I merged Newman-1256 with another now she's Unknown-431332 and I want to change it back.

Question

I thought I was merging the long name into the Newman-1256 I already had for ggg grandma. Her husband is Newman-1255, which I set both up at the same time back when.

When I go to his profile and change the URL ending from Newman-1255 to Newman-1256, it forwards me to the long name I merged it with, Unknown-431332. I guess I was pretty tired the other night.

It always says don't worry, if you make a mistake, you can fix it. So how do I change it back so it doesn't forward to -431332 and is once again Newman-1256? Do we need a wikitree tech to do that for us?

O boy, I did something again. I had tried to delete the 431332 profile for her, and it showed he had two spouses, also a 431331. I thought I deleted both of those and was trying to see if it would give her back the original 1256 number and instead it assigned her as Unknown-431589. It still does the same thing, if I sub Newman-1256 for grandpa's, which is Newman 1255 it takes me right to her new one 431589. Lol. O boy. So I'd like to get rid of the 431589 and put it back on 1256.

I guess I should have merged the new one into the old one but I thought merge would just merge it that way automatically. Maybe I was in the one profile and tried to merge it into the other one, I don't know.

THANKS!

Answer 1

What was her last name at birth? Do you know it? You can edit Unknown to be whatever her birth surname was.

It won't go back to being Newman-1256, though. If she married a Newman, she was likely NOT born a Newman, so what is wrong with leaving it as unknown?

Comments

Hi Natalie, thanks. I can leave it as unknown since she is. I was originally using Newman because that's the only name I had for her, her married name, which is one of her names that somebody somewhere might recognize as great great granny of theirs. Unknown unknown is hard to match to anything.

If Newman-1256 would only last as her code name until we found out her maiden name, I do not know. I liked it because grandpa was 1255 and grandma was 1256. I guess it's pointless because, and I'm guessing, but once I find out her maiden name, that's going to be her codename, so if she's a Smith, then it will change to Smith-1,111,111 or something. Does anybody know?

And thanks again Natalie, I appreciate your efforts and time to inform me. This is really a lot of fun and for me, it's all about honoring my mom and dad, grandmas and grandpas, and all those whom they honored and loved, their grandpas/mas ad infinitum.

Best to you,

Greg

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Then Newman would be her Current Last Name if it was her last married name.  We leave Unknown as Last name at Birth until we can document her maiden name.

Answer 2

I looked back/ forth/ upside down/ and sideways. It really looks like you changed her last name at birth from Newman to Unknown with a comment that Newman was her married name.

This automatically creates the unknown profile with the next available number and merges them. It also means if you try to go to the old profile you get forwarded to the new one. This is completely normal and why people try very hard to get the LNAB correct if they can. Once you find this out and update LNAB to the correct one it will then be "whateveritis-next available number for name whateveritis".

If this sounds weird, this is what happens. Every time a unique name is used it assigns a number 1 higher than the last for THAT NAME. If profiles are merged (or LNAB changed) that number is no longer used. But since it is still linked to the new profile, they can't just re-use it for a completely different one. So, there were 431,332 profiles that were created with last name "Unknown" even if there are currently only about 12,000 actually being used.

Answer 3

Understood. I kind of figured it was using the latest available number for that name. Seems like millions, though. Could be. Maybe that many unknown unknowns. What I'm really wanting to do is undo the merge and return to just her being Newman-1256. I am close to finding out her name; we are looking throughout various historical record sites in person and online. I have a genealogist assisting in the area. So you guys are thinking that there's no way to reverse the merge? Or couldn't it be something one of the Wikitree computer guys can go in and do? You know, in Tech Support. Because it wouldn't be allocated to anybody else, since it's tied to her.

But once we determine her maiden name, which I doubt is Newman, then was intending to just add it into her profile. Which was Newman-1256. Maybe it should never have been Newman-1256 in the first place. Maybe it should have been Smithetc-####.

Thanks for any further comments. they are much appreciated. Thank you for being here for others as well. I was glad to see the plus signs because it let me know someone was thinking about it to get me an answer.

Greg

Comments

You can't undo merges, it's just not possible and going back to Newman is incorrect as it isn't her birth name. Leave it as Unknown, which is correct at this time, then change it when you have proof of her real LNAB. Every change of name you make causes a redirect, which uses resources and slows down the servers. Honestly, you are making work for yourself that you don't need to. Your energy is better spent on researching the last name :)

Answer 4

It looks as though you have created two people that you don’t have names for as parents of James Newman. Unless you need to create parent placeholders to connect two siblings it is better to stop with the child when you know nothing about the parents, otherwise you just create more work for yourself in fixing names later. Before you make any more changes to either Unknown Newman or Mrs. Newman you should research their actual names. In the future when you do not know a mother’s maiden name then you should put her married name into Current Last Name and leave Last Name At Birth as Unknown.