Ethel, I think you have stumped us. Before your do anything make several copies of your best backup file. Don't restore yet just make copies. One other thing. Open each file and click on file and then properties. See how many individuals and marriages are in each file. I'm not like Bill. I'm not afraid of typing in data. Lynn -----Original Message----- From: Bill Buchanan <genealogistbuchanan@gmail.com> To: paf-5-users@rootsweb.com Sent: Mon, Feb 7, 2011 9:40 pm Subject: Re: [PAF-5] mergeing Ethel, If you restore using a new file name it can't do any harm. But if you estore using the same file name, Windows will replace your current file ith the newly-restored one, if it is located in the same folder. Some researchers, after having trouble with imports and merges, decide to void them entirely and type in the new people, working from a printed copy. f a large number of people are involved, I don't have that degree of atience. ersonally I never import directly into my main file until I have used a emporary file to check out the gedcom, decide which specific lines to xport from the temporary file, and planned how to connect them with my ines. (names and birth dates and relationships of the connecting people). essing-up my entire family tree is the thing I dread most of all. Careless erging has that danger. At the best of times, after merging 20 people or o, I start losing my concentration. So I do merging, but I keep it to an bsolute minimum. I have seen spectacular successes with automatic merges, nd spectacular disasters. A set of printed pedigree charts can show you which lines you are interested n. Mark them on the pedigree charts. Then just export only these lines from he temporary file, and import them into you main file. Your marked pedigree harts can be your roadmap when you are linking or merging the new people nto your family tree. Bill Buchanan n Mon, Feb 7, 2011 at 7:49 PM, <Genbug6607@aol.com> wrote: > Here is a step by step account of what I did and this is in response to Bill's letter too. First I made a new folder for the gedcom I had received, I called it my Harper family. Next I imported that gedcom into the new folder, called My Harper family. Then I arranged them side by side in windows to look at both of them, but I found it hard to see the connections that way, so I exited both windows and then imported the Harper gedcom into my Ethel data file. then I set about checking for duplicates and made a list of them and started merging duplicates.. At that point the duplicates list gave both his (Harper) RINs and my Ethel RINS so it looked alright except that my Ethel RIN numbers had all been changed from those i originally had. (Is that normal?) That's when I checked back to see how different the numbers were I found many of my people missing, for instance i had my father's line back to the immigrant ancestor but now it went back just 3 generations; I then searched randomly for other names i knew should be there & they weren't. Since then, i've looked at the list of files that i can find when I click on the"file" menu and there was one there for Ethel but not the one i had merged into.(It was an earlier one) i could open that Ethel folder and everything in it was OK except it does not include my most recent work. I have that on the backup I made just before I started on this. but now i'm afraid to restore it for fear I"ll do more damage. any thoughts now? Puzzled, Ethel In a message dated 2/6/2011 9:21:21 P.M. Central Standard Time, lemow@email.com writes: Ethel, It sounds to me like you imported the GEDCOM file into a new file and then saved it with the name of your old file. But to be sure please give us a step by step sequence of how you think you did it including any warnings you may have gotten. When you say you merged it into your old file you leave us wondering just what you did to merge it. You can not merge two data files. You have to import one into the other. Lynn -----Original Message----- From: Genbug6607@aol.com To: paf-5-users@rootsweb.com Sent: Sun, Feb 6, 2011 6:44 pm Subject: Re: [PAF-5] mergeing First into a new file and then merged it into my existing file. Ethel n a message dated 2/5/2011 9:05:14 P.M. Central Standard Time, emow@email.com writes: thel, id you import the GEDCOM into your existing file or a new file? ynn ----Original Message----- rom: Genbug6607@aol.com o: paf-5-users@rootsweb.com ent: Sat, Feb 5, 2011 6:22 pm ubject: Re: [PAF-5] mergeing his is about merging but not the problem being discussed here. i just rged a gedcom into my database and it appears that I have lost all of my ople who were not related to those I merged. Of course , I made a ackup fore I began and will use it, but i can't understand why this would ppen. I don't recall it happening before. Where did i go wrong? thel in Nebraska a message dated 2/5/2011 6:59:44 A.M. Central Standard Time, a1935@yahoo.ca writes: ook under Options. There are check boxes that list what you might want o erge. ultimedia is in the list. If you do not check some of them, then you uld loose that topic. hould have included that step before. :-( ea -- On Fri, 2/4/11, Earl Park <parkj052@hawaii.rr.com> wrote: From: Earl Park <parkj052@hawaii.rr.com> ubject: Re: [PAF-5] mergeing o: paf-5-users@rootsweb.com eceived: Friday, February 4, 2011, 6:08 PM eant to ask, if I have a image and ther things like notes will it merge hem also? Thanks for the great tip. arl ---- Original Message ----- rom: "Bea" <bea1935@yahoo.ca> o: <paf-5-users@rootsweb.com> ent: Friday, February 04, 2011 2:45 AM ubject: Re: [PAF-5] mergeing ince you say the two sources are not identical, you have o edit them until hey match. 1) Under Edit, click on Sources 2) Look for the sources that are mismatched. If you began he titles ifferently, correct the titles so they appear the same and hey will show p one affter the other. 3) Then edit the one that is least correct (spaces and uncutation count in rrors) 4) Once done then try out the merge sources again. 5) If you have trouble finding the cause of a mismatch, try aking a copy nd paste of each line in the good source and paste it into he bad one in ts proper place. The problems often occur because of a isplaced space or omma. Bea --- On Fri, 2/4/11, Earl Park <parkj052@hawaii.rr.com> rote: > From: Earl Park <parkj052@hawaii.rr.com> Subject: [PAF-5] mergeing To: paf-5-users@rootsweb.com Received: Friday, February 4, 2011, 4:18 AM Aloha All, Is there a way to merge two different sources into one ike we do with individuals? I made a mistake and created a same second source with slightly different name when I already had that one. I see where there is a item under the "Tools" dropdown enu "Merge Duplicate Sources and Citations" I have clicked on it and it did something but not what I wanted to do. What it did I have no clue what ever it did it did it 31 times, ha... Any thoughts.... Thanks Earl ------------------------------ o unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to PAF-5-USERS-request@rootsweb.com ith the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of he message

Lynn and Marie wrote: > > Ethel, > I think you have stumped us. > > Before your do anything make several copies of your best backup file. Don't restore yet just make copies. > > One other thing. Open each file and click on file and then properties. See how many individuals and marriages are in each file. > > I'm not like Bill. I'm not afraid of typing in data. > Lynn I don't think Bill's afraid of typing in data; I think Bill's reluctant to waste time typing in 200 or 300 people worth of data and NOTES and sources, when MERGE can do it faster and more accurately. I know that's /my/ attitude, and I can type fast enough to overflow most buffers. Meanwhile, seems to me that if there's a file named HARPER and one called ETHEL, one ought to be able to open them side by side and use the ever-popular Copy'n'paste to expedite moving data. Cheryl