What happens to tagged sources and memories when merging
Hello - I've looked through various posts relating to the merging of two persons but cannot find a specific answer to the above issue; ie when prompted by FS to review and possibly merge a person having a different ID to a person which you are researching (ie family member) and for the latter a number of sources and memories have been tagged, what happens to the tagged items if you complete the merger.
To be clearer here is the precise example:
Stephen Gemmell LKY4-MNC (my great grandfather) and Stephen Gemmell G131-DVN (my 2nd great grandfather). I've slowly worked my up the family line to the former uploading a fair number of memories which are used as sources. Depending on the document there are multiple spellings for his family name - and this has been fully explained in the person's vitals. I'm now moving on to his father G131-DVN and starting to now tag the relevant son's memories onto his father.
FS has thrown up a possible duplicate, ie Stephen Gammall 934V-G75. This 'Research Help' has appeared due to the spelling Gammall in lieu of Gemmell or Gemmel, and is based on the birth of his son LKY4-MNC. I have a copy of the birth register preferring to have the raw data so to speak, as well as subsequent census', marriage and death registers and everything ties up and for me we're referring to the same person (BTM the spouse is written as Howald - but looking at the actual register the 'l' could be an enlarged 'r'. Plus as both came from Ireland, any regional accents could cause confusion on spelling. Her forename Nancy is a recognised nickname for Agnes and this runs in later family members.)
For the father Stephen Gemmell G131-DVN and his spouse I've yet to find any records prior to the 1861 Scottish census, and with both apparently coming from Ireland when records are not as extensive I may never find any further details.
So, If I merge my 2nd great grandfather Stephen Gemmell G131-DVN with the potential duplicate Stephen Gammall 934V-G75 (merely on the basis of a single source) what becomes of the quoted parents for the son Stephen Gemmell LKY4-MNC, and all the various tagging of memories and sources between son and father?
To be honest my biggest fear is that somebody else comes along and merges the two thinking that this is the right action to take and I lose links and tags in the tree. I've in the past have had a sibling added to an ancestor and when challenge was deleted along with other links which caused havoc and much work to restore.
Any advice greatly welcome as I foresee similar issues arising with other related lines eh Gardner or Gardiner.
Second BTW: the question of what is a child's correct name when there are multiple spellings I covered in a separate post "What is a child's correct name" of March 13, for which I received some good replies - for those interested.
Regards JohnBromby
Answers
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@JohnBromby In theory, sources and memories from the profile deleted in the merge are transferred to the surviving profile. There have been some problem reports in the Improved Merge Experience group. I have not personally noticed any loss of detail in a merge, whether in the old format or the new.
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@Áine Ní Donnghaile Thank you for your reply. I may give it ago on another person on my tree.
At the same time in relation to my post What is a child's correct name @Alan E. Brown reply to me I think is very relevant, and I quote "Personally, I wouldn't draw the conclusion that you should put so much weight on one birth registration record. The guidelines say that you should use the person's birth name or legal name. Although that birth registration record gives a clue about the birth name, I would never trust a single source record to the exclusion of all other data".
So when merging then all tagged sources should, in theory, be maintained; now whether I should merge or not is a another issue and I'm leaning on the side that this is a case by case issue - though it's a pity that FS don't have an offical opinion on this as there must be countless examples with other users.
Thanks and regards
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