One should always use the backup and restore process when transferring files between two computers using the same version of FOWIN rather than combining an old version of a database with a newer one by using the gedcom process. I misunderstood the original question, and Clare did have the same version of FO on both computers. Had she or someone else had a different version of the program, one would then need to delete or rename the old database and import the gedcom with the additions into a blank database. Obviously before deleting or renaming anything, make BACKUPS. If I understand correctly, smart merge needs to have a number of criteria met. If the duplicates are not clearly defined with lots of matching facts, smart merge will not merge them. Otherwise, people with the same names but different generations/families could be merged. Then we would really have problems! Margaret Scheffler ----- Original Message ----- From: <Kbens0n@aol.com> > What confuses me about this..is that my assumption has always been that exporting a gedcom *from* FO and importing it back *to* another copy of FO would leave all original people's records un-changed and thusly Smart Merge would have no problems merging all *but* the new additions. Perhaps the import into an older version of FO strips some info from the original records? Or the export back out of the older version?? > -=Kevin=-