Ed Barnard wrote:
Jay,
While I don't have a direct answer for you, I have some suggestions based on my
own work, which may help.
The short version of my answer: Do some minor pre-processing of your files
before going to the merge. I'll explain why.
My own wrinkle of the problem has to do with Intellishare. Two of us are
researching the same family, and regularly merge results - thus I do use
automerge a lot. When my computer started hanging (eight minutes hang time at a
specific person) during the auto-merge, I tracked down the problem, and haven't
had the problem since - so long as I do some pre-processing.
The problem, for me, is with spouse "unknown", and with parents "unknown and
unknown".
1. When John Doe, no parents, is in Legacy with sister Mary Doe, Legacy adds in
the parents ("unknown and unknown"), because it must. That's basically required
by the Gedcom standard published by the LDS - there is no such thing as a
brother/sister relationship, only a parents/child relationship.
2. Also, when I'm navigating around Legacy, if I accidentally click on the wrong
blank area of the screen, once again "unknown" parents spring into existence.
Legacy does this correctly; but it bites me when I'm doing a merge.
3. There's a similar issue with unknown spouses, but I'll explain that after the
merge explanation.
When I merge the two files, they both contain John Doe and Mary Doe, parents
unknown. After the merge, John Doe and Mary Doe both have *two* sets of parents
- unknown and unknown, and unknown and unknown. Not realizing this, I return the
file for further collaboration. Next merge we have four sets of parents, then
eight, and so on. When I figured out the problem, I had several thousand sets of
parents, all unknown, for the same person! And it's on that person that Legacy
hangs during auto-merge.
The answer has been to search for anyone with multiple sets of parents. In your
case I'd suggest doing that *before* letting loose the auto-merge.
Something similar happens with unknown spouses, especially as a result of a
merge wherein one of us just added in the known spouse. So, after an
Intellishare merge, I do searches for:
- unlinked persons
- persons with multiple parents
- persons with multiple spouses
(There are some of each, legitimately so, of course. I use tags 5, 6, and 7 for
the legitimate ones, and display them when I "create list" during the search.
That way, as I'm scanning through the list, I only need to check on the ones
which are not shown as tagged.)
How does this apply to your situation? As you said, you've done a number of
merges already. It's possible that you've achieved a plethora of unknowns. Clean
them out first, and the merge will go far better.
Also - and come to think of it this might be the reason for the hang - if you
have a single unlinked "unknown" person - and this is easily done when
downloading sections of trees of Ancestry.com - Legacy will offer to match that
unknown person to EVERY other person in your file. If you have several unlinked
unknowns, your problem gets multiplied.
All unknowns have ID [RIN] of zero. That, no doubt, is why Legacy *never* offers
to merge these unknowns - and why I get two, then four, then eight, then
thousands, of sets of unknown parents.
So, my suggestion is to try some cleaning of your files first - no extra sets of
unknown parents, no unlinked unknowns at all - so that Legacy has a better shot
at merging things for you.
Best Regards,
Ed Barnard, researching Herring/Hill/Simcoe of Albemarle County VA
I want to thank you, Ed, for that explanation.
I just applied it to my files and found several parents unknown
and unknown where I knew a filial relationship but not the
parents name. I've tried a work around, I added a father with no
first name but the surname of the two children. Now I have
marriages with "Doe" and unknown in every case. Just so I know in
future, each has a note saying why I added the father.
I even found one set of unknown and unknown parents with no
children (I've no idea how it came to be but it has been eliminated).
I don't do merges all that often but I'll certainly apply your
methodology if I have any in future.
Maybe Sherry should suggest, with your permission of course,
including your pre-processing instructions in the Legacy manual
and help files on merging.
Brian Kelly
Rockland, ON
--
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
Version: 7.0.338 / Virus Database: 267.9.4/57 - Release Date: 22/07/05
Legacy User Group Etiquette guidelines can be found at:
http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp
To find past messages, please go to our searchable archives at:
http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup%40mail.millenniacorp.com/
To unsubscribe please visit:
http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/LegacyLists.asp
