What's the difference between Person Search and Find Matches?

Question

 I recently received the following message:

"When you do merges, you should also look for duplicates of the person in the Person Search utility. There usually are several that are not attached to the parents or spouse."

So this is a THIRD way of looking for dupes? (after magnifying glass and "Find Matches")

My experience so far with Find Matches (recently recommended by Chris) is that it finds dupes with or without people attached to a spouse or parent. Trying to understand the distinction between all these dupe-search options.

Thanks.

Answer 1

In most cases FindMatches should find the same profiles that the basic search would find, if your FindMatches options aren't strictly set.

But the user who sent you the message may have a point. You should ask them about it. It could be that they're thinking with SearchPerson you can try different spelling variations.

Sometimes I use surname indexes when trying to make sure I have all the duplicates. Maybe I shouldn't mention this, since it would be a fourth search method for you to consider. :-)

By the way, none of the search methods are sophisticated enough to consider spouses and parents. And SearchPerson and FindMatches have the same underlying technology. FindMatches just has automation and options and filters laid on top of it. See my explanation of how the search tools have developed on http://www.wikitree.com/g2g/10039/