Still struggling to figure out how to delete second spouse, wrong spouse or duplicate spouse. There has got to be an easier way to do this other than deleting the whole person and starting over!
Every tabbed view has a Spouses: button in the upper left pane (to the right of Details and Parents: buttons). Clicking that Spouses: button shows a listing of Spouses within that same pane… for the person “highlighted” in the right-hand pane. There are three vertical dots (to open a drop-down menu) to the right of each spouse name. Edit , Unlink , and Delete.
Settings->General Settings->Number to display->RIN
needs to be enabled for duplicate spouses because there are two possibilities
- one spouse with same RIN has been linked twice (just unlink)
- two spouses (with same name) but different RINs are separately each linked (consider merge, unlink or delete)
2 Likes
Thanks that helped. Still and forever learning.
RM9, duplicates (same RINs) of spouses and parents were driving me CRAZY. Kbens0n instructions makes it easier. But I more info is needed:)
Recap: In the right pane View (Pedigree, Family, Descendants, People List, Couple List).single click on the person. The will change the individual shown in the top of the center panel. The default tab is Details. Click on the Parents or Spouses tab to find the duplicates.
As kbens0n, says, " There are three vertical dots (to open a drop-down menu) to the right of each spouse name… with Edit, Delete and Unlink options.
The next question is which one to select when the RIM are the same. I got scared by the delete option and selected Unlinked for a duplicate spouse. One spouse had a marriage date and no children and the other no marriage date and 3 children. When I clicked on the Edit for each of the duplicate RINs, it showed the marriage date.
I decided to unlink the RIM without children. I lost the marriage date and the source reference, and I think maybe some census entries.
When I find another duplicate spouse or parents, I will try the delete, even though it tells me it will delete it from the database. I should add that this RM database started as an import of an ancestry.com tree GEDCOM.
I know I am ignorant, just hope I am not being stupid. Been using RM since V2 
NO–I wouldn’t hit Delete IF they have the same RIN # as you will end up deleting the spouse all together…
Next time go in and view the family page ( not the edit screen for each spouse) and make sure that the one with the kids has all the info, if not either copy all the info there OR UNLINK each KID FROM THE PARENTS then UNLINK THE SPOUSE from the marriage that does NOT have the info–
It’s usually a LOT EASIER to LINK the kids back to the parents then to go thru and redo all your facts with Citations/ Sources…
once you have 1 marriage for the couple, on the couple’s page, click Add child and this will pop up
Highlight SELECT EXISTING PERSON and pick the child from the list and it should automatically happen…
one thing you need to know is that EVERY TIME you IMPORT something into an existing database ( whether gedcom or Ancestry Tree Share), you need to go thru and MANUAL MERGE ALL DUPLICATES- that means you will have to go thru line by line in the Index-- Just make sure the Primary Person on the merge is the one with all the info…
Sometimes Merging all duplicates will cause a person to be married to the same person twice— then unlink the kids then unlink the spouse until you have just one marriage-- ( also check the spouse as she MIGHT be married to him more than once) and that should correct your problem…
edit-- forgot to say make a list of everybody you merge–so you can go back and check them for duplicate marriages, birth, death facts etc and alternate names that you might want to delete.
MAKE SURE YOU BACKUP YOUR DATABASE BEFORE YOU START
1 Like