Have you checked your watchlist for duplicate profiles???

Question

WikiTree has several sort tools to help you find duplicate profiles within your watchlist.  

In previous years, WikiTree was not as stringent on uploaded gedcoms.  Many members apparently used the same roots and copied public trees from various websites; this created many duplicate profiles.  Many of these duplicate profiles have been identified through the past couple of years and merged into a single profile; yet, many duplicates remain.  As genealogy advances, more information becomes available on profiles.  

If you uploaded a gedcom in 2011, it is likely that you still have duplicates that you manage and these duplicates need to be merged.  When looking for potential duplicates: Are one or both parents the same?  Is the DOB or DOD and area the same or nearly the same?  Are there any primary sources (note: public trees, pedigree files and ancestral files are not primary sources).  A good profile's worth is judged on how well it has been sourced.  Sadly, the same profile manager names appear when searching for duplicate profiles and this could easily be minimized if each profile manager took responsibility in observing the WikiTree mission of "One Profile Per Individual."

Everyone makes mistakes; finding and correcting these errors greatly enhances WikiTree and also provides a feeling of pride as you have resolved a problem you created for someone else!

Comments

Thanks, David.

This is the direct link to the FindMatches tool that Darlene mentions in her answer below: http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Special:FindMatches

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Thanks for the reminder David. I think I'm like most people that good intentions get lost sometimes in the chase for that one last ancestor before bedtime, especially on a Sunday with work looming in the morning.

I'm not sure if it is feasable, could a reward be given either for cleaning up duplicates or nat having any on your watchlist? The badges system works really well for me as encouragement and I do my best to get at least 100 (good, proven, accurate) updates done each month. Could this be used either as a one-off tidy up campaign or a more regular feature to keep the ethos of "one profile per individual" at the forefront of what we do?

Just a thought,

Alison

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That's an interesting idea about the badge, Alison. We'll have to think more about that.

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Thanks Chris

Answer 1

David, this is an awesome point to bring up!  I would add to it that people can look for duplicates by going to their watch list (upper right hand corner of the screen, hover over 'My Wikitree' and then click on 'Watchlist'.  When you get to the Watchlist page, there's a link towards the top called 'Find Matches'.  That will take you to a page where you can click on 'Find possible matches in your watchlist' or use the more advanced options.

When you find duplicates and proceed to merge profiles, please remember to go into the newly merged profile and clean up the biography section.

Comments

Thanks, David! It is especially important if you adopt profiles of the same last name. I plan to recheck my watchlist this weekend! Thanks for prompting me!

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Hi Paula,

I went thru my watch list and found three or four duplicates!  I don't know how I created the duplicates, but I keep an eye on my watch list for duplicates.

Taylor

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I did the same and found the same thing!  There were profiles that didn't show up as matches at first because of not enough info, such as no dates. I will remember now as I improve profiles to check for duplicates again.

Answer 2

Thank you for the reminder.  I did find some merges that needed to happen, including two that are already completed.

Answer 3

It makes you realize how helpful it would be if everyone would do an age estimate of their profiles without birthyears!

Comments

IMHO, nothing says I'm a lazy Profile Manager like a multitude of Profiles without an explained {{DateGuess}}, "First Hand Knowledge" as a source on aged profiles and profiles with No Relationships!