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MERGING RECORDS in FS
I noted that it appear to me - that the MERGE feature in FamilyTree
has changed it's "look and feel" (in recent weeks?)
seems like the underlying functionality is pretty much the same - Im not sure.
any comments from the rest of you about how the MERGE process now works.
I also found this interesting video on youtube that talks about the merge process
(created Feb 2020)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1T0bnDx_Ya0
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It happened when I was right in the middle of using FamilySearch's Family Tree. It is certainly different but seems to be an improvement.
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thats where I am a bit confused . . .
what was the improvement??
other than just a new look and feel?
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Well, for one thing the record that will be kept (unless you switch them) is on the right side which now matches what you see on Source Linker which has the family tree information on the right side. It also now requires some type of reason for the merge before it can be completed. The presentation of the names on both sides seems more understandable to me.
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yes - thats mainly just "look and feel"
just surprised that they went through all the work of this - and it really isnt much more than just making it look pretty
(when there are so many other needs - that are so much more than just making something look pretty)
just seems resources could have been used on more "bang for your buck" programming
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We just watched the BYU webinar entitled "Live Genealogy Q&A" with Kathryn Grant. You may know how excellent she is. She spent a goodly portion of the time on the new merge which was very worthwhile. It should be available online next week on the BYU webinars website at https://fh.lib.byu.edu/classes-and-webinars/online-webinars/.
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I watched the new FamilySearch Facebook Wednesday presentation with Ron Tanner and he said that the main reason for changing it was to slow people down and get them to really look at the data when merging. I get it, but I personally liked the less-busy/cleaner look of the old template. The only thing constant is change...
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My aged brain doesn't remember yesterday's details I'm afraid. Most of my research is in southern England. I was "deconstructing" one of five research trees to find a 3rd great grandmother. I wanted to ensure that all these distantly related souls from an extinct village were entered into Family Search. I recollect that the new merge feature made me much more confident and exact. (Many of "my people" were in extraction programs).
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I've only done one merge in the last couple of days with this new Merge, but one thing I didn't like was that with the old Merge, I could see and copy and paste the ID numbers of the people I was merging into my reason statement. However, when I look at "Show All Changes" on the surviving person, I do see that the two persons involved in the merge are shown and I can click on them there and see their respective ID's. Was this identification of the two merged persons in the Merge entry of the Change log always there or is that a new addition?
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Wow! I had no idea this resource was available. T
hank you!😀
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There are some other not so obvious changes as well. When you merge and there are parents or children attached, it will bring them all over BY DEFAULT. Since you normally would never want to cut a PID off and leave it floating in the ether, this mitigates that problem. This was an issue that has been discussed a couple of times going back many months.
I understand another thing (from a comment by Joe Martel over in the FamilySearch feedback forum at GetSatisfaction.com) is that FS is developing a new set of common utilities for building their web pages. The new merge function is using that new code. I can only assume that as we go forward, more areas of the site will be looking like this.
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the video - or the merge process??
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I am a little concerned that the finishing buttons (compare, back, not a match, finish) are at the top, as well as the bottom. If one does not scroll all the way down to see more, like sources and family, they could go ahead and push those buttons. I think it would be better to have the buttons only at the bottom forcing users to examine all the data before merging.
I am also a little concerned that some data seems to be moved by the process from left to right, rather than the user.
I wonder whether teens can do this merge process as carefully as is needed.
Other than those things, I really like the look and feel much more than the old process. Thanks FS guys.
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Good point on having one button on the bottom!
Note that many of the Teens do a better Job at this stuff than 74 year olds like me.
Thanks FS GUYS, rr
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I totally agree!!!
the youth in our ward - can run circles around us older folks
and do it much more reliably .
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You might also notice that since those buttons are at the TOP of each of the pages in the exact same position on all of the pages. if you happen to accidentally double or triple click the button that advances you to the next page (I'm a little shaky at times :-), it will totally skip the intermediate page(s) and you'll not be the wiser (since it happens that fast). Putting the buttons at the bottom of the page will also resolve this problem as well.
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I am not at all impressed with anyone "running circles around" in Family Tree. I look more favorably on slow, thoughtful, careful analysis, especially when merging.
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and that's what I mean
I think they can do it just as effectively as anyone else.
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I totally agree. I have had to fix several erroneous merges and other mistakes people have made, spending much time that could have been used doing research or other profitable tasks.
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