Merging and unmerged match?

Question

Howdy doody!  I'm trying to clean up a mess.  Two ladies need merging:  [[Byrd-59|Mary Byrd]] and [[Byrd-6|Mary Byrd]].  Yes, there are a couple of interesting differences, but they're trying to represent the same person.  However, they're currently listed as an "Unmerged Match."  When I went to Merge them anyway, I got a little nervous when I saw that they were being "disconnected."  Yikes!

Where do I go from here?

Comments

Sounds scary.  But it only removes the unmerged match.  Do that, then click "initiate a new merge".

The fathers might want merging first though.

---

Thank you RJ.  Fathers first.  I'll check that out.  Never occurred to me.  Thanks for the vote of confidence! :)

---

RJ - uh oh.  It goes deeper:  all the way back to the grandfathers, at least.  As a general rule, is it best to start with those further up the tree and work backward?

---

Depends.  If you complete a merge when the fathers are two different profiles, you have to disconnect one of them during the merge process.

This is fine if

- you're about to merge the fathers, or

- one of the fathers is definitely wrong and you intend to lose him

But it's messier if the fathers are still an unsolved problem.

Answer 1

Start with oldest and work forward in time