Family Historian User Group

Perhaps should be in the Wish List BUT has been two times.

I was really hoping that the following would be in FH 5 as it seems to me to be a fundamentally useful thing;

Duplicate Name Warning  Posted on: 11/29/10 at 03:10:08 GMT  

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At the risk of being repetitive [cause it happened AGAIN], here's my fair sized beef:

No Duplicate Name Warning 'Originally' Posted on: 10/19/09 at 06:59:57 GMT  

FH 5 seems to have an updated 'wrong date?' function but isn't it equally important NOT to have duplicate names input when a simple warning, i.e. 'is this the same John Jones, b. 1850 that is already in your file?' would be SO useful!!

Yes, I just did it again with a line that I hadn't worked on in some time and did not check my records before I entered duplicate data.  

Would be SO GOOD to have that duplicate name check in FH 5 - even though we just got a new version, I'm sure there will be some changes along the line.

Anyone with me on this feature??



ID:6135

It is on the wishlist #56 and #471

#250 is similar

I thought there was a plug-in, but a) I'm probably wrong, b) this won't do what you want it to do as it would be retrospective as opposed to being a real time thing.

Personally, I don't mind it being there as long as there is a preference to switch it off as, without any evidence whatsoever mind, I feel it would slow down data entry on large projects.

It would not be usefull for me. I have 3 generations who all have the same first (and last) name and I have that across multiple lines back. Then there is the case of sons being named after uncles and grandparents. And last but not least, the practice of reusing names if children had passed away young. The latter one especially has had me confused before and made me think I had a duplicate person when I didn't.

As to a way round your issue, as I've done the exact same thing myself before in other programs, I now get into the habbit of bringing up an all relatives diagram of the relatives I'm linking the new entries to and double check they aren't there already. And then use that diagram to add/change individuals (love that FH feature!). Since I've been adding people using the diagram, I've had no more isues. Simularly, if you add using the focus screen, it's easy to see if you have people there already. I don't recommend using the 'add individual' menu option as that's how I end up with duplicates.