Sources added that do not apply to relative.

lynelle chenn

Enthusiastic researchers have added sources that do not apply to my ancestor but the individual has the same name. One person decided to merge to their ancestor eliminating my relative and several generations.

I wish to correct this without causing any hard to their records but at the same time restoring my previous information.

Can I accomplish this by just detaching the incorrect sources?

Paul W

@lynelle chenn

Yes, you can detach sources when the clear evidence points to them relating to another individual. If you can identify the correct individual (of similar identity) to whom they do apply, click on Review Attachments instead of Detach. You then still detach the source (best to provide a reason statement), but have the opportunity of adding it straight to the correct ID.

Do not to forget to delete any information that has found its way to the Other Information section (of the individual to whom the source does not apply). For example, if you remove a census source, the Residence detail will still remain against the incorrect profile, unless deleted.

Finally, it is usually best to try to contact the user who has made the error and advise of your actions - otherwise, it is possible they might immediately reverse your (corrective) work!

Paul W

After re-reading your post, I see I failed to address the issue of undoing merges. Hopefully, another user will provide a link to a Help? article on the subject, but, again, restoring an individual who has been incorrectly merged with another of similar identity takes a great deal of care. I have found it easy to forget to fully complete the process, including removal of all the material / facts that have been attached to the surviving individual during the merge process (which no longer belong there after the unmerge / restore process has been completed, of course).

Áine Ní Donnghaile

Depending on how much has been added to the profile(s), an unmerge may not be possible. The Help Article: https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/how-do-i-undo-a-merge-in-family-tree

At times, I've recreated profiles because that was more efficient and effective than trying to unmerge, restore, detach, and re-attach sources.

David Peterson

Unfortunately, this is a weakness of Family Tree: it can be quite difficult to un-do the results of an incorrect merge. As noted, you can only "unmerge" (and easily get the desired result) if no other updates have been applied since the merge. Very often, there have been updates since the merge, so "unmerge" is not available.
As part of a merge, one of the "duplicate" profiles is deleted. The change log for the remaining, merged profile will identify which profile was "deleted" (it is still around, but has been specially marked). You can open the deleted profile and it will show minimal information for the deleted profile. You can then choose to "Restore Person" (which is not the same as "unmerge"). This will remove the deleted status and make the profile just as it was prior to the merge. It will have all the data, correct or not, that it had at the time of the merge. This is where the "great deal of care" comes in. You will have to look at the details, links and sources, etc of each the profiles (the one the remained from the merge, and the one just restored) and manually update/move/delete the data so that the correct data ends up on each of the appropriate profiles. (In the case of sources, all of the sources from the restored person will have been attached to the resulting merge profile. You will have to detach the ones that don't apply to the merged profile and make sure that they are still attached to the restored profile.) Sometimes there is not a lot that needs to be updated. Sometimes, there is quite a lot and it is a "painful" exercise to sort it all out.