Are you using FamilySearch, and they're one world family tree? And you've found
two or more profiles that are the same person? What do you do with them? Well, you merge.
how do you do that? In today's video, I'm going to show you the new and improved Merge Feature
over on FamilySearch. I'll walk you through how to merge to two people so you can be
successful the next time you stumble upon this common problem on FamilySearch.
Hey, fanatics! I'm so excited to have you here. my name is Devon Noel Lee with Family
History Fanatics. And we love helping you enjoy the journey of family history.
the need to merge happens in two ways. first on FamilySearch, over here in this
help box on your Person Profile Page. they may find similar entries in the family tree and let
you know about all about it. I'm going to show you how to evaluate that in just a moment. the other
way that you're going to need to merge is when you do research yourself and find two individuals
that are the same. But FamilySearch, for whatever reason, couldn't figure that out. I'll show you an
example of that a little bit later. So, stick around. And let's start learning how to merge
the new and improved way. Now, here is an example profile. And over there, in the right side column,
you can see that FamilySearch has recommended a Possible Duplicate. you want to make sure that
even though FamilySearch is recommending a Possible Duplicate that you're sure.
You know that they are the same people before you merge them together. So, let's practice reviewing
in case you haven't done this before. the first thing we're going to do is we're going to review
Jonathan Townley. get to know him a little bit. some of the things I like to do is look at their
birth date and place, their death date and place, their burial date and place. And then what's
really great is I can click on sources. And I can see the records that were associated with
the individual. So, be very familiar with a person before you start accepting Possible Duplicates.
I go through and look at the Other Information. sometimes there's lots of information here in
Other Information. sometimes not so much. So just get familiar with him. Jonathan married Rhoda,
and they lived in Essex County, New Jersey. he is the son of Jonathan and Phoebe. here
are all of his siblings. But let's go look at the source information. So, I have this 1850 Census
record. It looks like we need to find the 1860. potentially the 1870. So, if that duplicate is
based on the 1860 and 1870 Census and the families lined up, then I definitely want to merge them.
then I have a number of deeds which establishes John and Rhoda's relationship to one another.
Because she's identified on all of those deeds that he sells property and then when he
gains property. from Jonathan and Phoebe Magee. he's also on those records. that is one of the
advantages of researching in land records. If you haven't learned how to research with land records
on FamilySearch, I invite you to watch the video that will be linked to in the description. to tell
you how to do it simply and easily. So now that I am confident, I know enough about Jonathan Townley
to recognize a duplicate person. I'm going to go to Possible Duplicates. And instead of clicking
REVIEW and MERGE, which takes me to the new merge. I'm going to go to Jonathan Townley right here.
Now, this profile has multiple duplicates. I'm going to ignore that right. Now,
the only item attached to this Jonathan is that he is the father of Mary Townley.
And then this is taking place in Essex County, New Jersey. if I go back to the other gentleman,
he is of an age that he got married in 1814. he is of an age to go ahead and have a child
named Mary. But there are no mothers here. So, this is going to require a lot more investigation
before I merge. So, I would recommend when you don't know if that really is your person,
DON'T MERGE. Don't merge. just ignore the Possible Duplicate until you have finished researching
your key ancestor. don't merge things just because FamilySearch recommends that you do. Now, here I
have a profile for Mary Collins, who married Isaac Townley. And then I found a duplicate entry for
Mary Collins, daughter of John Collins, and let's see the wife's name there. it is Sarah Clark.
Now, I believe that Mary Townley, daughter of John Collins and Sarah Clarke, is actually the wife of
Isaac that I saw a moment ago. on the profile of Mary Townley, daughter of John and Sarah Collins,
there weren't any sources attached. just because a profile doesn't have any sources attached doesn't
mean it's inaccurate. Now, I know this family to be accurate, thanks to those land records.
in this land record, we have the John. And we have the Sarah. And we have the Noah and the Hugh and
the Mary all merged together. And that she is a Townley. So, I am basing this on a source. Now,
that I have confidence that this the twig of John Collins, who is Mary's father, and the
branch that has Isaac and Mary Collins married with their children. I can go ahead and merge.
But FamilySearch hasn't found for me that Mary Townley and Mary Collins are Possible Duplicates.
So, I can't hit that button. let me show you what to do when you have two distinctly different
individuals, and you want to put them together. since I want to preserve the profile of Mary
married to Isaac, I need to go back to this profile of her, as the daughter of John Collins,
on this number that's right beside her name and click COPY ID. Now, I can go back to the Isaac,
the spousal version, and I'm going to scroll down on the right. And I'm going to look for
MERGE BY ID. I'm going to copy and paste, or right click-paste, into the field. And click CONTINUE.
then FamilySearch will load a side-by-side comparison. notice on the right, this is
going to be the person who survives. And on the left is the person who's going to be merging in.
I can switch which person survives, and but I'm going to go ahead and keep the one that had her as
the wife of Isaac. So, I'm going to scroll down, and I am going to make sure this makes sense. So,
I'm going to be merging the parents and siblings to the husband of Mary all into one profile. So,
I'm going to go ahead and click CONTINUE. Now, I need to go through and decide what information is
going to survive. I want the name Mary Collins to say not Mary Townley. I'm going to go ahead
and bring a more accurate birthdate over. And I can see who submitted that information.
I can replace the death information if I ever want to not do that. I can click UNDO.
I'm scrolling down and notice it's bringing the parents and the children over. if I don't
want to bring them over, I can click UNDO. click REPLACE. And now, you're merging both branches,
the spouse, and children, and the father, and siblings. click CONTINUE. in previous videos
and in blog posts, I've talked about these Reason Statement Boxes- Reason For your merge.
Now, if you are an inexperienced genealogist, you ignore this box. But I want you to be a better
genealogist. So, every time you see a Reason To or Reason For an action you're doing on FamilySearch,
you need to tell yourself and other researchers on the platform why you're doing what you're doing.
But what is really cool, when I said the new and improved easy way to merge. you have the
opportunity to go ahead and type in a reason why you're making the merge. while you're keeping Mary
Collins and making Mary Townley's, daughter of John Collins, in to one. But there are a number
of these option boxes that you can use. Be sure to take some time to look at each one to see if it
fits. So Mary, the daughter of John, didn't have any sources but the information aligned with what
I knew about Isaac. So, I can go ahead and copy and just click on ADD. And that's the foundation
of my search. And notice they're telling me, as I've recommended before, utilize these PIDs. those
personal identification numbers to help other researchers know who is and surviving and who is
being merged into the survivor. And then you need to NOT stop there. notice I am typing a further in
information explaining my merge. this is something FamilySearch cannot do for you. this
is something you need to do for FamilySearch. explain why these two profiles go together.
And notice I based it on a source. there is a land transaction that identifies all of these people.
And I can then go ahead and link them together based on a source. And if anybody comes and
disputes the merge with me, we can go back to that record. I know exactly what I used. once I'm done,
I click finish MERGE. And now, FamilySearch will merge the information. I will keep the information
that I wanted ... replaced into the profile. I'll merge the two branches together.
So, FamilySearch has made merging duplicate profiles easier than my past videos on how
to merge duplicate profiles. thank you to the engineers for all that you do to make it make more
sense and for those prompts. But make sure that YOU climb your tree carefully. you can undo an
incorrect merge. that's a topic for another video. I need to go find an incorrectly merged individual
before I can release it. if you're ready to keep learning how to use FamilySearch for your family
history research, be sure to check out this playlist right here for more tips and tricks.
if you're ready for something new, check out the playlist right here, okay. So, vert.