How does profile numbering work?

Question

I am curious about how the profile numbering works. Briefly:

Abe Lincoln         created 2-2016     Lincoln-18

Abe Lincoln         created 2-2014     Lincoln-52

Just curious .

 

Thanks

Comments

The ID numbering is just sequential by surname, as new profiles are entered.  I'm not sure exactly what you're asking about.  The two sample IDs you mention were created in 2009 and 2010, and neither is named Abe.

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I had a similar issue. I found 3 St.Clairs with the #1. A Cory, a Lillian and an unknown St.Clair plus 2 St.Clairs, Nancy & Paul with the #100 plus dozens of other St.Clairs with duplicate numbers. I'm trying to understand the number system or does it not have any signifigance?

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Hi William.  It does have significance -- the number is a unique identifier for each profile and determines how you designate it or link to it.  But I think what you're seeing is multiple different variations of the same surname.  I.e., the software thinks St.Clair, St. Clair, St Clair, Saint Clair are different surnames.  It matters if there's a period after St. or a space between St and Clair, and if Saint is spelled out or abbreviated.  (And I'm not sure if capitalizing would be interpreted as a different name.)  But anyway, you have a surname with a half dozen or so possible variations that all look different to the computer.

Answer 1

I am curious about your question.

Lincoln-18   Mordecai Lincoln (1657 - 1727)

Lincoln-52   Oliver Henry Lincoln (1846 - 1906)

Answer 2

Hi Jim, where did you see that information?

As Dennis and Norm already pointed out neither of the profile numbers you gave is for an Abe Lincoln - and the creation dates I see are those given by Dennis. If this information someone has manually put on another page (such as a free-space or category page) it might need to be corrected/updated/removed and if this is showing on some sort of auto-generated list (such as a watchlist) that would also be something we would like to know since it is does not seem to reflect the profiles in question.

Comments

They were completely made up in my head as an example. It pertained to nothing in reality...other than that sort of thing has happened to me.

Thanks for your attempts at answering and sorry for using examples. Neverminf anyway, as I think I know why the site does it .

 

Best