Does marriage information get lost in a merge?

Question

I run compares on my watchlist periodically and usually can only propose merges. Gardiner-524 and Gardiner-525 let me merge them.  I was checking the changes to verify which url had been given as the source for which profile and it appeared to me as if the merge had caused the location of the marriage to go away.  I've added it back, but could someone look at the changes for Gardiner-524 and see if it was actually the merge that deleted it? If so, I guess I'll need to start checking marriage info on completed merges too.  (If not, I'll need to see if Joe can remember deleting it & if so why!)

Thanks, Liz

Answer 1

Hi Liz,

You're right, there's a little bug here.

During a merge, as you know, with most data you are given the choice of which to keep, e.g. the birth date from profile one or profile two. You make the selection and you can see what will be on the final profile.

Marriage data is stored a little differently, because it involves two people (or during a merge, potentially four people).

If the spouses are different, both spouses and both marriage dates and locations are kept.

However, if the spouse is the same, i.e. profile one and profile two are both married to the same person (possibly because the spouse was already merged) I think it will keep the marriage date and location on the merged-in profile and discard the date and location on the merged-away profile. If the merged-in profile had no date and location, the data is simply lost.

This is unacceptable, I know. It's been on the to-do list to find a fix. We should at least explain it clearly. (But as you can see, that's not easy!)

Chris

Comments

Thanks Chris! Your explanation makes sense, and it's nice to know I wasn't just misinterpreting the changes data.  I was a little baffled because the marriage information didn't always go away.  Now I know the why, it'll make it easier to watch for.  Thanks for all you do and for making WikiTree so much fun to play in :D   Happy 2013!