Duplicates in Family Tree:

Why Theyre There,

How to Find Them,
& How to Resolve Them
Overview
What exactly are duplicates, and why
are they a problem?

How did all these duplicates

get into Family Tree?

How can I find them?

How do I resolve them?

 The Goal of Family Tree
Family Tree

One complete, accurate record for each

person who has lived on the earth,
linked to other records by
correct relationships
What is a Duplicate in Family Tree?

Any record that represents

the same person as another record
in Family Tree
Why are duplicate records a problem?
Duplicate records can lead to

duplicate (unnecessary) research

mistakes
wasted time
confusion

--not only for ourselves, but for other users

Where Does Family Tree Data Come From?

New Family Tree

FamilySearch
User submissions
(the predecessor
of Family Tree)
LDS pioneer and Duplicate
other records submissions of
Extracted vital My Tree
records
User submissions
(GEDCOMs, etc.)
 Where am I likely to find
duplicates in Family Tree?
1. When Using the Possible Duplicates Function
2. When Adding a New Person
2. When Adding a New Person
3. When Searching for Someone Else
4. When Adding a Source from
FamilySearch Historical Records

May be worth
checking into
5. When Viewing a Person Page
(Parents, Siblings, or Children)

But not this

one!

Siblings with
same name
Summary: You might see duplicates when...

1. Using the Possible Duplicates function.

2. Adding a new person.

3. Doing a search for someone else.

4. When Adding a Source from FamilySearch

Historical Records

5. Viewing a person page (parents, siblings, or

children).
When are duplicates
less obvious?
Duplicates may be less obvious when...

Using the Possible Duplicates function

Adding or searching for a person

A record has been marked living

Example 1:
Duplicate Not Found by Possible Duplicates Search
Example 1:
Duplicate Not Found by Possible Duplicates Search
Example 1:
Duplicate Not Found by Possible Duplicates Search
Example 1:
Duplicate Not Found by Possible Duplicates Search
Example 1:
Duplicate Not Found by Possible Duplicates Search
Example 2:
Duplicate Not Found by Possible Duplicates or Find (Toolbar)

This christening record for

Millicent Spray was found
in FamilySearch historical
records.
Example 2:
Duplicate Not Found by Possible Duplicates or Find (Toolbar)

The corresponding record

was easily located in
Family Tree using the Find
option on the toolbar.
Example 2:
Duplicate Not Found by Possible Duplicates or Find (Toolbar)

Possible Duplicates found

no matches.
Example 2:
Duplicate Not Found by Possible Duplicates or Find (Toolbar)

However, a second manual

search using Find, this time
with a spouse, located a
duplicate record.
Example 2:
Duplicate Not Found by Possible Duplicates or Find (Toolbar)
Example 3:
Duplicate Not Found When a Child is Marked Living

If you find parents with no vital information and no

children, they may have an invisible child (a child
marked living due to the 110-year privacy rule).

This child will not come up in a duplicate search.

Contact FamilySearch
support if your research
leads you to suspect that
a deceased child has
been marked living. You
will need to provide the
parents PIDs and the
childs proof of death.
How Do I Increase My Chances of
Finding Less-Obvious Duplicates?
Know your families; do research thats accurate and
reasonably complete:
o Birth, marriage, death
o Parents, spouse, children
o Use a research log like a timeline grid
Sample Timeline Grid
Ann Gunton (1839) and Thomas Guy
Ann is the daughter of Matthew Gunton and Ann Middleton

ID & Vitals 1871 Census 1881 Census 1891 Census 1901 Census 1911
District 11, District 11, District 11, District 8, Census
Doddington, Doddington, Doddington, Cambs Doddington,
Cambs (p 24) Cambs (p 23) (p 18) Cambs (p 12)
Dykemoon Beezlinger (?) District 5, March, Beezlings Dr (?)
Cambs (p 8)
Whittlesea Rd

abt 1833 Thomas Guy, Thomas Guy, Thomas Guy, head, Thomas Guy,
head, mar, 38, head, mar, 48, mar, 57, farmer, head, mar, 68,
farmer 16 acres, Farmer 24 acres, Manea, Cambs farmer,
Manea, Cambs Doddington, Doddington,
Cambs Cambs

1839 Ann, wife, mar, Ann, wife, mar, Ann, wife, mar, 53, Ann, wife, mar,
Ann Gunton 31, Chatteris, 41, Chatteris, Chatteris, Cambs 62, Chatteris,
Dec Q 1839, N Cambs Cambs Cambs
Witchford District

1870 William C, son, 1, William Carter, William Carter Guy, marries Mary
William Carter Guy Doddington, son, 11, scholar, lodger (Norman Jane Norman;
June Q 1870, N Cambs Doddington, household), s, 21, grid continues
Witchford District Cambs farm laborer, here
Doddington, Cambs
How Do I Increase My Chances of
Finding Less-Obvious Duplicates?
Know your families; do research thats accurate and
reasonably complete:
o Birth, marriage, death
o Parents, spouse, children
o Use a research log like a timeline grid
Search manually with varying searches (different
relationships, increasingly broad)
Be cautious when duplicates are likely:
o Pioneer or heavily-researched lines
o Extracted records in a given locality
Pay attention to your intuition
When is a Duplicate not a Duplicate?

Joseph Jackson Olave appears

twice on this page--but notice
that his PIDs are the same.

In this case, we see him twice

because he has duplicate spouses
which have not yet been merged.
 A Word of Caution
Before you merge, be sure the two records really are
duplicates.
o In many families, the same name is used
repeatedly among cousins and across generations.
o In some cultures, children were given the same
name as a deceased sibling.
Always check vital information and relationships to
make sure the two records you want to merge really
represent the same person.
 Merging Duplicates
Once you have determined two records are
duplicates, the next step is to merge them:
o On the person page of one of the duplicates, click
Possible Duplicates.
If the duplicate record is displayed, click
Review Merge.
If the duplicate record is not displayed, click
the Merge by ID tab, enter the PID of the
duplicate, and click Continue.
o Review the duplicates on the merge screen. The
following slides provide tip and tricks.
Merge Tips and Tricks: Changing Information

Information cant be edited on

the merge page. To edit
information, change it on the
Person page before or after the
merge.
Merge Tips and Tricks: What Information is Kept

Click Replace to
move
information to
the left and
overwrite the
information that
is already there
Information and Information and
relationships in the relationships in the
left column are right column are
kept at the end of deleted at the end
the merge of the merge

Click Add to keep information or

relationships by moving them to
the left.

If you leave a spouse or child on

the right, the relationship will be
deleted, but not the spouses or
childs record.
Merge Tips and Tricks: What Information is Kept

Exception to the
everything on the right is
deletedrule:

Sources on the right are

automatically moved to the
left. If you dont want to
keep them, click Undo.
Merge Tips and Tricks: What Information is Kept

If you decide you want to

keep the person and
information on the right, click
Switch Positions to put them
on the left side.
 Merge Tips and Tricks: Who Gets Merged

Only these two

people are
merged

Duplicate
spouses and
children are not
However, if you leave them on the
merged as part
right, the relationship will be
of this merge,
deleted. If you plan to merge them,
even if they are
click Add to move them over. Then
moved to the left
you can merge them after finishing
side.
the current merge.
 Merge Tips and Tricks: Reason Statements

How well does a

reason statement like
this explain why the
merge is being done?
 Merge Tips and Tricks: Reason Statements

A good reason
statement explains
why you believe the
two records represent
the same person. Its a
good idea to include
the full names and
PIDs of both records.
Summary of Merge Tips and Tricks
Remember that the only people you are merging are the two people whose names appear at the top of
the left and right columns of the Review Merge screen. Related people who show below (parents,
spouses, children) are not merged.

People and information on the left are kept; people and information on the right are deleted.
If information is missing on the left but appears on the right, click Add to move it over.
If information is incorrect on the left but is correct on the right, click Replace to move it over.
Information on the left cannot be changed during a merge; it must be changed on the person
page before or after the merge.

All relationships on the left will be retained; all relationships on the right will be broken (however, the
people themselves will not be deleted).
Generally it is best to move all related people from the right to the left, even if they are
duplicates.
After the merge, these duplicates will be visible on the person page of the person who was just
merged. You can then merge these other duplicates.

Sources on the right will be moved to the surviving person unless you deselect them.

Include a meaningful reason statement (i.e., dont just write something like same person). Also, its
helpful to include both PIDs, which can be copied and pasted from the column headers. Example:
Alice Bescoby ABCD-123 and Alice Bescoby QRST-345 married the same man on the same date in the
same location.
Summary
Family Tree contains duplicates.

Duplicate records can cause duplicate effort

and lead to confusion

With care and attention, we can find and

resolve duplicates.

When we resolve duplicate records, we can

focus on extending our lines rather than
duplicating previous research.
 Questions?

Email: kathryngz@gmail.com

2014 - 2016 Kathryn Grant. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. (You may
copy, distribute or modify this work as long as you do not charge for it and as long as you give proper attribution.)