How to Merge Two People on Ancestry

Merge duplicate information in your family tree's database in Ancestry's Family Tree Maker.

The family tree tool on the Ancestry website logs your family history based on search results and manually inputted information. As your family tree expands, duplicate family members may make their way into your database, which affects the tree's organization. Duplicate entries are often caused by slight differences to the family member's name, but can be merged using the merge tool in your account. The merging process writes over older information and creates a single entry for the family member.

Things You'll Need

• Ancestry Family Tree Maker 2008 or later

Instructions

1. Launch the Ancestry Family Tree Maker program, and click "People" at the top of the program menu.

2. Click "Edit" and click "Find Duplicate People" from the sub-menu. Click "Yes" on the pop-up dialog box to back up your information before making any major changes.

3. Click the duplicates in the Find Duplicate People window, and click "Compare/Merge."

4. Click "Make preferred," "Make alternate" or "Discard this fact" in the Individual Merge window to choose what to merge and what to remove during the entry merge.

5. Click "OK" to save the changes and merge the duplicate entry.

References

• Ancestry: Merging Individuals in Family Tree Maker 2008, 2009, 2010 & 2011