I am new to Rootsmagic. I have two datebases of a certain family. One from Family Search, really big in total size, which contains 1270 members of the family and even many more of extended family. No source references though because it is my understanding that when you download from Family Search no source data is downloaded. The other database is from a private database containing 1900 records from the same family and less extended family records.The database in size is much smaller, but it contains all the source references. Because I’m just a beginner, will merging these two databases be the best to do or the worse to do. AND when I merge will I loose the source references during the merge from the smaller database? I thought of comparing the databases, and I tried, but cancelled because it is an enormous exercise. Thanks in anticipation for your thoughtful and more experiences comments.
The merge of people will include the sources, so you will not lose them.
You will likely have a lot of cleanup to do because differences in names and presentation in the two databases may leave many duplicates unmerged. Also good quality research means one should check out one by one the sources for themselves and you always need to add one generation at a time as you go back in time. If you think the smaller database is carefully researched and want to make it yours, and you are starting with it rather than your own work, I would start with it as your primary database, and gradually bring in what you think is relevant from FamilySearch. If you already have started your own database, I would merge the smaller one to yours, then start looking for more information from FamilySearch. Large shared databases such as the family trees in FamilySearch always contain lots of errors, so proceed carefully; backup and retain your original work so you can start over if you need to. It will be a time consuming process.
That is correct, you need to use the FamilySearch icon in RM.
Go to the person and look at the events they have and add them to your database. Then look at the Sources tab and add them to the events.
Before you do a Merge, I would fix Places so they are consistent.