Hint is showing up for wrong person
Why does a profile page get a hint when the possible tree match on the record itself is another profile? See example below:
I sometimes even get hints where the hint is already linked.
Answers
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@Loïc Baert stated "I sometimes even get hints where the hint is already linked."
Many times when that happens to me, the other profile turns out to be a duplicate.
I suspect the same software logic is part of the answer to your first question.3 -
The hinting algorithm probably looks at several data points in common to offer a suggested "match." It's not some super-human intelligence.
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This is a reason to carefully check the source and see who it is really for. You might find that the source is not for the other person in the possible tree match or not for the person it is already attached to but is indeed for the person on whom you see the hint.
I would assume this happens when the information in two profiles is so similar that the hint engine ends up giving a matching score that is almost identical for the two profiles so that the hint appears on both of them.
In the case of the hint already being attached to another profile, the simplest explanations would be, as mentioned, that there is a duplicate profile or that the source was incorrectly attached to that other profile.
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As the comments above suggest, it is always worthwhile checking hints suggested for "your" individual, even if the hint has already been attached to another profile.
I found a case earlier today where an 1891 England census record had been attached to an individual of the same name and age but who appears never to have left the United States! Naturally, from the Sources section of the American individual I clicked on "Review Attachments" then detached the source from her and attached it to the individual to whom it actually referred.
From another perspective, I received three hints (for 1891, 1901 & 1911 census records) on the profile page of an individual I was researching, but all related (again) to someone of the same name (with even a wife with the same first name) but who was from a totally different part of England. I admit I did not find the time to check whether the those records had been attached to another family tree individual but was able to mark them immediately as "Not a Match".
There have been a number of posts here in the past suggesting records already attached to an individual should not be shown as hints, or even appear in the Results list when making a Search. But, given the amount of careless errors made by many FT users, I'm happy to be offered any hints that might appear to be a fairly reasonable suggestion, even if they turn out to be of no connection whatsoever to my relatives / other persons of interest.
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