Merging Sources

[Jan Powell]

I'm having a spot of bother. Many of my sources have decided to combine. I'm attaching two examples, one of a census record that seems to have combined five different sources that were originally separate, and one of three different Wellington sources that have ended up under the same number. Does anyone have any explanation why this may have happened? Does anyone have a solution, please?

[Dennis J. Cunniff]

Re: Merging Sources

I'm having a spot of bother. Many of my sources have decided to combine. I'm attaching two examples, one of a census record that seems to have combined five different sources that were originally separate, and one of three different Wellington sources that have ended up under the same number. Does anyone have any explanation why this may have happened? Does anyone have a solution, please?

My guess: somehow a "Match and Merge Sources" was done, with the number of characters that had to match set to about 10. (Each of the sources that were combined match for the first 10 characters). Arguably it could also happen if you inadvertantly drag sources on top of each other in the source sidebar.

How did it happen? I can't guess unless someone was playing around with your computer.

The easiest solution would be to revert to a Time Machine backup, but I don't know how much work you'd lose that way. Otherwise you could check a backup to find the records that use those sources, and sort it out in the new file manually....

[Jan Powell]

Re: Merging Sources

My guess: somehow a "Match and Merge Sources" was done, with the number of characters that had to match set to about 10. (Each of the sources that were combined match for the first 10 characters). Arguably it could also happen if you inadvertantly drag sources on top of each other in the source sidebar.

How did it happen? I can't guess unless someone was playing around with your computer.

The easiest solution would be to revert to a Time Machine backup, but I don't know how much work you'd lose that way. Otherwise you could check a backup to find the records that use those sources, and sort it out in the new file manually....

Thanks, Dennis.

I wish it were that simple. I haven't done any matching and merging. There are loads of sources that have merged. I first twigged when new sources were using low numbers. Then a descendants report showed many examples. [sigh]

Maybe the cat walked on the keyboard, but I doubt that would cause such mayhem.

Thank goodness for backups!

[Dennis J. Cunniff]

Re: Merging Sources

Maybe the cat walked on the keyboard, but I doubt that would cause such mayhem.

I would never underestimate the mayhem that can be precipitated by a single cat with keyboard access...

Though mine so far have produced nonsense rather than disaster.

[Jan Powell]

Re: Merging Sources

I would never underestimate the mayhem that can be precipitated by a single cat with keyboard access...

Though mine so far have produced nonsense rather than disaster.

Indeed!

Seriously, though, I have tried to restore from backup, but now my Family File 11 is in Dropbox, so I don't have a backup on my external hard drive. Does this mean I will have to go back to my old Reunion 10 Family File and progress from there?

If that is the case, for future reference, how can I back up my Reunion 11 on to my external hard drive?

[SGilbert]

Re: Merging Sources

As a matter of routine, I backup to an external weekly using Time Machine. Time Machine does include the Dropbox folder.

You can also use an external 'manually' by just dragging your family file(s) from the Dropbox folder to the external (Which I used to do before Time Machine).

[Dennis J. Cunniff]

Re: Merging Sources

I have tried to restore from backup, but now my Family File 11 is in Dropbox, so I don't have a backup on my external hard drive.

Dropbox files "live" in two places (that is, there are at least two copies of each Dropbox file). One is out in the ether, on the Dropbox servers. The other is on your hard drive, under [hard drive name]/Users/[your user name]/Dropbox

So your family file should be there, and you should be able to use Time Machine to restore it. (Though I would certainly make another copy of it before trying anything!)

[Jan Powell]

Re: Merging Sources

Dropbox files "live" in two places (that is, there are at least two copies of each Dropbox file). One is out in the ether, on the Dropbox servers. The other is on your hard drive, under [hard drive name]/Users/[your user name]/Dropbox

So your family file should be there, and you should be able to use Time Machine to restore it. (Though I would certainly make another copy of it before trying anything!)

Thank you Dennis! Much appreciated. I shall have a look, then proceed with caution.

[Jan Powell]

Re: Merging Sources

As a matter of routine, I backup to an external weekly using Time Machine. Time Machine does include the Dropbox folder.

You can also use an external 'manually' by just dragging your family file(s) from the Dropbox folder to the external (Which I used to do before Time Machine).

Thank you very much, S. I use Time Machine to back up to the external hard drive. I didn't know that Dropbox is included in the backup. I shall drag my family file from Dropbox to the external hard drive in future, once I sort out the muddle.

[Jan Powell]

Re: Merging Sources

I'm having a spot of bother. Many of my sources have decided to combine. I'm attaching two examples, one of a census record that seems to have combined five different sources that were originally separate, and one of three different Wellington sources that have ended up under the same number. Does anyone have any explanation why this may have happened? Does anyone have a solution, please?

Further to this, my initial post, it seems the problem didn't exist before I upgraded to Reunion 11. I've restored all my Dropbox Reunion 11 family files and they all have the problem. All my old Reunion 10 files are intact.

[theKiwi]

Re: Merging Sources

Further to this, my initial post, it seems the problem didn't exist before I upgraded to Reunion 11. I've restored all my Dropbox Reunion 11 family files and they all have the problem. All my old Reunion 10 files are intact.

So first I would suggest that you make a duplicate of your last Reunion 10 file, and then upgrade that duplicate to Reunion 11 and see if the problem appears right away in that.

If it does, then Leister probably need to see your Reunion 10 file to see if there's a reason this apparently repeatably happens to your file.

Roger

[Jan Powell]

Re: Merging Sources

So first I would suggest that you make a duplicate of your last Reunion 10 file, and then upgrade that duplicate to Reunion 11 and see if the problem appears right away in that.

If it does, then Leister probably need to see your Reunion 10 file to see if there's a reason this apparently repeatably happens to your file.

Roger

Thank you, Roger.

I have restored my last Reunion 10 file, to my desktop, converted it to Reunion 11, and everything is going along as it should.

As a point of interest (maybe), what appears to have happened with my old file, all my 1841 Census data collapsed into one source, same with all 1851, 1861, etc. All the various sources from Papers Past, and so on.

Since this doesn't seem to have happened with my newly restored file, could there be some other software on my system that has caused the "malfunction", such as a system cleaner, or whatever? I doubt that Dropbox would have affected it as it's just a storage medium. (Just trying a bit of problem-solving, here).

[theKiwi]

Re: Merging Sources

I have restored my last Reunion 10 file, to my desktop, converted it to Reunion 11, and everything is going along as it should.

Whew!!

As a point of interest (maybe), what appears to have happened with my old file, all my 1841 Census data collapsed into one source, same with all 1851, 1861, etc. All the various sources from Papers Past, and so on.

This seems quite organised - like a Match and Merge had been repeatedly run using just the first few characters of the sources.

Since this doesn't seem to have happened with my newly restored file, could there be some other software on my system that has caused the "malfunction", such as a system cleaner, or whatever? I doubt that Dropbox would have affected it as it's just a storage medium. (Just trying a bit of problem-solving, here).

It's hard to imagine how any Cleaner software or DropBox could have done this - it's too organised.

Are you sure you didn't sleep walk one night and decide to merge your sources? LOL

Roger

[Jan Powell]

Re: Merging Sources

are you sure you didn't sleep walk one night and decide to merge your sources? Lol
roger

I wish it were that simple

[Jan Powell]

Re: Merging Sources

I'd like to send a big Thank You! to the wonderful Reunion Geniuses (Genii?) for all your help with my sources problem. Thank you!