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Last Week at OneGreatFamily . . .
Site Activity Summary
235,231 new individual merges!
68,865 new individual hints!
83,852 new family merges!
22,433 new family hints!
255 average individual merges per group
82 average individual hints per group
52 average family merges per group
9 average family hints per group
If you didn't receive a GenMail telling you about new merges in your
family tree, your tree wasn't affected by this activity. You may want
to add new individuals or information to your family tree to improve
the likelihood of matches and merges taking place.
OneGreatFamily wants to hear from you. Please send us your success stories
and your recommendations for new features.
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Millions of new records every month!
Growth helps you find ALL your ancestors!
Between one and two million names have been submitted to OneGreatFamily each month for several months. Additionally, researchers add more than 1.5 million citations, 250,000 notes, and tens of thousands of new sources each month. Those who use OneGreatFamily also share hundreds of new photos and other multimedia files on a monthly basis. This growth assures you that more information will be available for more of your ancestors over time. The ultimate goal of OneGreatFamily is to help each customer find ALL
of his or her ancestors and learn as much as possible about them.
But the growth in names and data available at OneGreatFamily.com is only part of the story. The hundreds of thousands of people who use OneGreatFamily each month also help achieve this goal through ongoing collaboration. New records let OneGreatFamily identify where ancestral lines intersect and converge. Where common ancestors are found, relationships between researchers can also be identified. These relationships between researchers allow for further collaboration and further growth in the common ancestral tree that is OneGreatFamily.
Please look for new opportunities to make additional contributions to OneGreatFamiliy as you make new genealogical discoveries. You never know how many other people will benefit from your contributions to OneGreatFamily.
OneGreatFamily is grateful to its solid subscriber base for helping to finance the continued growth and development of this remarkable service. We encourage you to visit OneGreatFamily often to further your research and make new connections to the work that others have already done.
 Subscribe to OneGreatFamily today and find discover more of your ancestors
Log into OneGreatFamily.com and add more information to your family tree
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When do I merge individuals and how do I resolve conflicts?
by Jim Ericson -- OneGreatFamily
OneGreatFamily is the first truly collaborative genealogy service that allows everyone in the world to work on a common family tree. Overcoming the challenges of letting people work on the same family tree hasn't been easy. First, we had to ensure that people would always be able to retain "their own" view of their family tree. This means that OneGreatFamily respects the opinions and information provided by each person using OneGreatFamily and preserves each unique perspective. Where conflicts or disputed evidence occurs in OneGreatFamily, each person maintains his or her right to see the information believed to be "right" or "most accurate."
Where other software applications require an immediate choice to be made when merging two individuals together as to which version of information to keep, OneGreatFamily allows users to merge individuals and still preserve all of the information from both trees that have been merged.
The rule for merging two people together in OneGreatFamily is quite simple (but can actually require collaboration or additional research): "Feel comfortable merging together any two individuals in OneGreatFamily who you are confident are actually the same person." The question then becomes, "How confident?"
OneGreatFamily can help with your confidence level. When you click on a hint lightbulb, you will see a tab at the top that shows OneGreatFamily's confidence level that the two records are duplicates. Hints only occur if there is a high probability of duplication. You can look at parents, spouses, children, siblings, and event information to become more confident in your decision to either merge the records or to reject the hint.
Here are two good examples:
Example 1: Two individuals in OneGreatFamily have the same name, parents and birth information. They also have identical spouses by name. On closer examination, however, you see that the version in your tree includes three children and the other version includes only one child. The child included in the other version is also included in your list of children.
This is a case where you can safely merge the two individuals. OneGreatFamily did not automatically merge them because they had different information for the children; however, the chance that they are actually two different people is remote.
Merging these two people will create a conflict, but that's OK. You will continue to see three children from your perspective, and the person who submitted the other version of the family tree will now "inherit" two additional children. Merging the two lines together may provide both of you additional names and information for your known family trees.
That's part of the power of OneGreatFamily. You can collaborate with the person who submitted the other version of the family tree. In this case, there is a good chance the other researcher has only focused on a direct line and has chosen not to research other siblings. Merging the common ancestor can provide one or both of you with exciting new leads and information to verify and "make your own."
Example 2: Two men in OneGreatFamily have the same parents and birth information, but their wives and children don't look the same. Upon closer inspection, the two men have one wife in common, but one of the men has a second wife listed. You look further and recognize most of the children also have the same information. The common wife also has the same birth information and names for parents.
In this case, you can also safely merge the two men and the wife who is listed as the spouse in both cases; however, be careful NOT to merge the second wife who was listed for one of the men with the first. Merging the two duplicate men does not mean you agree that he had two wives or that you necessarily agree with the information included in the other family tree. It simply means there is enough information available to identify both individuals as the same person.
Merging these people will also create conflicts. You will have conflicts
on the children as well as on the spouses. You will want to merge
both instances of the common wife, since you have verified that
the information has been duplicated and merge together any duplicate
children. Take care NOT to merge the two wives together, since they
are not the same person and come from different families.
You can feel comfortable merging people together who are obviously the same, even if all of the detailed information doesn't match perfectly. Use your common sense to only merge together people who are in fact duplicates of each other. Looking at available notes and sources can be another tool to identify when two people are duplicates.
You will always be prompted to resolve conflicts that occur as a result
of merging people together. Don't feel that you need to accept the
information that has been supplied by others as your own. You will
want to refer to notes and sources to inform any decisions you make.
You can also contact the other researcher to learn more about the
information they have supplied. Differences in opinion or evidence
are natural in genealogy. Resolving all conflicts, although it may
sound like a noble goal, is not necessary to succeed with OneGreatFamily.
OneGreatFamily will continue to automatically provide hints and merges; however, your participation and the participation of others is vital in the effort to create a "common family tree" for all of humanity.
Visit OneGreatFamily and research your family tree today!
Subscribe to OneGreatFamily to gain unlimited access to this remarkable service.
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We are pleased with the high praise OneGreatFamily continues to receive from our customers. OneGreatFamily provides success for new and experienced genealogists alike.
Dear One Great Family,
When I first started, I didn't even know my Great Grand Parents' names, I didn't think I would be able to "go" very far.
Thanks to One Great Family, I actually have one of my lines running all the way back to ADAM! . . . I don't know how factual this line is, but it has been a GREAT source of enjoyment to my family (who was
not at all interested before!) and me. And if anyone can beat this story, well . . .
Sandy
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