I’m using RM10 on a Mac and I’ve run into into a strange problem. I’m copying groups of people from DB2 to DB1. To avoid creating a merging nightmare, I’m copying family groups over, the number of individuals ranging from 5 to 1,000 or so depending on circumstances. But the copying process, from DB2 to DB1, is creating relationships that don’t exist in either database, generally in the form of an extra set of parents attached to an individual. Sometimes these “parents” are entirely unrelated to each other, sometimes they are siblings. What is causing this, and is there any way I can prevent it? Running the database tools doesn’t identify any problems and fortunately I’m making frequent backups.
How are you doing the copy? I’m guessing you are using drag and drop, but you also might be using GEDCOM.
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Like @thejerrybryan I was was wondering how you were bring people over – sounds like the method you are using may be creating duplicate people and/or missing relationships. also more work in the long run from the sounds of things.
One piece of advice for avoiding creating a merging nightmare is copying from sourceDB to newDB (first). For each drag, then commence normalizing all Place Names and other “conventions” to match the eventual destinationDB.
@CherylC anytime you drop n drag a person from one database to another, you have to MAKE SURE you check the box at the bottom that says is this person the child/ spouse of …
But IF you already have Dad and a child in the other database ( or the parents with other siblings), you have to MAKE SURE you are on the RIGHT page in the receiving database meaning if you have a child and 1 parent-- I would be on the page with the child and parent-- if instead I am on the page where the hubby is the child of his parents and add the spouse there, it will add a 2nd marriage…
As for moving large groups of people, NOT sure you can totally eliminate extra relationships IF some of these people EXIST already in the receiving database-- the problem being that RM for some reason can NOT always determine that the EXISTING and new person are the same or that the child Joe is a full sibling to children Mark and Sue already in database.
You can move a group of people-- then go to the Couple List View and check for duplicate marriages and you can use edit from there to check the info BUT have to go to their main page to correct the fact …
As for kids , it’s harder to identify them-- you will catch some by doing search and using the criteria more than 1 set of parents-- think using Compare database is the best answer
I’ll try to answer all questions at once. Yes, I’m using drag and drop. I’m always careful to check the box at the bottom of the screen re Silly Wench. In any case, this never happens with respect to Silly Wench herself, but with one or more of her descendants. I’m always using the “descendants and their spouses” option. The drag and drop isn’t creating duplicate people (except in DB1 to some extent), just relationships that didn’t exist in DB2. The individuals added as duplicate parents from DB2 always seem to be a pair of sequentially numbered individuals. In the picture I’ve uploaded, they are 4th cousins once removed but with RINs 13494 and 13495 in DB2. I’ve noticed, since I’ve restored from a backup a few times, that the same individuals from DB2 seem to be added to the same individuals in DB1 as an extra set of parents. So whatever is going on, at least it’s consistent.
As far as RIN#, I am sure you already realize that those will change during a drop n drag-- they will also change if you drop and drag a whole database to a new file…
Please elaborate on this–are you saying that every time you have an issue, they are added to the EXACT same 2 people ( who would be the extra parents)? or what?
The last three times I’ve done a drag and drop with the same group of people (after restoring from a backup), the identical individuals from DB2 are added as extra parents to the same individual in DB1. To the best of my recollection, the DB2 individuals have sequential RINs in DB2 and are usually related to each other but are usually not related to the DB1 individual they end up attached to. None of these unusual relationships exist in DB2; they are being created solely by the copying process.
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The interesting thing here is that the drag and drop in RM10 is new. It now copies directly from database to database. Previously,drag and drop did a GEDCOM export/import. I can’t picture what is going on, but I would be looking at the new drag and drop.
Good point- make it an iterative process where the first several drags are disasters but they get better each time with work.
(I hope I’m interpreting your comment correctly.)
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Yes, less data to work with (in newDB) for potential normalization (versus full dataset of destinationDB) means less to search&compare (thrash) against and hopefully less chance for error (or oversight) …all the while, separate manual-typed work in destinationDB can continue unfettered until any final drag’N’drop normalized merge can arrive to destinationDB.
If you can recreate this with the same people open a support ticket with the steps and databases for testing.
https://support.rootsmagic.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
I did that, and received a reply telling me how to unlink the extra parents. I hope that’s just an interim response.