be about different people with the same or similar names.
Fixing the records
- Identify all pertinent facts to understand the scope of the problem.
- Research and gather as much information as possible for each person.
- Identify what information belongs to the person represented in your family tree and what you should move to another record. It is better to do the research and not guess. Your research gives you sources to add to validate the changes.
- Verify the vital information for each person.
- Search to see if another record already exists for one of the incorrectly merged people. Do not create a duplicate record, if possible.
- Add sources and reason statements to help other contributors reach correct conclusions. Select standardized dates and places.
- Carefully review all attached sources, and be sure they are attached to the proper record after you unmerge 2 records.
- Keep careful notes to help prevent confusion as you research the incorrectly merged people.
- Create a new, unconnected person whose record contains all of the right information.
- Create one new record for each person whose information is mixed up within the record of the ancestor in order to separate the lines. Keep track of the IDs so you can easily move between records as you work.
- Move the appropriate information to the correct person's record.
- Move the appropriate sources and memories to the correct person's record.
- Make sure each record has the correct relationships to spouses, children, and parents.
- Delete any incorrect relationships.
Ordinance concerns
If you have concerns about the ordinance duplication, here are some options:
- You can reserve the ordinances and hold them in your reservation list.
- When FamilySearch Support moves an ordinance, it should drop from the reservation list.
Some sources have notes such as, "This extracted record was used to create this person in Family Tree":
- When the source clearly does not belong to the person to whom it is attached, this indicates an incorrectly merged person. Please attach the source to the correct person, and remove it from the incorrect person.
- Use the source to re-create the person that was lost from the Tree, and transfer the source to the new person. The new person shows with all ordinances available.
- Ordinances for the other person can show in an incorrect merge.
FamilySearch has a tool that allows administrators in FamilySearch Support to move ordinances from one person to another in Tree. With this tool, FamilySearch Support can see the information that was present when the ordinance was performed and can get the correct ordinances to display. Please contact FamilySearch Support if you need further assistance to resolve an issue.
Wishing you success.
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