Why would Match-Bot suggest this merge?

Question

MatchBot proposed a merge between two profiles that had only their first name and birth year in common. Their LNAB's, parents, spouses, children and death date were all different. Their LNAB's are not even close in terms of spelling.

It appears to have been caught by a member of the MatchBot Monitors project a couple hours later, but why was it proposed at all?

One proposed was Tomlinson-482, and the other was Burroughs-557

Answer 1

MatchBot matched the LNAB of Tomlinson on Tomlinson-482 with the Current Last Name of Thomas on Burroughs-557. I guess MatchBot does that sort of thing because people sometimes create profiles in which the married name is entered as LNAB.

I've seen this before -- because when someone goes ahead and blithely completes the merge, it can be a serious challenge to disentangle the people.

Comments

Thanks, Ellen. Yes, if people do merge them, what a significant mess it can create!

Answer 2

These obviously wrong MatchBot-proposed merges & the possibility that neither profile will have anyone watching them who will reject the merge is why the MatchBot Monitors Project exists. The obscure and orphaned profiles it finds that are duplicates would not otherwise be found, so it does good work too. We just need to make sure its activity helps rather than hurts WikiTreee.

Thank you Ellen for the explanation & to Jamie, the MatchBot MP who rejected the merge! 

Cheers, Liz