I merged two profiles. I need to reverse the merge. Is this possible?

Question

Re: Rickard-453 and Richard-2197

I merged two profiles. One had an incorrect last name when it was created.

The correct last name is Rickard and the incorrect last name is Richard.

When I merged the two prifiles, I thought it would merge toward the correct last name as stated in both profiles, but it didn't. How can I undo the merge? What should I have done to make them merge correctly?

I feel extremely frustrated.

Answer 1

Correct the spelling. You can also note the alternate spelling

Comments

This is probably not a good way to go, because, if Richard is the correct spelling of the Last Name At Birth, changing the Rickard profile LNAB to Richard would create a new Richard profile.  As there is already a lower number Priscilla Richard profile already in existence, the new profile would then have to be merged.  This would create an unnecessary number of system re-directs, which is not a good thing to do.

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Rickard is the correct spelling of this LNAB.

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Rickard is the correct spelling of the last name at birth, not Richard.

Answer 2

Unfortunately Leila, a bad merge is one of the things that can't be undone.

I noticed that Priscilla's current Last Name At Birth (LNAB) is Rickard, which is the same as the LNAB for her father and for two of her sisters. I am assuming that you have evidence that her LNAB should be Richard, not Rickard.  If this is the case, you can merge her with her sister Prscilla, who is a duplicate, but with the LNAB of Richard.

Comments

Yes, I can prove that Rickard is correct. The Richard misspelling resulted from an incorrect indexing. If you look at the original document, it's a k not an h. Rickard is her father's last name, etc.

Answer 3

Good news, Leila! In fact, you "rejected" the merge. I have reproposed it. The correct last name is Rickard.

Since I am the adoptive manager of the profile with the incorrect name, the fact that I reproposed the merge means that the merge has one approval now. If a Leader would do us the favor of PPP-ing the Rickard-453 profile, it would make it easier for you to do the merge without the risk of having it go in the wrong direction.

Comments

I PPPd Rickard-453 to protect the name, but, unless it fits into a Project, we'll need to un-PPP it after the merge. Vic

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Thanks, Vic. Priscilla is a Mayflower and PGM descendant, but she doesn't fit into any known project. Thus, yes, the profile should have the PPP removed once the merge is complete.

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I have no idea what PPP-ing means.

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Leila, Project Protecting a Profile is when a Leader protects a profile so that the Last Name at Birth (LNAB) cannot be changed.  It makes it impossible for a merge to cause the correct LNAB to be merged away.  It is only supposed to be done for profiles covered by a project, but in this case, I did it because of the confusion in the LNAB and the determination that Rickard was the correct name.

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The merge is complete, and it went in the right direction, so PPP can be removed!

Much thanks to Vic for helping out with the temporary PPP, and congratulations to Leila for being brave and completing the merge.

Answer 4

Luckily, after I made the bad merge, I discovered that I had left a window open with the unmerged profile intact. Using that window, I rejected the merge and it worked. I got very lucky. I am still disturbed that it is not possible to reverse a bad merge easily. I find this a great flaw in the site.

Comments

In fact, you didn't actually make the bad merge. If you had, it would have been impossible to go back. :-)

My guess is that you approved the merge, then saw the merge screen and saw that it was set up to go in the wrong direction, so you backed out before completing the merge. The merge screen actually gives you options. You are not required to accept the choices that the WikiTree software has suggested for you. However, sometimes it's hard to see that.

I've proposed the merge again. Since the destination profile is project-protected, it will not be possible to do the merge in the wrong direction. Please try the merge again.