Revealing the Hidden Duplicates in the FamilySearch Family Tree

There are a huge number of "hidden" duplicates in the FamilySearch.org Family Tree. These duplicates are not discoverable by the Family Tree "Possible Duplicates." You need to be aware that these duplicates exist because they are not obvious.

The individual shown above has three Record Hints. This is his current family as it appears his detail page:

Here is what I see when I click on the "Possible Duplicates" link.

The key here is the phrase, "No results found." This, unfortunately, does not mean that there are no duplicates. Some of the time you can rely on this statement, but if there are any outstanding record hints or any records at all available on the website, then the statement is not necessarily accurate.

So now, look at the first screenshot above. It shows three Record Hints available. This is a screenshot of the first hint listed.

When I click on the Review Attachments link at the bottom of the page, the following screen appears:

Normally, you would think that this Record Hint or source was already attached to the individual and ignore it. But you need to click on the little Detach icon.

This screen shows that the record is attached to Israel Jones with the ID #MFQC-CYK. Guess what? This is the same person but it is a duplicate entry. Now, I copy the ID number because I need to use it to look for a duplicate using this ID number. Before doing anything else with the source, I go back to the Possible Duplicate screen. You do not want to do anything like detaching the source because then you will lose the duplicate.

Now I click on Merge by ID and enter the copied number into the search field.

Here is a screenshot of the Duplicate screen.

You then proceed with the merge just as you would if the program had found one. You will note that you will find that almost every other family member now has duplicates. Like this:

You can now copy the new duplicate's ID numbers and go through the process again and again and again. Each time, you may find more record hints and more duplicates. I have written about this several times, but it always amazes me how many duplicate keep showing up.

But wait, you aren't through. You need to process all of the Research Hints and look for more records, especially those that show they are attached to the person already. One bonus of this problem is that I keep adding family members and sources. But without knowing the connection between Records and duplicates, you might stop long before you were through. It doesn't seem to matter if you review and add all the sources from the Record Hints and then merge all the duplicates or do them one at a time.

In this particular case, I spent most of a day adding records, adding individuals, doing the research on the new individuals and then merging all the newly discovered duplicates. Here is what the family looked like when I finished. I lost count of the merges, but I think there were over twenty. Another hint, reload or refresh your pages frequently to show the new people, records, and merges.

There are five new children for the family tree. Too bad I'm not related to these people except one of the daughters.