Automatically Checking For Duplicates
Turning Duplicate Checking On or Off
Where and When Does Duplicate Checking Happen?
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Correcting Mistakes, Using the Clipboard
Automatically Checking For Duplicates
When adding a new person to your family file, the Duplicate Check feature will engage as soon as a first name, last name, and sex are entered. When this happens, the family file is instantly searched for any potential duplicate entries.
The goal is to avoid accidentally entering redundant information — new records for people who are already in the family file.
For example, let’s say you start the process of adding a new child to a couple.
As soon as you enter a first name, last name, and sex, the Duplicate Check feature engages.
If there are possible duplicates found, a list of those people will appear, with the best matches closest to the top of the list. These appear in the Duplicate Check window, shown below...
To evaluate the possible matches, single-click to select a person in the list of people on the left. More details about that person will appear on the right. Take a careful look at the details for the selected person before proceeding.
Note: The button will be disabled if you've accidentally selected a child who is already a child in the current family, or if you select a person who is already a spouse of the person for whom you're entering a spouse.
Turning Duplicate Checking On or Off
The Duplicate Check feature can be turned on or off in Settings > General > Data Entry.
In addition, the feature can be turned off within the Duplicate Check window by clicking
; however, this window only appears when a possible duplicate is suspected.If the Duplicate Check feature annoys or interrupts your work flow, you could either turn it off or adjust the sensitivity so that it's less likely to find possible duplicates as you're entering new people.
To adjust the sensitivity of the Duplicate Check feature (to make it more or less likely to notify you of potential duplicates), visit the Duplicate Check Settings window. This is accessed by clicking the button in either of these two places…
The degree of “precision” for searching can be specified independently for First & Mid Name, and Last Name. If you see too many possible matches, then select a greater precision.
When and Where Does Duplicate Checking Happen?
In short, any time you attempt to add a new person to the family file, Reunion will check to see if the person is already in the family file.
These include...
There are a variety of ways to perform the above functions (menu bar items, pop-up menu items, keyboard shortcuts, buttons, etc.) and the Duplicate Check feature engages no matter which method is used to add a new person.
Simply entering a first name, last name, and sex will give Reunion enough information to quickly search your family file and evaluate potential matches. Reunion performs this magic with a sophisticated evaluation of event dates associated with people connected to current couple.
Note: The Duplicate Checking feature does not engage when attempting to add a new person without a Last Name.
The "Flourish Span," which appears in the bottom-left corner of the Duplicate Check window, is a date range expression which is assembled by Reunion as it looks for clues about the dates a person may have been alive. In some cases, dates are available. But when they're not, Reunion examines and evaluates event dates for any parents, children, siblings, and/or spouses of the person and then predicts missing dates. Note that this function is similar to, but different from Reunion's date feasibility calculations. The Flourish Span is not editable; nor are the parameters it uses for calculations. It doesn't appear in charts or reports.
If you're interested in seeing the Flourish Span for people (beyond its usage in the Duplicate Check feature, or the Add Person Using Search feature), it's available to see in a column of the List window, in the Attributes menu.
The Flourish Span can also be searched using the Advanced Find feature. That is, you can search for people matching certain Flourish Span conditions. Here are examples of the six different ways that Flourish Span can be searched...