This article explains how to find and merge duplicate people in your family tree while working in Family Tree Maker 1 through 3, 2017 and 2019 for Mac.
Answer ID 5298
This article discusses the following topics:
Finding Duplicate Individuals
After adding a large amount of new information or merging a family member’s tree with yours, it’s a good idea to check your tree for duplicate individuals.
- Click the Edit menu and select Find Duplicate People.
- A window will appear asking if you want to backup your file. Before performing any major changes to your file, we always recommend creating a backup. Click the Backup button to make a backup, or click Cancel to continue without backing up.
- The file will be examined, and the Find Duplicate List will open. In the Person 1 and Person 2 columns, you’ll see the individuals who might be duplicates. (You can click a column header if you want to sort the names alphabetically.) In the third column you’ll see a match score—the higher the number the more likely the individuals are a match; a 1,000 means the individuals are almost exact matches.
- If you want to merge a pair of individuals (or just compare the two), select a row and click Compare/Merge. The Individual Merge dialog opens. For instructions on how to complete the merge, continue with step 5 in the next task, “Merging Individuals.”
Merging Individuals
If you discover that two individuals in your tree are actually the same person, you can merge these two individuals together and retain all facts and dates associated with each person.
From the Family tab of the People workspace:
- Select the name of one of the duplicate individuals in the Index on the left.
- Click the People menu and select Merge Two Specific Individuals.
- A window will appear asking if you want to backup your file. Before performing any major changes to your file, we always recommend creating a backup. Click the Backup button to make a backup, or click Cancel to continue without backing up.
- The Index of Individuals opens. Use this list to find and select the name of the duplicate individual and click OK.
- The Individual Merge dialog opens. In the Person 1 and Person 2 columns, select how you want each fact to be merged.
To keep a fact and mark it as preferred, select the button next to the fact. (The corresponding fact for the other individual will be merged as an alternate fact unless you discard it.) To remove a fact, click the Alternate arrow and choose Discard from the drop-down list. If you discard a fact, you can include its sources and media items by clicking the Keep sources checkbox. - Click OK to complete the merge.