How can I help with merging?

Question

Okay, I did a search on an ancestor of likely historical significance for many people-- Henry Rice b abt 1621; d 1711; Sudbury. There are a number of duplicates, only some of which I've pasted below. I'm familiar with merging dupes over at WeRelate. What has to happen here? How can I help?

Well, heck; the WikiTree ID box below, doesn't allow me to enter multiple profile IDs; here they are:

* [[Rice-1252]]

* [[Rice-1299]]

* [[Rice-2410]]

* [[Rice-1657]]

mmm... no wiki code in g2g?

Answer 1

Great question! We always need more people doing merges! :)

Merging profiles is pretty easy. One thing to keep in mind on WikiTree is that we always want to merge newer profiles into older ones, and it's best to merge all duplicates into one, rather than, say, merging Rice-2410 into Rice-1299, and then Rice-1299 into Rice-1252, which creates multiple redirects.

All that means is that it's best if you can identify the lowest profile ID at the beginning. Then merge all the others into that one.

Just go here: http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Special:MergePerson and put the higher ID in the top field and the lower ID in the bottom field. From there you can merge them, compare them, mark them as unmerged matches (meaning there's more investigation to be done), or mark them as a rejected match.

One more tip: It's easier to start with older ancestors and work your way down, because when you merge two profiles you always have to merge (or at least match) the parents, otherwise someone's tree will get broken.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask!

For more info (in case my answer wasn't long enough, haha): http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Merging and http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Merging_FAQ

~Lianne

Comments

Lianne, GREAT! Thanks. Love your answer. This is very similar to how we do it over at WR. What's different here, though, is the protocol about working with Profile Managers. (WR doesn't have those.) If I follow the steps above, and one (or both) of the pages has a PM, does the PM for each profile get a message to review / approve the merge? How does that work? Thanks. -- Jillaine

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Yes, each Profile Manager gets an email notifying them of the proposed merge, and they both have to approve it.

If you end up working with any of the user groups/projects, things are sped up a bit by the presence of Supervisors, who can merge profiles of people over 200 years old without waiting for PM approval.

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Yes, I saw the usergroup/projects. Was hoping to find a "Winthrops Fleet" or "Massachusetts Bay Colony" or "Great Migration" or something. (Those Mayflower people were an entirely different breed! ;-)

And nope, I'm not quite ready to commit to coordinating one. (before you ask)  ;-)

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As this seems to be different than what you are used to, maybe you might want to review all the details on merges at:  http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Merging

For example:

Pending Merges

If you aren't on the Trusted List for both profiles, you initiate a merge but you can't complete it.

You will be invited to create a Pending Merge. The appropriate Profile Manager(s) will be e-mailed so that they can approve and complete the merge.

When you propose a merge you are giving permission for the other Profile Manager(s) to complete the merge. You are also giving temporary permission for five generations of ancestors of the profile to be merged. See the section on merging parents below.

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Chris, thanks. I've read the merge instructions.  I feel pretty clear about the process.  If there's a specific concern you have abt my efforts, please let me know.  Jillaine 

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That's simply a cut and paste from the merge instructions.  As you said you were used to another site, didn't know if you'd seen it, but now I realize Lianne had also included the same link at the end of her post.