Merging Names..preserving alternate spellings

LegacyUser

Jennifer Jeffris said: I am wondering if there is a way to include a way to preserve an alternate spelling of a name when merging. Something like...Add to Other Information. You could use this to add another spelling of the name when you merge names, and also to preserve alternate dates or facts that might need to be researched. It could just be a custom fact, I don't think you would need to offer all the options for Other Information. Data and work gets lost when a merge happens and you have to decide which birthday is right or wrong...if you don't write it down and add it afterwards. Thanks for considering!

LegacyUser

Justin Masters said: If an alternative name is included in a merge (in the Other part), you can select that field be brought across.

For vitals, you can add those in AFTER the merge. Otherwise vitals are mapped 1-1 and you have to make a choice as to whether you keep one or the other.

I frequently have to modify the "survivor" (or pre-modify the survivor, AND REFRESH the merge screen before merging) to include the info that exists in the soon-to-be-merged person's vitals area.

A CLASSIC example is when the survivor includes a full birth-place entry and a birth year, but the to-be-merged person has a full date, and a county/state (ie, not a full birthplace)

Original To-be-merged
Birth:
1857 12 January 1857
Town, County, State, Country County, State, Country

Doing a straight merge would remove SOME data that is valuable (full date or full place) depending on which data-set "survives" the merge.

Hope that helps...

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: I've run into the place name / date problem a number of times. Right now, the merge facility does not allow manual corrections as part of the merge. This is a feature that is badly needed, along with a better reason statement update allowing for a reason statement other than the merge reason statement.

LegacyUser

Jennifer Jeffris said: This is exactly what I am trying to address. My most recent example is merging Francis and Franz Fleury. They are the same person according to a Fleury family website. This is an easy one because adding Francis as an alternative name is simple. But some them aren't...Two different birthdates and towns where people are born for example. I know you can do it by hand before or afterwards, but I bet that doesn't always happen. Then, the hard work someone has done to add the info for the person being erased in the merge may be gone for good. I think it would be really helpful to allow edits or an add feature.

LegacyUser

Jennifer Jeffris said: This is exactly what I am trying to address. My most recent example is merging Francis and Franz Fleury. They are the same person according to a Fleury family website. This is an easy one because adding Francis as an alternative name is simple. But some them aren't...Two different birthdates and towns where people are born for example. I know you can do it by hand before or afterwards, but I bet that doesn't always happen. Then, the hard work someone has done to add the info for the person being erased in the merge may be gone for good. I think it would be really helpful to allow edits or an add feature.

LegacyUser

Justin Masters said: Ugh... my formatting was ruined.. sorry guys. It looks like getsatisfaction removes extraneous extra spaces.

LegacyUser

Richard M. Smith said: AFTER the merge, I add info , such as a middle name in a record, but not on the individual record, as an Edit", for this and other items, mentioned above. Works for me and adds/updates the merged file.

genealchemist

2023 and this is still an issue. Legacy Family Tree's merge feature is a great example, it highlights differences and allows you to "add to alternate" information like aliases, alternative event dates, etc.