* Merging Family Projects

[klm2OUMK]

I want to try to merge two family projects which contain members of both projects. This will be the first time I will have attempted to merge any FH projects so a bit apprehesive

Differences Between Two Projects

- The one I want to merge does not contain media family photographs whereas the larger project I want it to merge with does contain media family photographs.
- Larger projects contains many copies of media BMD/ Census from Ancestral Sources whereas smaller project does not contain any copies of BMD/Census will this be a problem merging?
- The larger project has other different family names than the smaller project does this matter & prevent merging?
- I have recently spent alot of time adding later /earlier of extra family names in 3 new generations in the small project that are not in the larger project yet. WILL ALL THESE EXTRA NEW NAMES transfer to the large project if I attempt to merge? This is one of the main reasons for attempt a merger
- Do I have to select one 'common' name on both projects to merge projects and is there a tutorial to show me how to merge two projects?

Do you recommend that I save copies of all FH Projects to a seperate hard disc storage before attempting merging for the first time?

[tatewise]

The merge process will accommodate the differences between the two Projects.

The media differences are not a problem. They will all be retained.

The extra Individuals, Families, Source Citations, etc, etc, will all be able to be retained.

You don't have to select anything, as FH will offer to synchronise records with similar characteristics, and you can also match records manually, but that usually takes much longer. FH will try and match Individual records by their Name, etc, and will similarly match up Family records, Source records, Place records, etc.

Yes, make a backup of the larger Project that you intend to become the composite master Project.
Then you can always get back to where you started if things go awry.
You can also experiment with the process and decide to back out if you wish.

See glossary:merge_compare_files|> Merge/Compare File for general advice.
That talks about a GEDCOM obtained from elsewhere that is used to create a temporary Project.
But in your case that 'temporary' Project is your small Project.

The most common mistake that users make is to only focus on the Individuals tab of the Merge dialogue.
But having merged Individuals you must also review the Families, Notes, Sources, and the other record tabs.

[klm2OUMK]

Thank you for your positive reassuring help and guidance. This will give me courage to have a go in the near future.

I assume family trees will merge and tend to get much bigger. Are there any potential problems with merged family trees and larger diagrams? Are there any limits to the number of individuals on merged families records and the number of generations? Is it worth waiting for the new FH v.7 launch in case there are new features for merging?

[tatewise]

Yes, the merged Project will get bigger, but no bigger than if you had updated the families in the main Project instead of having a small separate Project.
There are virtually no built-in limits to the number of records, families, generations, etc, FH will support in one Project.
Many users have reported having tens of thousands of records. How many are you expecting in your main Project?
The File > File Statistics... command provides all the Record Counts...

If the Project does get VERY large, then naturally Diagrams can get large too if everyone is included.
However, such large Diagrams would be difficult for human eyes to fully comprehend.
FH makes it is easy to produce sub-tree Diagrams for different branches when necessary.

No, don't wait for FH V7.

[klm2OUMK]

Great, thanks for the clarifications