Family Historian User Group

From the changes list

If you add a picture or other media item into a project, Family Historian will now check for duplicates, skip unnecessary file copies, and avoid creating a new Media record if there is already a Media record for the item in question.

I habitually make multiple copies of census media files if more than one individual in my file features as a Head of household. Both filenames and media records have names which reference the housholder and so will refer to just one household. My normal method of adding media is to download the file straight into the project media and then drag the file onto FH direct from the browser download listing to create the media record.

The question is: will this duplicate checking prevent this?

I should clarify that despite purchasing v7 I am still regularly using v6.2 as my main data entry and I know this change will not affect me until/if I change to v7.

DavidNewton wrote: ↑

24 Feb 2023 12:37

I habitually make multiple copies of census media files if more than one individual in my file features as a Head of household. Both filenames and media records have names which reference the householder and so will refer to just one household. My normal method of adding media is to download the file straight into the project media and then drag the file onto FH direct from the browser download listing to create the media record.

David, I don't quite understand exactly what you are doing and why you are doing it.
Why would you make multiple identical copies of the same census media file?
One media file attached to one Media record should be sufficient.
That one Media record can be attached to multiple Media tabs in FH if necessary, although usually it would be attached to just one Source record that gets cited by each member of the census household.

Perhaps you could explain more precisely where the duplicated media files are attached and what their filenames are.

FH V7 will prevent identical media files with identical file paths & names from being added to multiple Media records.
However, if the file content differs or the file folder path or file name differs in any way then FH will happily add them.

Are you a splitter or lumper for your census sources?

I'm a splitter. For my census records I have one source for each household, the name of the source includes the head of households name and the schedule number. That is then linked to one or more media records (household across pages or 1911/1921 where there's also the address image). The names of the media records don't include the head of household or schedule number (but I include the schedule number for the 1911/1921 census where each household is separate). Where I have multiple households to enter on the same page they link to the same media record.

If the head of household is displayed on the source records, nothing is gained by having it on the media as well.

tatewise wrote: ↑

24 Feb 2023 14:41

Why would you make multiple identical copies of the same census media file?

I think David means that if a single census page contains two or more households of interest he keeps two or more copies of the image of that page and links each to a separate media record in FH, one for each household. (The alternative is to do what John Elvin has described, linking multiple households to the same media record.)

David said that both the filenames and media records have names which reference the householder, so I assume that although the content of the 'duplicate' files will be the same their names will be different. That should be sufficient to stop FH treating them as identical.

Thank you Lorna, that is exactly what I do and I am not claiming it is the best approach but it would be very time consuming for me to unravel it if I had to. If the filename, or media title, has to be the same before FH 7 regards it as a duplicate then my method will not be affected.

It's the file name which will be important. Make sure you give each copy of the file a different name before you try to link it to FH.