Another way to add alternate names-and keep them on top-is to scroll down past “Also known as” to “Name.” Then add the alternate name and save it. You have the option to click “Preferred” before saving if you so choose. After you save it, you can see all the names for that person by clicking “Name and Gender” below “Facts” on that person’s profile page.
Thank you so much! You are right. I noticed on one of my ancestors that I had added the wrong parent and that sure messed thing up. I am trying to take your advice about always look closely when connecting to other members trees. That is what happened to me. The answer was already in this video and I just wasn't paying attention. I will do better. You are a life saver and I so enjoy your videos. Thanks!
Another place were I will often find a 'valid' reason for needing to merge is when you find a line where there is a common ancestor, or sometimes a common descendant. For example I was working down my grandfather's 3 great grandparents descendants when I came across the surname of someone on a complete different branch of my grandfather's family and that descendant was in the same area that that surname on my grandfather's branch was from. So I followed up that branch on the paternal line and I finally found that the descendant's family descended from another sibling from that immigrant family. I already had that sibling in my tree (but hadn't worked on his family) and so once I did some research I was able to merge that sibling because I had him in my tree previously with his childhood family and then re-added him with his children until I could confirm he was the same person.
I did that delete an ancestor instead of merging in and it messed up my tree up. I lost that ancestor's info and the rest LOL Oh, I wanted to cry at the time. I thought I was being clever. Great video, Connie....thanks.
You likely didn't lose them, just disconnected the rest. Try going to the tree view, then search the tree for someone you remember was int he tree farther back in time... ideally the parents of the person you deleted. If you find them, open the profile and add the child back in by using the "someone already in my tree" function. If you don't find them, try searching in the tree view (upper right corner search) for just the surname and scroll down to see if you see the parents. If you delete a person, you only deleted that one person. I hope you find them.
Wow! Loving your channel! Just found it Wednesday and have seen 70 of your videos so far (and counting!). Loving the new insight as well as refresher for what I already know. Just a comment... Not sure if you've covered it yet, I'm still working my way through your videos, but, the same name might not be father-son. In my tree it is more frequently cousins or grandfather-grandson. With those pesky Italian ancestors of mine (LOL), tradition holds that the first born son (and daughter) is named after his father's father (and mother) and the second born is named from the mothers father (and mother) accordingly. So if Angelo and Mary have 7 sons, each son will name their first born son Angelo and daughter Mary. Which can be very frustrating trying to find "your" Angelo and Mary because there could have been multiple Angelos born in the same year in the same town all with a sister Mary that is the right age. So looking at Census, draft cards, etc is difficult. Especially if you don't know the siblings names or Mothers name. But it is helpful in learning their grandparents names! Thanks again for all of your helpful tips!
Hi, Connie. Enjoyed your video. I'm using your videos to teach Genealogy in New Orleans and am listing them in my videos to watch page which I hand to my students. Please go further on the merge window to explain the compare button (on the bottom) where other facts (including other relationships- parents, spouses, siblings and children) are listed. It took me quite a while to notice that button and when I did click on it, I found it to be very helpful in determining whether the 2 individuals were only one person.
Ok I’ll keep that in mind. I might use you question to start the video. Don’t know when that will be. Thanks for telling your students about Genealogy TV.
Thanks for the video! Great, as always! I have been using the suffix field for the hearts, like Christa does, and recently for their nicknames. My question is what do you do when you have foreign names , like Giovanni, that are their birth names, but they went by John most of their lives?
I use their birth name always... So in my case my great grand mother was Francisca Kornelia Jensen in and in the US she was Frances Johnson. So I use her birth name to find hints in Denmark. I use Frances Johnson in the "Also Known As" field. Having said that, I search for all possibilities. While I use the Hints, I also use the card catalog and do a targeted search from my research plan. That includes searching all name possibilities and in all places, not just Ancestry. I hope that answered your question.
What about ancestors that are duplicated due to cousins marrying, or a children from one branch marrying connections from another branch. I have one marriage with a half sibling marrying a in-law of one of their older siblings, and I have another instance when cousins marry. In both cases it leads up to the same ancestors and makes an odd looking tree.
Hi Connie, I know how to merge a little bit. What I don't understand for example is, say that I am on my 3rd great grandfathers profile page and I already know I have a duplicate of him. Now the duplicate for example may say that he is my 3rd cousin 4X removed. When I merge the duplicate into my 3rd great grandfathers profile "my 3rd great grandfather is no longer my 3rd great grandfather anymore. I hope you can understand what I mean. I am so frustrated with this. Maybe you can help me out with this. I am a new subscriber and love your videos. Thanks!
Hi Joyce. I can only guess without seeing your tree. Let's think of it this way... Person #1 had various links in your family tree that led to you... and so did person #2. Let's also say that you merged person #1 into person #2 (adopting the data and links mostly from person #2). Let's also pretend that you were more familiar with the links to Person #1 but they might have been different (without you realizing it) with person #2. So when you merged the two of them, something was different within the generational links between each ancestor leading back to you. In other words person #1 and person #2 had a different path to you. Another thought is that if you had any cousins marrying cousins along the way, this can also mess with the path leading to you and change things when you merge. In other words, your 3x Great Grandfather could also be your 4th Cousin because of endogamous relationships or cultures. This may be hard to figure out at first.... but many families have this issue over time. Don't be surprised by it. It happens all the time.
I strongly recommend that persons look at Family Tree Analyzer software, It is free. You download a GEDCOM file from your tree source (Ancestry, or wherever). Open that file in FT Analyzer and you get a big load of data about your tree. Check it out (it does show duplicates). There us a group on Facebook for it. The f\website is ftanalyzer.com. Many people have found it very helpful in maintaining their family trees.
Connie, you mentioned Sr. and Jr. I haven't see these suffixes in the census documents. How do you recommend identifying people in trees that don't have these suffixes in their given names? Do I document as an AKA? Thanks
Sometimes I will label them with an alternate name or an A.K.A name with Jr or Sr... or put it in my notes. The problems with Jr. and Sr. is that Jr.s often become Sr.s later in life. I use other data to help differentiate them from other family... such as birth dates (is the easiest one). If you note someone as a Sr. or Jr. make sure you also note the source such as the census record. I hope that helps.
It might be part of the features that they turned on for me. Ancestry said about half of the Ancestry member have some of these features but did not specify which ones. You might be in the other half that doesn’t have yet. No worries. It’s coming. I just don’t know when.
So, you stress in the beginning NOT to delete one of the people, but merge. Wish I had known that before I messed things up! And now I need to know HOW I can you fix? One of my great grandmothers were duplicated, as a mother and also listed as a child, after I had already merged her twice from other duplications. They both had the same info. Since I didn't need her listed in the child spot, I deleted that one, thinking the other would remain. NOPE. Now they're both gone and I don't know what to do to recover her! 🥺 I'm afraid I won't be able to research her side. How can I recover this? I'm so upset with myself!
Try searching the missing persons name while in the tree view with the Tree Search in the upper right corner. If you find her, she is still in your database, just not connected. If you don't find her you will need to manually add her name back into the right position.
I found myself here to answer the question of why it won't let me merge a certain family member and his line. I know the people are the same but when I click "merge" I get a page that says this "We’re sorry, this page is temporarily unavailable" Have you ever come across this and do you know what it means? I try ever other day but it doesn't change. Thank you in advance!
I'm having an issue merging duplicates. When I go to the merge tab it won't show the duplicate person. I know they are the same person but I have the the same person as husband twice to the same woman.
Try going to your tree and search for the person there. If you see two of them that you know are the same person, then you have confirmed you have two in your database. Then, in the merge box (from tools in the profile), search on the right side where it says Person 2. As you type, it should pop up with the duplicate person. You can merge from there. Having said all that, if you did not find the duplicate person when you searched from the tree, then you don't have duplicate people in your database. If that is the case, I'm guessing that you are seeing two people in the tree view, making you think you have a duplicate. You could see two people in the tree view if you have some intermarriages between cousins somewhere. I hope that wasn't too confusing.
@@GenealogyTV yes I’m seeing two people in the tree view and they are the same person but when I go to the merge tab it doesn’t show up. And that person has duplicates of children with the same information.
I would like to know how it changes what it looks like in the tree, does it show the lines leading to the same person or keep them separate in the tree? I want to know before I merge them, I want to be careful not to mess something up.
If the two people you are merging have different ancestral branches, then it might show as having alternate parents. You might call Ancestry support to be sure. Also here is a help article support.ancestry.com/s/article/Merging-Duplicate-People?language=en_US
how do i combine 2 relativley duplicate trees? they are both basically the same family but one has more individuals in it, I would like to take them and make one tree, is there a way to thisY
This is an entirely different video. Technically you cannot merge trees. What you can do is export a Gedcom file from one tree and import the Gedcom file data into another.
One ancestor at a time, you can search for “duplicate” with the “merge with duplicates” tool. When you do that, it does show you the differences in data for each field (like birth, death, marriage information.). You can then choose what data to merge into your tree. Keep in mind this does not merge photographs and documents, only data.
