FTM2014 - Merging of Two Files

For a presentation I was to give, a friend of mine gave me a research question to help identify her step grandmothers name. She gave be some basic information and I did my research and was able to answer that question. I ended up with 147 people in the tree  (file) with the associated records.

She then wanted me to merge the two files together, as she had a file of 901 people.

This is what I did to merge the two files.

This is the file that my friend had been working on. 901 People, 3,457 Facts, 81 Sources, 332 Citations and 14 Media Files.

Now that the file is open, I am going to Compact the file and Back it up. Going to the Tools menu I select Compact File.

When offered, I will Back Up the file before compacting.

I back it up to a Custom directory, with for me is an External Drive.

If anything goes wrong, I have a file that I can go back to.

I then click on File, and Close. Next, I open the file I created.

There are 147 people in my file, 1,148 Facts, 62 Sources, 236 Citations and 26 Media files.

Because I worked hard on this file, I ran an Undocumented Report from the Publish Workspace, Source Group, because I wanted to merge into the larger file a completely document file.

It's blank, meaning that all facts have a citation on them.

I Compact and Back Up my file, just like it did the first file.

Now for the fun part. Close my file and reopen that first file and click on File, Merge.

There are options here. I can select people to include in the merge and I can add individuals from the 2nd file into this file without merging them. I want to include EVERYONE and Merge any matching individuals. For me it's easier to clean up and merge during this process, then try to remember who was "added" without merging. Remember that both files are Backed Up.

You will notice the "Advanced" option on the above image, I haven't found it to be helpful, especially on these two files.

Clicking on "Next" Family Tree Maker will begin the Merging process by Matching people between the two files.

The files are not merged yet, this is just matching people. The process will then provide a screen where the User gets to make choices.

You select the first person, in BOLD on the Left, and in the right the information from the HOST file, in this case the file that I was given with 901 people in it, and the IMPORT file, the file I created. I then get to choose the Preferred Fact, Alternate Fact, or I can discard the fact. If I discard the fact but keep the Source information on discarding the Source.

I most of the Facts in this file, I allowed for the Preferred Fact to be the one that was in the HOST file.

Each of the names, down the left column should be reviewed, one by one. NOT clicking on the "Merge" option in the lower right. BUT review each person in Bold on the Left.

There will be a point where there are the new people from the Import file that are not in the Hose File. They will be added and there isn't anything to review. There is a break between the people that need to be reviewed and the new people. When you get there, click on Merge.

Now Family Tree Maker is merging the two files.

The end result was, 988 people, 4,382 Facts, 109 Sources, 418 Citations and 40 Media files.

As with any other Merge that I have done, and have posted here, I go back and do some clean up of the Merge. In this specific case, I had done the clean up before I did the merge. Basically, I was just adding information to that first file.

I have since backed up this new, merged file, and sent it to my friend who did a File, Restore and how has that file to maintain.
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Copyright © 2014 by H R Worthington