How to approach separating these 2 men?
The record for Jonathan Hoffman 2Z3Z-ZH5 consists of two men:
- Jonathan Hoffman born about 1820 and married to Barbara; (probably) the son of the man he is linked to as his father (adjacent 1850 households in Franklin Co, PA). His was the original record.
- Jonathan Hoffman born about 1815 and married to Elizabeth. It appears (to me) as though this man's family was built onto Jonathan #1's record. This Jonathan is in 1850 Tippecanoe Co, Indiana with children born in Ohio and Indiana. He is a minister, performing marriages in Tippecanoe County, and is guardian of Abraham Hoffman's children (whose Hoffman family pattern is from PA then to Montgomery Co, OH at an early date, then some of his extended family, as well as his wife's extended family, to Tippecanoe Co, IN at an early date; extended Hoffman family in Montgomery Co, OH are noted for being ministers). I probably have more information on this Jonathan but my memory is not cooperating at the moment. I do not know Jonathan's parentage yet, but I suspect it will be found among the Montgomery County, Ohio Hoffman's.
(for the sake of this discussion, I am disregarding the corrections already made: I've already disentangled an incorrect merge, and a mis-attached wife with child that was also attached to her correct husband)
In any case, these 2 combined men do not appear to be a merge other than for one legitimate duplicate wife/child. If I am misreading this, please do let me know!
My thought is to create a new Jonathan (Tippecanoe Jonathan) and attach his family/sources to him, leaving Jonathan son of Frederick intact... and of course cleaning up his birth information. Would this be the correct thing to do here?
Answers
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It certainly sounds like a correct thing to do.
It is my well-entrenched belief that in this collaborative tree, the process or path doesn't really matter; only the end result is important. Yes, some paths/processes are shorter or easier to do or easier to parse in a change log than others, but as long as you end up with correct profiles with correct relationships and sources, the change log is just the back of the embroidery. Nobody really needs to see it.
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@vjdavis I agree with your proposed course of action. The one little note I would make is that in the new profile you create for Jonathan of Tippecanoe, to leave a reference to the person ID for the original Jonathan (son of Frederick). It could simply be in a reason statement, or possibly in a note. But it could be helpful for other researchers who examine your new profile for Jonathan of Tippecanoe to have a way to find the other Jonathan, whose change history may give some helpful information regarding those entries that pertain to Jonathan of Tippecanoe but were mistakenly connected to the original Jonathan. You will now have credit (at least initially) as the contributor for every change made to Jonathan of Tippecanoe, but other researchers may want to contact the contributors for those conclusions that were made to the original Jonathan profile; having a way to find the change log for the original Jonathan will facilitate that.
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Thank you for your thoughts and comments.
Turns out I do know the father of Jonathan of Tippecanoe. I knew that his line within Family Tree had been distorted by a pattern of estimating dates based on other estimated dates, but failed to remember that this morning (and so failed to recognize him as the same person). I'll revisit the source documentation to be certain that I am correct before fixing this, maybe in the morning when my thinking is clear. Thanks again!
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Oh dear... I did successfully resolve the Jonathan of Tippecanoe family, and I thought quite nicely (I made edits to the birth and death dates of the existing couple, based on census records and their headstones; linked the headstones. Then replaced the parents of each child that had been erroneously attached to the PA couple, and fixed the census attachments to all. Deleted the erroneous residence tags from Jonathan of PA). Then realized that I neglected to remove the residence tags from the erroneous mother. I could see by the other residence tags that a Hoffman in Montgomery Co, Ohio that I'm familiar with was merged into her. When I filtered for merges, there are in fact several unrelated women merged into her
merges of Elizabeth Sheriff GDYT-Q1D:
- Elizabeth M36W-M35 (who I suspect was the mother of the improperly attached children I just fixed, but I'm unable to figure it out at the moment)
- Elizabeth Yound L1H3-DN6, who I know to be the mother of Lucy A. Hoffman from an Indiana marriage record that I've seen recently.
- Elizabeth Fink LHRX-RFM, who I also recognize from my work in Montgomery Co, Ohio, married to John Hoffman... and I can see that he has been merged into other John Hoffmans by the same user.
- Elizabeth Fisher GZYK-ZTL, and I don't know if I recognize this one or not as I'm getting confused.
This is so tangled that I am in despair. These merges appear to have occurred within a 2-day period by the same user. I'm not sure if I should open a new thread to ask for help with this, or what I should do (if anything).
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