I have a man and wife who appear twice in a RM 9 tree. Their information is identical aside from the fact that all the children are grouped under one entry of the duplicate couple. How can I correct this problem so the couple is not duplicated, but the family stays intact? Joann
You did not say if the duplicated couple have the same record numbers. If not, you can merge the two people one at a time.
If the same record numbers, I would write down the record numbers of everyone in the family, including the children, and then unlink the children from their parents. You should be left with just the couple, and you can then relink the children to the family.
Make sure to backup your database first so that you can undo the process if things do not work the way you want.
Each of the parents in this family is duplicated exactly, including the numbers and all information. I have tried merging them independent of each other, but got a message that I may not merge two identical records. It’s a good idea to write down the children’s name and then to unlink them priot to dealing with the parents. I will be sure to do that, but stilll need to know how to proceed with the parents. Would it be easier to simply copy their information, then delete them and add one each later?
What happens when you unlink the children? You may find you just have one set of parents.
I unlinked the children from the parents after noting their information. I still have two identical sets of parents. What now? Thanks so much for bearing with me.
If they have the same RIN, they are not duplicated. It is likely the duplication is in the marriage of these two people. Look to see if you have two identical marriage facts. If so, delete one fact. The easiest, however, is to unlink them from each other and then relink the parents, then link the children.
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Is it possible that the father and mother have more than one Primary Name fact? I have found that having more than one primary name can appear that people are duplicated. If so, see this thread [How do I remove duplicate Primary Names?]
Thank you so much, Margaret. I took your advice and unlinked the couple from each other, then relinked them, and then relinked the children, and it works!
Joann
Thank you, but the problem is solved now. I appreciate your taking the time to respond.
It’s hard to know for sure at this point, but it probably was not necessary to unlink the children at all. The parents were linked into two families. If all the children were linked into the same one of these two families, then all that would have been necessary would have been to unlink the parents from the extra family.
Sometimes in these situations some of the children are linked to one of the families and others of the children are linked to the other family. When that happens, unlinking and relinking some of the children cannot be avoided.
The best way to analyze these kinds of situations is usually to display the family with the parents in the primary position of Descendant View (top position of Descendant View) with the number of generations set to 2. That way, you can see which of the children are linked to which of the families. And of course always display RIN numbers when you are working on these kinds of problems so that you can see whether the problem is that people have been duplicated and need to be merged or if people have been linked in correctly to each other and the links need to be corrected.
Thank you, Jerry, for the extra tips. I appreciate the time you have put into responding to my question.