Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Merge Decisions in Geni.com - Got a Match!

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Yesterday in Merge Decisions in Geni.com - No Match!, I showed the process when there is not a match between your person and the person(s) that Geni.com thinks might be a match to your person.

Today, we'll look at the process when there is a match to your person.  From the "Randall Jeffrey Seaver's Merge Center," I clicked on one of my ancestors, Mary Hazard (1764-1857).  The "Tee Matches" page for her is:




There was one match for her, so I clicked on the check box and then the blue "Compare Profiles" button  to compare the two profiles for Mary Hazard - mine and the other person's.  [Note, I could have clicked on the "Compare profiles" to the right of the screen also] 

When I clicked on "Compare Profiles" I saw:


Here are the two profiles side-by-side.  I decided, based on the information provided (same parents, same spouse, same child) that this was a match, so I clicked on the blue "Yes, merge these profiles" at the bottom of the screen, and saw:


The "Conflicting Data" screen above shows the items that are in conflict between the two person profiles about to be merged.  In this case, it was only the last name - I had "Hazard" (Mary's maiden name) and the other profile had "Oatley" (Mary's husband's surname).  I chose Mary's maiden name (shown in green above) because that is the standard most of us use for female names - we use the name she was born with.

clicking on "Save," I saw:


This screen told me that Mary Hazard was now merged.  I clicked on Mary's name, and saw her profile:


This shows that Mary's profile was added by the other person, and I am listed as a manager along with the other person.

This worked pretty well.  Geni.com makes the decision process pretty easy - you just have to make a judgment.  If I have any doubt, I do not merge the two person profiles. 

One thing that happens when you merge profiles like this is that sometimes the spouses or children or siblings are listed two or more times (depending on how many profiles were merged).  I think that if the names are different (for Mary Hazard Oatley above, there are now sons "Rev. Jonathon Oatley" and "Jonathan Oatley" who are the same person), a separate child is listed.  Now those duplicates need to be merged too. 

I worked my way through all of the "Tree Matches" on my home page yesterday, and today there are 40 more.  This looks like a never ending task. 

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