Merge warnings
Comments
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Wouldn’t it be great if it could tell some people which ones shouldn’t be merged? 😀
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@ColinCameron there's always the option to add an Alert Note; add one to the two (or more) profiles and explain why they shouldn't be merged. That, of course, is no guarantee that it won't happen.... 😶
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Ah, but to do that you would have to know, in advance, that someone was likely to merge John Smith who died in England in 1810, with Fred Bloggs who was born in America in 1895. Apparently because they both had a wife named Jane (the only similarity).
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Yes, I do make that kind of assumption! I am currently working to establish which records to connect to three individuals named John Harrison - all born at Loughborough, Leicestershire around 1833. I have added Alert Notes in their Collaboration sections to highlight what I have currently discovered about them and to not confuse one with the other, etc. When I add a note (headed, say, "Identity of John Harrison ....") I always add the ID reference after the name. That way, I have easily found (unless my notes have been deleted!) my original comments against each profile, even if another user has chosen to still go ahead and merge these different individuals.
In summary, I would always assume it is likely such persons are going to be merged by a careless / inexperienced user, so always place them on my Following list, too!
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Hi @Paul W
There’s a big difference between merging people with the same name, living in the same area, around the same time, you can anticipate that, and merging people with different names, who lived in different centuries, on different continents.
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During the "average week" I encounter both examples, as you can imagine. Whilst there might be "more of an excuse" for the former behaviour, this does not make this type of merge less damaging. In fact, it is far more difficult to discover errors in these instances. So, a merge involving individuals like your John Smith and Fred Bloggs is usually quite easy to spot / sort out. However, in my example of the three John Harrison individuals, who would be able to readily identify a careless user had believed them to be one and the same individual - and / or added wrong parents / spouses / children, with or without merging them?
Silly to argue over the issue, when I'm sure we both agree that making a situation clear is one matter, but getting a careless / indifferent user not to make a merge, if they are really determined to do so, is quite another.
Just as a matter of interest - if you, or anyone has the time: would you merge GM1D-CFF with LKQF-9JW, I wonder? Look at the names (especially of parents) and you'll find this falls somewhat between the two examples we are talking about! I think it illustrates the care we must exercise whatever the situation - that's why I haven't made an attempt to merge, as yet.
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