In the very beginning of my time here at WikiTree, i was afraid to clean-up after a merge, if there were other managers, in case they might be displeased with how i had cleaned-up. As i became more courageous, i began to ask permission to clean-up. But i eventually i realised that many profile managers do not care about what is in the profiles, and how their managed profiles look (many are an embarassment, with nothing else than strings of incoherent codes). So i began to clean-up after every merge done by me, or done by someone else involving a profile created by me. I save whatever from the merge looks like pertinent information, integrating it into the biograpy and sources, even if it contrast to mine own. I write, for example, ''born on 31 April 1870, <source> or 1 May 1871 <source>. I get rid of all file codes, long Ancestry.com explanations, and other impertinent and incomprehensible details. I add the name of the creator of the merged profile - if i can find it - under ''Acknowledgements'' or ''Profile History''.
If a profile that i adopt is of an ancestor of mine, i look for sources - if i can find any; many profiles have no primary or secondary sources, but merely show ''Ancestry Family Trees'', if that. Sometimes i find no sources, so i just clean-up the adopted profile and leave ''Ancestry'' as its only source, or no source, if the original profile had no sources.
All profiles can at least look decent and readable: there is no excuse not to do at least that kind of minimum post-merge or post-adoption clean-up. Later, if i have time and remember, i can always go back to a profile and try to search for better sources.
Merging can sometimes result in multiple parents or siblings or children or wives of the same name; sometimes it is possible to merge those too, sometimes it is impossible to do anything about the resulting situation, and then i just leave the multiple or conflicting family members alone, for the managers of those profiles to deal with.
