A cousin sent you a database for the branch you share, or you started a separate file for a single line and now want it back with everything else. Merge Database, added in Evidentia 3+, is built for exactly that: it pulls the records from one file into another and leaves what you already have untouched.
When I built Merge, I made it the opposite of Restore, even though the two sound alike: Merge brings new records into what you already have, while Restore wipes the database and drops a backup in its place. Keep them straight before you reach for one. Pulling evidence together this way is also the reasonably exhaustive research the Genealogical Proof Standard expects.
Merge adds. Restore replaces.
Restore takes a backup file and overwrites your current database with it. Everything in the open database is set aside and the backup takes its place. That is the right tool when you are recovering from a problem and want the backup’s version of the world back.
Merge Database does the opposite of overwriting. It reads the records from a file and adds them to your current database. What you already have stays put; the incoming records join it. The featured image at the top of this post lays the two side by side, and it is the one distinction to keep straight before you begin.
Think of Merge as stitching, not swapping. Two pieces of your research come together along a seam, and both are still there when the needle stops. Restore, by contrast, hands you a whole new bolt of cloth and sets the old one aside.
How to use Merge Database
Before you start, one requirement: Merge reads an Evidentia backup or export file. If the research you want to bring in is sitting in another live database, export or back it up first so you have a file to point at. A raw database that is currently in use is not what Merge expects.
Merging step by step
- Open Options and go to the Databases panel.
- Click Merge Database.
- Choose the Evidentia backup or export file you want to bring in.
- Read the confirmation dialog. It counts, for each kind of record, how many are in the file, how many are duplicates of records you already have, and how many are new.
- Choose how a record that matches one you already have should be handled: Keep database record or Keep file record. The note just below spells out exactly what each one does.
- Confirm. Your system templates and claim types are preserved, and the new records join your database.
The one choice that can overwrite your data
Both options add whatever is new. They differ only when a record in the file matches one you already have.
- Keep database record (the default): your version wins. The file’s copy is set aside, and nothing you already have changes. You only gain the new records.
- Keep file record: the file’s version wins. It overwrites your record, and anything you had entered is replaced.
Merging a cousin’s file into your own well-sourced database? Keep database record is almost always what you want. Reach for Keep file record only when the file genuinely holds the better, newer information.
What to expect afterward
When Merge decides whether an incoming record duplicates one you already have, it matches on the record’s internal identity, not on the name. Two databases that were built separately give the same ancestor two different internal identities. So if you merge your cousin’s file and it holds the same Great-Grandfather John you already have, Merge sees two unrelated records and keeps both.
That is not a flaw. Evidentia has no reliable way to know that your John and your cousin’s John are the same man without your judgment, and quietly collapsing them would be worse than leaving the decision to you. The result is that combining two databases often leaves you with a few people entered twice, ready for you to review.
Back up first, and merge with a clear head
Merge never deletes your existing records, but it does change your database, so take a backup before you begin. If you are unsure whether a file is the right one, the confirmation dialog is your friend: its counts tell you what you are about to bring in before anything is written.
Once two databases are combined, the natural next task is cleaning up the people who now appear twice. Evidentia 3+ makes that a matter of dragging one record onto another, and I walk through it in Merge Duplicate Subjects Without Losing Evidence. If you have not yet decided whether to keep your research in one file or several, Multiple Databases in Evidentia covers that choice.
Merge Database is one of the newer additions in Evidentia 3+. If you are not running it yet, here is where to start.
— Ed Thompson, Evidentia Software