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Have you encountered a situation in your family history research where two people are combined incorrectly in your online family tree? Learn how to fix bad merges on the FamilySearch family tree.
Before you separate improperly combined individuals on FamilySearch, first learn how bad merges happen and how to evaluate whether you have a bad merge.
How Do Incorrect Merges Happen on FamilySearch?
There are two common reasons for genealogy researchers to assume that two people have duplicate profiles when they do not include shallow research and confusion over the same name.
The first reason poorly combined individuals happen is that FamilySearch users do very, very shallow research. They may only be looking at a parish record in England that says Richard married Mary Tripp and had a child named William.
Did you know there are quite a few Richard Richards who married Marys and had sons named William?
If you don't look at other records, such as census, enumeration, baptismal, death, and other things from this parish, you'll combine people in the family tree who should remain separate individuals.
Be sure to do reasonably exhaustive searches for your ancestors. Check out this blog post to learn more about your missing records.
The second mistake on this collaborative website is same-name confusion, particularly with commonly named kinsfolk. Your ancestors, such as Dorothy Zumstein or Effingham Townley, may have a fairly unique name. However, multiple people with that name live about the same time period. If you don't look at other identifying pieces of information, you'll tangle up the tree.
What Happens When You Unmerge Ancestors on FamilySearch?
My colleagues at FamilySearch want us to understand what happens when combining and separating profiles before doing the task.
Suppose you have Sally 1 with some facts and sources.
You also have Sally 2 with some facts and documentation.
Someone determined that these two Sally's are the same person and merged them together.
When that merge occurs, Sally 1 receives the facts from Sally 1 and Sally 2. Meanwhile, Sally 2 has not been deleted but is hidden from us.
What Happens When You Want to Separate the Ladies?
You can split them apart later if you decide that they are two people.
If you have recently merged these persons or made no changes to Sally 1 since the merge, you can easily hit and unmerge and separate the two people. Sally 1 will retain her sources, and Sally 2 will keep hers.
If you have made changes or attached more family members to the new Sally 1 combined profile, a few things will happen.
FamilySearch will restore Sally 2 and the family relationships and sources she had before the merge.
FamilySearch will leave the new documentation and changes on Sally 1's profile.
As such, if you need any of those facts and sources to add to Sally 2's profile, you will need to detach them from Sally 1 and link them to Sally 2.
While cleaning up your tree on FamilySearch takes some effort, it's worth it to have an accurate reflection of your family history.
Watch this video to see how to do the unmerging steps on FamilySearch Family Tree.
Evaluate Evidence to Validate a Merge Happened Incorrectly
In the training video above, I demonstrated how I determined Dorothy Ann Zumstein was incorrectly combined with another woman.
The short version centers on shallow research caused by a Canadian border crossing record. A researcher added this document to their relatives based on Dorothy's name and her living in Vermont. However, upon examining the record, the crossing happened in Michigan and had identifying details related to a different family.
Make a habit of evaluating the research behind the merge. The FamilySearch family tree is a working tree. People should peer review each other's work.
If you think something's wrong, determine where the mistake was made. When you correct it, share your decisions with other FamilySearch users.
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Steps for Unmerging Individuals
If you follow these tips, you'll have two separate individuals.
On the Person Page for the relative you want to correct, click in the right column. You'll find a box labeled "Last Changes."
On the Change List, you'll notice a link that says "Unmerge."
Click this link, and a guided series of screens will help you unmerge two individuals.
When you reach the screen that says, "Reason to unmerge," please explain your decision. In fact, FamilySearch has some starter sentences for you. DON'T STOP THERE.
Once you've finished your reason statement, click unmerge.
Here's an example of how I explained my reasoning.
Dorothy Ann Zumstein married Howard Merritt, and her parents are Robert Victor Zumstein and Clementine Comfort. She never married Richard Zeeman, who is connected with this profile. There is evidence that Richard did marry Dorothy Zumstein and have a daughter. Yet, his wife is different from the one who married Howard Merritt.
While this is a good start, I can rework the explanation so that it will hold up in the future.
What To Do After You Fix the Bad Merge on FamilySearch?
You may still have some tree clean-up work, but your ancestors will not be fighting with another person for their identity.
From here, you can:
Fix the family relationships. Add a missing husband, children, or parent.
Search the FamilySearch database from the person profiles for new documentation about your relatives.
Add photos or stories to the memories section.
Link to family history videos uploaded to YouTube
If you find out you have to re-merge them again, the process is simple. Make sure you check out my video about merging people together right up there.