What Causes Duplication in a Family File?
Merging People the Easy Way
What Is "Match & Merge?"
Finding Matches
Merging People
What Happens When Records are Merged?
Mistakes | The most common cause of duplicate records in a family file is simply accidentally adding a person who is already in the family file (an existing person). Before you add a child, parent, or spouse to a family, you should determine whether the person you're about to add is already in the family file. You can check the People sidebar if you're not sure. And, Reunion has a nifty Duplicate Check feature which should help too. |
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Importing | When you import a GEDCOM file, another family file, or a text file, Reunion usually has no way of knowing what person or family records, if any, are duplicates. If there are records common to both files (your family file and the file you just imported) you will wind up with some duplication in the resulting file. |
Reunion has many tools to correct mistakes. For example, it's easy to remove people from families where they don't belong and delete people using the Clipboard. Another powerful tool is called Match & Merge, described below.
If you only have a few records that are duplicated, there's an easy way to save time and clean up your records:
Doing this will open a confirming window, asking if you want to merge the two people. Clicking
will take you to the Merge Person window to confirm the merge.You can also use this shortcut (dragging a person from a sidebar and dropping them onto a husband/wife button) if you encounter the need to merge two people who you know are really the same person, but the names/dates of each person are somehow different enough that Reunion won't identify them as possible matches.
Let's assume that your family file has three people named John Smith and you believe they are actually the same person.
Match & Merge is a feature that helps you to identify and remove duplicate people in your family file. You should use this feature when you've got a bunch of duplication scattered through your family file. (If there are just a few people duplicated, then do it the easier way.)
The Match & Merge feature has two steps...
The Match & Merge feature should not be seen as a remedy for collecting data carelessly. You should resist the temptation to download and collect GEDCOM files and import them into your family file willy nilly — assuming that the computer will do the work and sort everything out. We recommend that you make a backup copy of your family file anytime you're about to match and merge records.
To find people who might be matches, choose
. This opens the Match People window.Find matches for...
In the first section of the Match People window, you select the people for whom you'd like to find matches. For example, if you think you might have three John Does in your family file, you can navigate to one of the John Does (using the People sidebar) and then choose from his family record.
You can also look for matches for marked people or for everybody. But be warned — these two options may require lots of time!
Compare with...
The middle section of the Match People window lets you identify to whom you'd like to compare the people selected in the first section. For example, if you have selected John Doe in the top section (Find matches for...), you can compare John Doe with everybody in your family file, or only with marked
people, or unmarked people.
What to check for in a match...
The bottom section of the Match People window lets you choose the criteria used by Reunion to look for potential matches. Click the button to select one of these choices...
Unique ID Number (UID): Match and Merge can use this field to find exact matches for data that has been exported and then returned (imported) to the same family file. Unique ID Number (UID) is explained here.
Names and Dates: this a general classification that refers to Reunion's internal system of weighing and scoring (aka using "fuzzy logic") to evaluate and rank potential matches. You should use "Names and Dates" as the matching criteria unless you are certain that the records you're attempting to merge have Unique ID Numbers or User ID Numbers. Experiment with the menu, described below, to show more or less possible matches.
User ID Number: explained here.
After you configure the Match People window, click the
button to begin the search. Reunion will search for possible matches based on your settings and will report the results in the Merge People window.Note: | The time required to search for matches is exponentially related to the number of people you have selected to Find matches for and Compare with. This could take a long time. |
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After completing the search for possible matches, the Merge People window will appear if any matches were found. This window has two lists at the top.
Under each list is a synopsis of the person selected in the list, including...
The purpose of the synopsis is twofold...
Note: In the Merge People window, people may appear in the Parents, Spouses, or Children sections but are not able to be merged. This may happen, for example, when the children of a person are not marked and the Match People window was set up to "Find matches for Marked people" and "Compare with Marked people." In this scenario, even though there may be duplicate records for children and you want to merge them, the fact that they are not marked means they won't be candidates for merging. The solution here would be to set up the Match People window to "Find matches for Everybody" and "Compare with Everybody."
Reunion evaluates possible matches and then rates each match using three levels of certainty and assigns a corresponding icon:
Use the
button (at the bottom of the Merge People window) to filter the lists, i.e., to show only matches of a particular certainty.If matches of "High" certainty are found, a button will appear in the lower-left corner of the Merge People window which lets you automatically merge ALL matches of High Certainty. If, for example, you've just imported a "known GEDCOM file" (as explained here) then this button will provide the fastest way to clean up your family file (by removing all duplicate records).
adjust matchIn addition to the synopsis shown in the bottom section of the Merge People window, you can also double-click anybody in either list to show a person's record in the family view behind the Merge People window. This will help to further compare records, especially with larger monitors. Before searching for matches, it's a good idea to select a Family View that will provide the most help in comparing data.
Color Coding on the Right Side of the Merge People Window
People in the Parents, Person, Spouses, and Children sections on the right side may appear in three different colors, described below...
Nothing will happen permanently until you click the button. Clicking any of the other buttons doesn't change anything in your family file until you click . | |
To merge the records for the checked people on the right with the people in the left, click the button. | |
A "high certainty" match is defined as two people with the same Unique ID Number or two people with exactly the same name, birth date, and death date. If Reunion finds any high certainty matches, clicking this button will merge them all. | |
This menu lets you filter what you see in the lists based on the level of certainty of a match. Most of the time, there is little reason to look at unlikely matches (where certainty is low or medium). | |
To exit the Merge People window altogether, without making any changes, click the button. |
Children and Parents
People who have a parent/child relationship are automatically excluded from the lists of potential matches. For example, if you have one John Doe as the son of another John Doe, neither will be reported as a match — even if their names and dates are the same.
When you click the
button, the people on the right are merged with the people on the left — if they are in a checked group. Each group has its own check-box button...Reunion salvages unique information in the people on the right by intelligently moving fields into the records for corresponding people on the left. Since Reunion's field system is very flexible, additional fields are added to the person on the left if needed. For example...
This diagram shows the result of a merge...
It's important to understand that the person in the left list will remain in the family file. He's the person to whom information will be merged "into." His links to children, parents, and spouses will be maintained.
After merging, the person in the right list is deleted. Links to the person being merged (the person in the right list) will be transferred to the person in the left list.
If values for one of the name fields are not a perfect match, the name of the person with the most recent changed date will become the value of the name field in the merged record. And any other names will be inserted into a new note field called "Match & Merge." The text "Other Last Name: [the conflicting name]" will be entered into the "Match & Merge" note field.
For example, if "Gregory" and "Gregg" are merged, and the record of "Gregg" was most recently changed, then "Gregg" would be the primary name and the text "Other Last Name: Gregory" will be entered into the "Match & Merge" note field. (If a "Match & Merge" note field doesn't already exist, Reunion will create it for you to accommodate the conflicting names.)
When people with different first names are merged, the longer of the two names will be used as the resulting first name. And if one name is a substring of (or contained in) the new primary name, the substring name is discarded. Thus...
Finding Multiple or Duplicate Fields
Reunion's Advanced Find feature provides an easy way to find people who have multiple or duplicated events (two or more birth fields, death fields, etc.) resulting from a merge. Click in the navbar and set up a condition like this...
Hint: "# of Duplicated Fields" is in the
submenu.Importing a Known GEDCOM file
A "known GEDCOM file" is one that originated from your family file. For example, let's say you've exported a branch of your family file for another person to examine, make corrections, and make additions. After you receive the modified "branch" GEDCOM file back and you've imported it into your family file, you should check for duplication using Match & Merge and the Unique ID Number as your "criteria for a match" in the Match People window (explained above).
Importing an Unknown GEDCOM file
An "unknown GEDCOM file" is one that did not originate from your family file. If you plan to check for matches after importing an unknown GEDCOM file, it's a good idea to distinguish the records of the existing family file from the records in the GEDCOM file you're about to import. You do this using a couple of Reunion's powerful features...
This will save lots of time by comparing only the imported people (marked) with your existing records (unmarked).
Importing One Reunion Family File into Another
If you plan to import Reunion family file A into Reunion family file B, we suggest that you unmark everybody in family file B and then mark the people in family file A as they are imported into family file B using the Automatic Flag feature.
After the import is finished, you can use the Match & Merge feature to find matches for marked people (the folks from family file A) and compare with unmarked people (the people originally in family file B).