Duplicate subjects are one of the most common headaches I hear about. It usually happens one of two ways:
- You merge in a cousin’s file and end up with two of your great-grandmother.
- You add someone before realizing you already had her under a maiden name.
I built subject merging into Evidentia 3+ to fix exactly that: fold the two into one by dragging the evidence from one record onto the other, and not a single proof gets left behind.
If you have just read Merge Database, you already know why the duplicates appear: when you combine two databases, Evidentia matches records by their internal identity, so the same person from two files arrives as two records. This is the tool that let’s you clean that up.
Open the merge view
Start on the Subjects tab, where your subject list lives. Select either of the two people you want to combine, then click Merge Subjects on the subject’s toolbar. The detail pane changes into a two-column merge view, with an empty panel on the left and another on the right.
Load your two duplicate subjects, and mind the direction
Drag one subject from your list into the left panel and the other into the right. The direction is the one thing to get right, so it is worth saying plainly:
- The subject on the left is the one you are keeping. Everything flows toward it.
- The subject on the right is the duplicate you are clearing out. Once its proofs have moved, Evidentia offers to delete it.
Put the record with the better name, notes, or attributes on the left. You can always press Clear or Reset from the toolbar and start over if you load them the wrong way around.
Move the proofs and evidence
Under Proofs & Evidence on the right-hand record, each item carries a small grip handle, the vertical dotted icon you may recognize from other drag-and-drop tools. That handle is what you grab.
Three ways to transfer
- A whole proof. Grab the grip handle on a proof’s title row and drag it to the left. Its evidence comes along.
- A single piece of evidence. Each evidence item has its own handle, so you can move one item without moving the whole proof.
- Everything at once. Click Transfer All in the toolbar to move every attribute, proof, and evidence item in one go.
Attributes work the same way. If you change your mind mid-merge, drag an item back to the right, and it returns to where it started.
[ Screenshot to add: the subject merge view mid-drag, showing the grip handle on a proof and the drop target on the left. An animated capture works well here. ]
Confirm the merge
When the evidence is where you want it, click Merge. Evidentia shows a Confirm Subject Merge dialog that spells out exactly what is about to happen, for example: “3 attribute(s), 2 proof(s), and 4 evidence item(s) will be moved to the subject on the left.” If every proof has been moved off the right-hand record, the dialog also tells you that the subject on the right will be deleted. Click Yes, Merge to finish, or Cancel to keep looking.
Duplicate sources merge the same way
The same drag-and-drop idea handles duplicate sources. On the Sources tab, drag two sources into the left and right panels, move the citations from the right onto the left, and click Merge. The confirmation reads “{n} citation(s) will be moved to the source on the left.” It is the subject workflow in miniature, aimed at your source list instead.
Read the confirmation before you commit
The merge itself cannot be undone with a single click, so let the confirmation dialog do its job. Its counts and its note about deletion are your last check that the evidence is moving in the direction you intended. When in doubt, cancel, and take a backup first.
Merging duplicate subjects is the tidy end of a larger workflow: split your research into multiple databases when it helps, combine them when you are ready, then fold the duplicates together here. Each proof you preserve is one you never have to reconstruct.
Drag-and-drop merge is part of Evidentia 3+. See what else is new, or start your own research.
— Ed Thompson, Evidentia Software