starting out
I introduced my grandson to family search and had him type in info for his 4 generations. Does that create duplicate persons? How should I have had him connect to the names already in the system? This is my first try.
Answers
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@debbieB Your grandson would need to enter any living relatives within his 4 generations. For those that are deceased, he can merge his copy with existing copies of the people in Family Tree. The easiest way to do that is to bring up the details page for each deceased relative. On the right side is a Tools section. If the system was able to find a duplicate, you'll see a number in a circle to the right of Possible Duplicates. Click it and you can review the duplicates and merge as needed. Here are some Help Center articles with additional instructions:
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Since any existing individual in the tree could have Change Logs a mile long and his duplicate copy will have a very short Change Log, it would be best to be sure he merges his newly created copy into any older existing copy to keep the Change Log most easily accessible.
This is a good time to introduce him to the concept that Family Tree is one huge, universal tree that we are all working on together and that there should only be one copy of any deceased individual.
Regarding what you could have done differently, you could have helped him find his eight great-grandparents in Family Tree, assuming they are all deceased, then built forward in time by adding the living people needed to connect to him. But I think for someone starting out, doing exactly what you did was best, that is starting with him, then parents, then grandparents but then as soon as coming to someone who was deceased, to stop and wonder, "Is the person already in Family Tree?", teaching how to search, and if found, teaching how to add by ID.
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