I have two primary names for a person and I want to delete one - RM9 won’t let me. The information was updated from treeshare changes.
In Ancestry, there are two names, one marked as alternate. When I accepted the new name I clicked add as new name thinking the RM would recognize that I already have a primary name and create an alternate name - it didn’t. I manually added the name as an alternate name.
Anyway I can get rid of the duplicate primary name?
Thanks.
Create a new “fake” Alternate name and mark the box as the primary and save it. That will change the other names to Alternate names. Then mark the primary box in the alternate name you want to be primary and save it. Then delete the fake alternate name. I know it seems strange but it works.
Worked perfectly. Thank you!
I had the same problem and applied your “fix”. Worked great. I still don’t know how these duplicate alternate names come about. (any clues?) Thanks for you helpful post.
Terry W.
I am fairly certain the primary names are added by the Ancestry Tree share interface when the name is added to the RM record. Each name added from Ancestry is created as a “Primary” name in RM. It should be added as an alternate name since a person’s primary name must already exist in RM for a record match.
Yeah, on Ancestry you really have to be careful about checking or not checking those Review Hint boxes, makes a difference.
With RM9 could you please expand on how you did it eg ‘mark the box as the primary’. What box etc.
The box is in the right panel when you have clicked on the Alternate Name fact. If you don’t see the primary name box, you might need to click on the three dots and drag the panel down. By selecting (marking) the box for Primary name and saving the fact, RM will change all other primary names to alternate names. See below.
Good observation. I still add the name from TreeShare but after Ancestry data is added for that person, I then click on “Edit RootsMagic person” to edit the entire person’s record, including the names, to make sure I retain the correct Primary name. It’s also a good time to clean up other items in the person’s record such citations and places from Ancestry records.
Yes - that is when it happened to me. I don’t think that RM should add a 2nd primary name, it should add as an alternate.
Thanks very much. I am still working through it bit by bit. Ian
