Merge now is losing (sub)merged PID info

dontiknowyou

This is a bug report / feature request for escalation to FT engineers, please.

Merge now is losing (sub)merged PID info.

This is really aggravating me, as often valuable notes and discussions and other information are lost in the merge process. Merging did not always work this way. In some well-worked profiles I can see old merges where the merged-in PID change log is still there.

Also, I have witnessed someone exploit this loss of change log. I saw someone deliberately and repeatedly create a new PID then merge into it an old, very well sourced PID, thereby obliterating the change log of many other contributors' hard work over many years.

(Bad actor is being dealt with, PID repairs are in process.)

dontiknowyou

Related to this, in my personal change log, I can see all my changes for all PIDs except those that have been deleted. Why not show me my personal change logs for those PIDs? Show change logs for all PIDs, everywhere, to everyone.

This request for ubiquitous change log preservation applies also to PIDs deleted by merger into other PIDs. We can restore them, but maybe we just want to review them? I would rather not have to restore the PID to review it then perhaps delete it all over again.

NidaFL

@dontiknowyou For any record that has been deleted in a merge, that record is not gone, but (in effect) has been archived. Therefore when you find the "deleted" record by either posting the PID or finding it in Latest Changes, although the Vital information is no longer there, you may still see the Latest changes linked to that PID, but looking in the column to the right where you usually see Research Help. You may also find what the record looked like before the merge, in the familysearch beta site. The URL is beta.familysearch.org. You log in just like you are accustomed to.

Every now and then a snapshot is taken of the active tree in familysearch.org, and pasted into this beta site, which can then be used as a training site, or a reference site, if it has not been updated recently. You may also restore a "deleted" record in beta, and it will not affect the living familysearch tree. But that will give you the opportunity to see what that record looked like before the merge.

If a merge is done correctly, every source, memory and family member should be moved to the record that remains after the merge.

dontiknowyou

All good to know.

Yes, a merge done well includes almost all relevant content from the deleted (archived) PID. However, it does not include the change log, which include content that is without question relevant and may be significant.

Julia Anne NC

It would be very helpful to know the record that you see is having issues, so we can go in and look at the record, the merged record and the latest changes for both. So we can see if there is information that is being lost. which if it is, we do need to report. May we have a 7 digit number to check on the person in question?