Incorporate merge as task in app

sbraegger

Recently, an update came out where sources can only be attached to one person. I found that I have many people in my task menu in the app it will not allow me to attach the sources to. One of which the source matches my line and not who it attached to. Sources need to be attached to whomever like it was. Then, possible duplicate need to start showing up in the tasks and people then can find and work through duplicates cleaning up the database

Gail Swihart Watson

I don't know about the app, but go on your computer and use the FamilySearch.org web site. You can attach a source to more than one person by using the source box as an intermediary. In other words save the source to your source box, and then attach the source from source box.

Amy Archibald

If you identify a source already attached to someone else, please do a little research and find out if there is indeed a duplicate that may need merging or if it is attached incorrectly to someone else. You can merge in the app.

Gordon Collett

The ability to attach a FamilySearch system source, that is, an indexed record, to more than one person using the mobile app task list was a bug, not a feature, that was causing a lot of trouble for people. It was never the intent that such a source should be attached multiple times like you were doing it. As Amy states, if you find a source you think should be attached to a different person that is already attached to someone else, then take the time to figure out if the two people are duplicates and if they are merge them. But if they are not, then make sure the source is only attached to the correct person.

Paul W

@sbraegger

As suggested in other responses, the ability to attach sources to multiple individuals (via the app) was due to a bug. Unfortunately, this matter has not yet been fully resolved, so those with mobiles that have not yet been updated still do have the ability to carry out the task you are requesting to be "restored".

You should not have the need to attach indexed records to more than one person, as they should apply to only the one individual to whom they relate. (Where there are multiple names on, say, a census source each of these will have a different URL reference, so can be attached on a person by person basis to all those listed.)

I have recently encountered a user who has been doing exactly what you wish to do, although possibly for different reasons. Where she has been unsure of the individual to whom the source refers, (thanks to the bug) she has been adding the source to everyone of that name / similar identity - presumably trusting that another user will come along (as I have!), make the right connections and tidy up the mess she has left behind.

Similarly, some users attach multiple (different) census records to one individual - again assuming one of them will be a correct match.

Please (as already advised) take time to assess each source and, if necessary, detach from the individual to whom it has been incorrectly attached, which - of course - will then enable you to reattach it to the correct ID.

You say:

Then, possible duplicate need to start showing up in the tasks and people then can find and work through duplicates cleaning up the database.

No, it should not be left to other people to do this - this is our tree, so we should all be willing to play a part in making corrections ourselves - not leave it to another user, who probably has no more spare time on their hands than you or me.

Gordon Collett

I'd like to go back to the title of this post, "Incorporate merge as task in app," and mention why I think this would be a terrible idea.

Currently I see far too many situations where people never finish the current tasks. To all appearances, they just click on the hint, open the Source Linker, move all the information possible from left to right, click attach, and move on. They do not seem to be:

• evaluating whether the hint is correct or not.
• evaluating whether any of the information on the left should be moved over or whether it is either unneeded or duplicate information and should not be moved over.
• going to the detail page and fixing the formatting of dates and places.
• going to the detail page and moving information from where the source linker puts it to where it properly belongs.

I do appreciate that the hints are getting attached and it is not all that much work deleting six duplicate residences and three duplicate marriage events, correctly formatting dates and places, and linking standards to place names so I'm not that bothered by so often needing to finish the task.

But merges are a completely different story. Accidentally attaching an incorrect source or not cleaning up the detail page is not destructive. An incorrect merge is one of the most destructive things that can be done in Family Tree. It really takes far more care and understanding of the full information on a person and the person's family to merge properly. If merges were on the task list and people treated them like hints and just merged away without any more thought than they give to hints on the task list, it would be quite a disaster.