Match Merge Facility

This facility enables you to match and then merge individuals together. It even works across a Group of GenBases. You can Find Matches by matching on an individual, the spouse, both, a List, or a GenBase. You then compare with a GenBase, a List, or a Group of GenBases. You then specify the criteria for a match. For example - surname. The Match List displays possible matches. You will then see the two individuals on a Compare Individuals dialog. The facility performs all the tiresome work of merging the individuals for you.

Before you use the Match Merge Facility it is recommended that you back up any GenBases that may be affected.

Also the question you need to answer is - Would linking achieve the same result in an easier manner?

This is what the facility looks like when selected with the demonstration GenBase Keipert and focus individual Gertrude May Keipert.

Match Merge Facility

There are three (3) tabsheets:

Match On

Compare With

Criteria

 

Match On Tabsheet

The spouse is chosen based on the individual. In the above case Gertrude May Keipert does not have a spouse. Therefore you can not match on a spouse and Spouse is disabled. Because she does not have a spouse you can not match on both of them therefore Both is disabled. If there is more than one spouse of the individual then the spouse displayed on the Family View will be the one displayed.

For a List. If a list has been previously selected in the List Manager then the name of the list will be displayed.

What GenBase is displayed as the default for the list? The program tries to make it the GenBase of the chosen individual. If not then another GenBase in the list.

 

When you change a List its associated GenBase is automatically chosen if a GenBase in the List is the same as the individual's GenBase.

 

Compare With Tabsheet

The following graphic shows the Compare With tabsheet.

Match Merge Facility - Compare With tabsheet

You can compare with a GenBase, a Group of GenBases, or a List. (If we were to choose the Keipert GenBase then the following graphic will show the matches.)

 

Criteria Tabsheet

Match Merge Facility - Criteria tabsheet

In the above, no criteria has been checked so the Match List would be empty. If we were to check Surname (Spelling identical) then the following graphic will show the matches.

 

Match List

The Match List dialog can be expanded sideways if required.

Match Merge Facility - Match List

It is obvious that choosing a match where the only criteria is Surname has resulted in too many matches. You would then go back and add some more criteria so that the list of matches is shorter.

To investigate further click the Compare button. (Alternatively double click on a row.)

When the Compare button is clicked, a number of messages may be shown in a dialog:

Note - The individuals have an Overlapping Lifespan. They do not have a Common Lifespan. If Merged only some of the Duplicate's attributes will be retained. The rest will only be preserved in a Note.

Note - The individuals have a Different Lifespan. They do not have a Common Lifespan. If Merged the Duplicate's attributes will only be preserved in a Note.

 

 

Compare Individuals

Match Merge Facility - Compare

By comparing the individuals in this case it is obvious that we have two different individuals. For a start their sex is different and they were born more than one hundred years apart. (In this example we got the message - The individuals have a Different Lifespan...)

Click the Merge button to merge the two individuals. When the Primary and Duplicate individuals are merged all the joins and links of the Primary are retained. For example, if the Primary individual is married then that marriage join is not broken. However, the joins and links of the Duplicate individual are not retained except in the following situations:

The Match Merge facility can now preserve the child joins of the Duplicate individual provided that the Primary and Duplicate are in the same GenBase and the same Sex.

Also preserved are the parent joins of the Duplicate individual provided that the Primary and Duplicate are in the same GenBase.

 

As much as possible, all additional data from the Duplicate, is added to the Primary. For example, a different birth date is added as a secondary birth date for the Primary. For example, a different name is added as a secondary name for the Primary.

When a Duplicate is merged into the Primary individual the guiding principle is to preserve all the attributes of the Duplicate. Furthermore, the attributes transfer as secondary attributes whether they originate as secondary or primary attributes in the Duplicate individual.

An example will illustrate this. Say the Duplicate individual has a primary anecdote. When merged the primary anecdote will become a secondary anecdote on the Primary individual.

If the sex of the Duplicate is different from the Primary the Primary sex is preserved. Similarly for RecNum (record number), GID (GENP Identifier) and GenBase.

If data has to be changed then a Note attribute is created with those details.

How are dates dealt with? As previously stated the guiding principle is to preserve all the attributes of the Duplicate. However this can not be done when a date is outside the range of dates of the Primary individual. The range of dates has endpoints given by the Early Date and Late Date. If a date is outside this range then that attribute's details are written to a Note attribute. For example:

Previous data:

Birth date 10 Dec 1822

Birth place London

 

 

An irregular date on the Duplicate individual is considered to be outside the lifespan of the Primary individual.

After merging you will need to check each Primary person. It may be necessary to delete unwanted attributes.

Any Sources and Repositories in the Duplicate are not deleted. You may need to manually delete them if required.

Dates in media records are not changed.

There is a class of exceptions to the rule about not merging attributes outside the lifespan of the Primary person. This is for the Name-Var (name variation) attribute type. If we find a date in this attribute outside the lifespan we modify the date to be the Early Date. A note to that effect is output to the Note attribute. The line in the note will read:

"Attribute Name-Var with Date x modified to y"

 

Consider the case when the Primary individual's lifespan was 1900 - 1950. However the Duplicate individual's lifespan was 1901 - 1951. He died on 3 Feb 1951. This event is outside the Primary individual's lifespan. The line in the note will read:

Attribute Death with date 3 Feb 1951 modified to 1950

 

The following graphic depicts some common situtations with respect to lifespans.

Match Merge - Lifespan

(2009)

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