Error checking on entry

Question

Has something changed recently?  I've just seen a series of duplicate creation that should have been picked up by the system.  

For example, the major difference between Taylor-42307 and the subject profile is a minor spelling variation.  Why wasn't it picked up?

Answer 1

The system does not recognize spelling variations in the first name field. This is a major way that duplicates are accidentally created.  With first names like Absalom/Absolom it is good to check for both spellings.  Other first names are misspelled, like Issac for Isaac or Joesph for Joseph.  Try enter those misspellings in the first name field with no last name and see how many hits you get.

Comments

It is a good idea to do a search before trying to 'create' a profile, sorting the results by birthdate.  Frequently you will find profiles of people that could be a match. Try different spellings of each name, as well as relatives. Frequently, people realize they created a duplicate when they start to enter the spouse and find that record and the duplicated record.

---

Thanks.  These errors were caused by a new member who wouldn't know that of course.  I'll keep it in mind as it's new to me too.

---

When profiles are recently created, they are not part of the search, I don't think, for some time, also, because I have seen duplicate profiles created fairly close together.  The problem may also happen if a Ged Compare was done and the 'duplicate' profile didn't exist initially, but then it was there when a 2nd profile was created by the Gedcom after all the compares were done, but I am not sure about that scenario.