There are a few other difficulties related to Intellishare merging.
Again, these aren't failings in Legacy, but things you need to be aware
of.
I've wondered if a separate "tips" article might be appropriate.
Intellishare is a great feature, and we have tips on how to use it...
but there are "gotchas" that really need to be understood lest things
get highly confusing!
Other than the "unknowns," the other basic issue has to do with
deletions - any kind of deletion.
If I figure out, for example, that John and Nancy's two daughters Jenny
and Virginia are really the same person (Virginia), and merge them...
what happens when I bring in the file my partner has been working on?
Poof! Once again I have both Jenny and Virginia. Why? Because her copy
has both Jenny and Virginia. The Virginias get Intellishare merged as
they should; the auto-merge makes no attempt to do anything with Jenny.
She's not a duplicate.
The same is true when deleting a source reference in one copy of the
file and not the other... upon merge, the other copy brings it right
back.
Now that we understand the issue (the merge brings in the "before"
picture from the other file, so the result is that you have *both* the
"before" picture and the "after" picture in your database after the
merge), we solve it as follows:
1. Any time there's a delete, put a note in the research notes as to
what was done, and what the result should be. ("Delete Jenny, she's the
same person as Virginia.") When I do the Intellishare merge, the
auto-merge picks up the difference in research notes. I'm careful to
*read* all changed notes, and I make sure I do what needs to be done
(manually).
2. Any relinking to be done (we had a child, and all her descendants,
connected to the wrong set of parents - she had a cousin of the same
name which confused us), we do while *I* have the only master copy. Or,
we get on the phone and both do the relinking, so both Intellishare
copies look the same.
3. Any "cleanup" kinds of things - such as editing location names - we
also do when there's only one copy of the database. Otherwise the
editing gets lost in the merge.
It took us a while to figure out what was happening to us. ("I *know* I
fixed that last week!") But once we got it figured out, leaving notes in
the research notes area, and being VERY careful during the Intellishare
merge, keeps things mostly straight.
One person suggested using tags to indicate the changes to watch
carefully - but I don't see the tags during the merge. I *do* see the
research notes, so that's what I do.
Sherry, I'd be happy to write a "tips" item :)
Ed
On Mon, 2005-07-25 at 10:25, BE Kelly wrote:
> 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
>
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