New FamilySearch Tree Sagas - Week 11

I found something interesting written up on the LDSFHCConsultants Mailing list that I wanted to share on combining.

Here are some tips on combining duplicate records. Remember one electronic folder for one person. To keep track of who has been combined print out a pedigree chart and as you combine mark the name off on the chart.

"Step one: start with the Individual Details screen and on the far left click on Possible Duplicates. Combine all possible duplicates for all 6 individuals in the two-generation pedigree that has been selected for work.

Step two: Combine duplicate parents. Most of the time this step will not be necessary. When the first step is complete, if an asterisk shows up indicating multiple parents, then it is necessary to resolve duplicate fathers and then duplicate mothers. Do so for all individuals in the two-generation pedigree. If the parent's names are different leave combining alone until the editing procedure.

Step three: Combine duplicate spouses. Go to the individual details screen and click on spouses and children. Look on the far left at the parent screen and see if there are duplicate spouses. If they exist, click on the down arrow for a menu and choose the pull down for combine duplicate spouses. These first three steps have combined all the parent information. It is essential that all parents be combined before trying to combine duplicate children. Some children are linked only to one parent. If at anytime another parent is found, then it usually adds another child that has to be combined later. Look for duplicate spouses for all couples on the two-generation pedigree.

Step four: Combine children. Go to the individual details screen and click on spouses and children. When looking on the left side of the screen notice the children. If there are duplicates, click on the arrow beside the child with the most correct information and choose the pull down menu combine with other siblings. Use your PAF file for comparison and be careful with this step. Look at the children for all couples on the two-generation pedigree.

Our first goal is to get everyone in a folder that is the same person. The computer has combined all of the 100% matches. It is up to us to combine the rest. We can leave the editing alone until we have finished combining. Every time a person is combined, more material that needs editing will show up. Compare dates, places, spouses, children, and other information that will indicate whether this is a duplicate person. If you can't determine a match, then do not combine the records. A sure sign that a mistake has been made is when the screen refreshes and a whole bunch of people shows up that have different surnames and definitely do not belong in the family group. At this point in time records will have to be uncombined."

A find of mine developed this. It really works and cuts down on confusion when combining.

Elder Legge

I don't know who Elder Legge's friend is, but he did an excellent job writing this up. Thanks so much for putting this down in an easy to understand format. It's pretty much what I have been doing while going through my families.

I've also had a several of comments I wanted to share from my article last week. The first is regarding my grandfather's sealing to his parent's being "In Progress".

When dates are included in ordinance fields in submissions to Ancestral File or PRF they do not show us as In Progress, they only show up as Completed. For In Progress to show up someone either has had a card printed or the name has been reserved in newFamilySearch by someone. So it is most likely that someone has previously printed a card because you don't have many relatives working in nFS.

GarysTurn

I can't believe that I never called the Toronto temple this past week to discover if there was a submission from my sister and a missing card out there of the sealing. I have to put that on my to-do list a little higher.

There was another comments suggesting how to print out lost submission cards.

Have you checked out the Temple Ordinances section of nFS yet? There is an option to reprint ordinance cards for work that you have submitted but lost the cards. You may want to check there just to make sure there aren't any available. It sounds like you are very organized, so maybe not, but worth looking. I would think (since you've claimed his legacy) you'd be able to see and reprint any of your father's "leftovers" as well, but not sure on that one.
I lost cards in a housefire the same week I had mt first child, so that reprint option was very exciting for me.

Christie

So sorry to hear about the untimely house fire. I guess it never is timely to have one is there. Now awful. Well, I was willing to give your suggestion a try but alas no luck. I'm sure it's because the sealing was not submitted using NFS. It will be a nice resource in the future for me. Right now my temple district isn't even on NFS so I'm not using that feature. I do plan on making some reservations when I come across ordinances needing to be done. Maybe I will get through my stockpile of temple cards before NFS comes to my temple district. If I use NFS now to print Family Ordinance Requests (FOR) I would have to travel to the FHL in Salt Lake to have the cards made up. So, I'm willing to wait for now.

The next comment I received had to do with keeping track somehow of my progress on NFS.

Hi Renee,

Regarding keeping track of those you work on in NFS - couldn't you create a tag in Legacy (don't know if Roots Magic can do that) and then check the box once you have completed work on that individual? Of course, you'd have to remember to not clear all tags... I enjoy your posts on both NFS and Indexing.

Becky

That's a good suggestion and I might go that avenue if to much time passes having to use NFS without the commercial programs syncing with it. For now I really want a total of what I have worked on during my current session.

What I have decided for now to simple do is keep track of the names I worked on and the submitters for each individual by manually recording it in my Google Notebook. I love Google Notebook and have been using it a lot to organize all sorts of things. I have an add-on in Mozilla that I downloaded that lets me copy things from the web easily into my notebook. I created a new notebook and called it "NFS Stats". I recorded last weeks results in it already and will continue to do so. I'm sure I will change my system as it grows but for now I do have some type of system.

I am still working of my 4 generations pedigree chart. When I finish my great-grandparents Leroy and Alice Harris family tonight I will have to decide how I want to continue my efforts. Work down into their descendants more or continue onto my direct line only. I think I need a another week to make that decision.

Oh, I needed to report back on the family members I found as contributors last week. I have heard back from them and they are the Tambasco family I knew as members when I was young. Just didn't know how we were related. We are still in the getting to know each other again stage. This is great though a whole new branch on the family tree. Making contract with living relatives really makes working in NFS fun. You never know when you will stubble upon one.

This week I was able to work on the rest of my great-aunts and uncles on my Harris side. I worked on 9 people. There were some spouses included there. No new relatives or contributors I should say. I did find some temple dates I didn't have. I also found some information I didn't have on some individuals that my father contributed. I can't even imagine working on NFS without having access to my personal genealogy database. I refer to it all the time and make updates too. Well I better get to bed, have to work in the morning.

See ya tomorrow, for tomorrow is always another genealogy day!