Duplicate Person Merge

LegacyUser

Terry Jenson said: I really like the new look of the combine duplicates page, but I have one problem with it. The person in the possible match that you want to survive the merge is now on the right rather than the left. This could be a big problem! Some people will not notice which side is which and will merge the duplicates with the wrong person remaining, and then wonder where the right person went. I'm all for new looks but would like the surviving person to stay on the left.

LegacyUser

Marilyn Thompson said: I agree the surviving person should remain on the left side of the page

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: First, welcome to the community support forum for FamilySearch. FamilySearch personnel read every discussion thread and may or may not respond as their time permits. We all share an active interest in using the resources of this site and as users, we have various levels of knowledge and experience and do our best to help each other with concerns, issues, and/or questions.

This is something we will have to get used to.

Placing the source on the left and the target on the right is how the source linker works. The new merge page works on the same principle -- the source (duplicate record) is placed on the left and the target (surviving record) is placed on the right.

This has been explained several times by FamilySearch personnel and at this point, it is my opinion that they will not revert to the old order, which was confusing if you were used to using the source linker and this is the first time you've encountered or attempted to merge two records of the same person.

Given that the two screens are now similar with the source information on the left and the target on the right, it will be easier for new FamilyTree users and for the rest of us, it is something that I think that most of us will be able to adjust to relatively easily.

LegacyUser

Jordi Kloosterboer said: I've already adjusted. It's easy.

LegacyUser

J. Matthew Saunders said: To be quite honest, I am not used to it and I almost get sick when trying to merge and I believe most people are just putting up with the change...maybe the source linker should have been reversed so all final type info lies on the left like every other page. When spending 80 hours a week or more on family search and having to constantly merge people I think this is one of the most important pages that we are dealing with. We eliminate people and pull all sorts of information together and can make a real mess if we do it wrong. I really believe a mistake is being made here and it is being treated very lightly....

LegacyUser

J. Matthew Saunders said: The reality is we should start step 1 as the beginning with the end in mind, so the correct information should be on the left and AGAIN maybe the source linker is backwards....

Also, if it isn't the elephant in the room, the biggest thing with this merger that was stated at the beginning and has not been addressed with ANYTHING MORE THAN were just going to have to get used to it is the placement of the information...which threw everyone off!

Minor changes aren't a big deal, but it seems that this is just being ignored and swept under the rug! If someone were really listening, they would address it better and with much more understanding!

If you look at the pages below, we can go back to elementary school and play the game, which one of these does not look like the other. It is very simple and one stands out.









If consistency is important this is very inconsistent! The correct information is always on the left side of the page....