Is it possible to split a record that's been merged?
I'm in a bit of a panic. There are about a million John Deckers born in the late 1800s in NY and I merged a few of them thinking it was my John Decker. Well, now I'm not so sure. I found some census data that doesn't include any record of my ancestor in the household at a time when he should have been there.
I not only merged a couple of Johns together, but I even added my own info and photos! I feel so horrible that I probably messed up someone else's hard work. It's going to be quite a lot of work to split them and I'm not sure where to start. I also have no idea where one man begins and the other ends. As far as I can tell, there were 2 (or more) John H Deckers born in NYC in 1843ish that married women named Mary (Kelly/Kelley). That's kind of insane. I don't know what's real anymore. Somebody please help me before I go insane. The only notable difference is that one lived on Staten Island and the other maybe did not. Honestly, it's still within the realm of possibility that it actually is all the same person.
Some of the John Deckers that I've found:
M5KS-LNR
9WT1-28B
GCFT-9BL
Thank you for your understanding and help! I have learned my lesson and will be more careful with merges in the future.
Answers
-
Yes. In the change log of the surviving profile you will find links to the deleted profiles and restore buttons. First link out to the deleted profiles and restore them one by one. Then restore the survivor. Finally go through all the affected profiles and clean up the event dates and places and sources.
Congratulations, you are on your way to mastering a key skill.
1
