* Record ID Confusion!

[rlparsons]

I am getting in to unfamiiar territory! I have 3 records which have ended up being entered again a second time with slightly different data. All six are shown on the Record list.
Ancester Mr W married Miss A who unfortunately died fairly soon after without issue. W then married M, who was the sister of A, and they had one child and subsequent descendants.
I started to try and correct this using the hints from this forum eg either delete or merge, and for starters, went to View>Record links for one of the W records and noticed that the Record Id shown there was not the same as the Id on the individual Record listing. Nor did it show a link to the first wife A. When I looked at the links for the second W record it showed the two wives, each duplicated, plus his mother. However, again the record Id's were incorrect.
What am I missing please?

[rlparsons]

I should perhaps add that the chart shows W appearing twice, each time married to the respective wife but the two wives are only shown once each.

[tatewise]

Each record has a unique Record Id that is the only thing that differentiates one record from another.
That allows several distinct records to exist with the same Name, i.e. multiple John Smith's or Jane Doe's.

So somehow you have created new records for those people.
For instance, when adding Spouses and Children you are given the choice of Create New Record or Link Existing Record.
If you chose the former when creating the marriage relationships then you can get multiple records for the same person.

I suggest before you try correcting things you create a Project Backup just in case.

What you need to do in the Records Window is select the two Individual records for Mr.W.
Select the first and then hold down the Ctrl key to select the second.
Then use the Edit > Merge/Compare Records... to combine the two sets of data.

Repeat that for the other two pairs.

[rlparsons]

Many thanks Mike. I'll go for it. I had already made sure I had a decent back-up! I've been there before! However, not having used the merge function before I was concerned about the connected descendants. Can I assume they will be handled during the merge?

[rlparsons]

Just thinking! I understand the function of the individual record Id but surely, just adding an additional, albeit duplicate record just adds another record with its own Id, I seem to have different Id's being shown for what appears to be the same record depending on which screen I look at.
Would a screenshot help?

[tatewise]

Yes, if you are concerned in any way then attach a screenshot.
See Forum Usage Tips under Attachments.

[rlparsons]

Tried to show various screens with different Id's. Hope this helps.
Is there a different Id list for "Families of ..." from "Individual"?
Yellow highlighting is my emphasis.

[rlparsons]

Perhaps I should have explained that on p1, the "Family of.." screen was brought up by clicking on the greyed out name.

[tatewise]

OK, a little lesson on Record Id is necessary.
FH has about a dozen different type of record: Individual, Family, Source, Media, Place, etc...
Each type has its own set of Record Id numbers.
So Individual Record Id 27 has nothing to do with Family Record Id 27 or Source Record Id 27.

Your screenshots are showing Individual records with Id 73, 74, 75 and 280, 298, 282 in pairs as you say.
It also shows two Family records with Id 112 and 27 identified as Family: ...of Walter Hubert CRAVEN and Alice DENISON.

Most of those lower-numbered records were Updated on 19/07/2011
The problems arose on 16/11/2020

Record CRAVEN, Walter Hubert Id 280 has no useful information except for birth place Normanton, Yorks.
So add that Place to his Birth details in Record Id 73 and then delete Record Id 280.

Likewise, Family record Id 112 is a mistake that adds no information and can be deleted.

I suspect the same is true for the two Family: ...of Walter Hubert CRAVEN and Mabel DENISON records.
The lower Record Id has the Marriage details.
The higher Record Id has no Marriage details, and can be deleted.

Compare the lower and higher numbered Individual records for Alice 74 & 298 and Mabel 75 & 282.
If the higher numbered ones have no extra information the delete them.

[rlparsons]

Many thanks Mike. Much appreciated. I had the flicker of light just before I'd sent my next but last submission. I've never had to look into this before but was very concerned that simply deleting a record with an (apparently to me!) wrong Id could have caused mayhem!
Saved again.