* Merging 2 trees -

[Suki]

I have my DNA results through Ancestry, where I have two trees, one for my maternal side and another my paternal side. BUT Ancestry will only allow me to post my DNA on one tree at a time suggesting that if I swap between the two it will not work properly. Therefore I would like to merge these two trees just for Ancestry and keep them as separate trees in Family Historian. Ancestry say that I cannot do this on their site, therefore I wonder if it would be possible to do this with Family Historian.

[pwe]

You could make a copy of each of your two trees in FH and then merge these two copies to form one combined tree. This you could then add to Ancestry. Your two original trees in FH would be left as they were. Having said that I can see no advantage in having separate trees for the different sides of your family.
Peter E

[tatewise]

Hi Suki, welcome to your first FHUG posting.

I concur with Peter.
You could make copies and merge them, but you would have to keep repeating that exercise whenever you updated your database, because the merged copies will not automatically inherit those updates.

It is for such reasons that the usual advice is to have one Project database for your entire family.
It is easier to export maternal or paternal sub-trees from one Project when needed, than perform the copy & merge process.

Also, it is quite common to discover that ancestors of both maternal and paternal branches are actually related.
With two separate Projects, not only is it awkward to record such relationships, but also less likely to discover them initially.

BTW: Have you taken a look at how_to:key_features_for_newcomers|> Key Features for Newcomers?
I know you have been with us over a year, but you may still discover things you did not know about.

[LornaCraig]

Do you need guidance on how to perform the merge? It can be a tricky process even if there are only one or two Individual records common to the two files. Start by reading this section: glossary:merge_compare_files|> Merge/Compare File

Did you create your two trees on Ancestry by uploading Gedcom files created by FH? Or did you create your two FH projects by downloading Gedcom files which were originally created on Ancestry?

Do the FH and Ancestry trees currently contain roughly the same information? If not, which versions do you want to use for the merged version on Ancestry?

Uploading a Gedcom file from FH to Ancestry is not straightforward because they use different 'dialects' of Gedcom (a subject on which Mike is an expert!). If you have not done a transfer in that direction before, you may need to ask for advice on that once you have created a merged file.

[Suki]

Thanks for all your advice, I see that I have quite a job and will have to start it when I have time on my side as I do not wish to get interruptions as I work through the schedule.
My Ancestry trees are quite old, I guess I imported original trees, probably from FTM, but most of the entries have been made directly by myself.
What I hope to do is to merge my maternal and paternal trees on FH, after I am happy with that, then make a GEDCOM file and upload that to a new tree in Ancestry.
Reading your notes it looks like it may take a while and require assistance along the way?
Many thanks in advance for your advice.

[davidm_uk]

I've recently merged my tree (me+spouse) with my daughter-in-law's tree, with the complication that they had common ancestors a few generations back, so quite a lot of overlap.

A lot depends on how much overlap you have between your two trees. If it's only one person (or can be made to be only one person by editing your existing trees) things get much easier.

You don't say if your existing two trees in FH are just FH gedcoms or FH Projects, but if I were doing this I would get both into FH Project "format" first, and ensure that all linked media files are within the project file structure.

Before proceeding with any merge make sure that you then save Project Backups of both projects.

Then you can use the merge function in FH to do a trial match (without doing the actual merge step). So open one project then use File...Merge/Compare to select the second one and when asked for Record Matching Options select "Suggest Candidate Matches for Merging". The window that will open will display all individuals for both projects and highlight where it thinks there maybe matches. You can use this to just explore these, and see where complications might arise. As long as you don't click the Merge button bottom right of the window then no changes will be made and you can just click Cancel to close the merge window.

That merge window has tabs across the top for all of the record types in FH (Individuals, Families, Sources, etc). You MUST check all of these to see where there might be overlaps between the projects.

[Suki]

Both these 2 trees are already on FH. Thanks for your comments about duplicate people, I had already given that some thought and decided to remove the duplicates from one of the trees, as they are only my husband, myself and our children and grand children. I will certainly try to take things slowly and triple check as I go along.
Fingers crossed.

[tatewise]

It is advisable to keep yourself in both trees so the Merge has someone to synchronise on.
Then the only Individual record to Merge will be yourself, but the defaults should be OK.
Also it is then unlikely that many other records will need merging, but check Sources and Media in case some are attached to both your parents, such as your Birth Certificate.
However, if you miss a few, they can be Record Merged later on, as and when they are noticed.

[Suki]

Thanks to you all, I've suceeded, there are only some photos to sort iut now, but the worst is over, also I've managed to load it onto Ancestry, which is what started this!
Obviously there will be some things to correct along the way, but the worst is over, I hope.