How may I choose what information gets incorporated into a merge, and what is deleted?

Question

There has been a request to merge Preble-252 and Miller-36596.  These 2 people are the same person.  I have already rejected a merge of the parents (who are not the same).  Preble-252, born a Preble, was adopted by the Millers between 1860 and 1870.  Both profiles have some good information.

  If I just take the information from Miller-36596 and add it to Preble-252, and then reject the merge, then Miller-36596 would still exist.  So, I want to approve the merge, but have some control over how Preble-252 looks after the merge.

  Not sure how to proceed....  Any help appreciated.

Comments

On the Miller's profiles you should add Research Notes or something in the biography that says they adopted the Preble child, including the Wikitree IDs. Adoption box should be added to the child's profile so birth parents and adopted parents are identified.

Edited to add  Adopted child template

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You want to change current name to adopted name, so it will show up in searches with both names.

Answer 1

wait... how can Preble-252 and Miller-36596 be the same person if they have different parents?

I do not believe you can merge them together, because a profile can only have one set of parents.

Comments

Dennis, I had the same initial reaction about how the same person could have different parents.  On closer reading, I realized that the person was adopted and it looks like one profile has birth parents and the other has adoptive parents.

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yeah, I understand that... yet the fact remains that WikiTree has no provision for multiple sets of parents. So one set will have to be disconnected in order to allow the merge.

Answer 2

When you go through the merge process you get two screens next to each other, and you can choose which bit gets moved over to the final result.  So you would have

Profile A and Profile B, and you choose which bits end up in Profile C (which is the final profile).  When two profiles get merged, then only one remains.

Comments

Hi Ros,

  Thanks for the quick answer.  I guess my question was not quite specific enough.  Your answer generates 2 questions for me:

1.  Are you saying I should approve the merge, and then I would see the side-by-side?  I ask this because when I do a side-by-side comparison, I don't see a way to pick what I want to survive; probably I am just missing it.

2.  In a number of cases, the information I want to survive is a combination of what is in each profile.  So, how to handle that?  I guess if I can figure out #1, then I can actually edit the one profile to come up with the best combination, and then pick that side as what survives the merge.

Thx

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Is there a different Profile Manager for the second profile?  Then it's a question of who gets there last, gets to do the merging, and will be presented with the side-by-side. When you are just comparing them (before the merge actually takes place) you are just viewing them, not merging them, You aren't missing anything, because there isn't anything there to miss.

When you are picking which bits to go into the final profile, you don't pick one side or the other.  You pick every single fact, like: name, date of birth, place of birth etc. like

Date of birth: 29 November 1603 or 28 December 1603 - so you pick which one is right.
Place of birth: Yeovil, Somerset, England or Exeter, Devon, England.  You pick which one is right.
And so you go, right the way through the profile.  You don't just pick Profile A or Profile B in its entirety.

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You have to initiate the merge first in order to be able to edit the new profile and choose which information you want to keep and what you want to delete.

Then you get the edit page which has 3 columns - column A which is one of the original profiles, Column B which is the second profile and the 3rd column which shows  you what will be recorded on the final profile. These columns are green, yellow, and green.

Keeping in  mind the fact that this is the edit page, and nothing you decide on this page will be permanent (it can be changed later if necessary) - all you have to do is to go down the two columns and click the radio button beside the details from either column A or B that you want to keep. Those details will show up in column C so that you see what will be kept. And since this is the edit page, you can add any details you want from both original profiles at this time.

You can also add, delete or edit the text in the text box below the databoxes as well.

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After the merge is completed, you will still have access to the original biography if something should be included but wasn't.