Merging Two Family Trees Without Damaging the Original Records
Short Answer
A merge happens when two branches of a family realise they share an ancestor. The system suggests scored matches, but a human confirms each one and the receiving head of family must approve — an automatic merge is the fastest way to damage two family trees at once.
It happens more often than people expect: two people who have never met each build a family tree, and at some point realise that an ancestor in both records is the same person.
Why a merge cannot be automatic
The system can suggest matches with a confidence score based on names, dates of birth, places and surrounding relationships. It cannot decide.
The reason is that Malay names repeat constantly. In a single village, three men named Ahmad bin Abdullah born within the same ten years is nothing unusual. A high-scoring match can still be wrong, and a wrong merge fuses two different people into one — a mistake that spreads to every relationship beneath them.
Rules that cannot be broken
- A different gender means it is not the same person. No exceptions, and no score high enough to override it.
- Cycles are rejected during the merge, not after. A merge that would make someone their own ancestor is blocked before it is saved.
- The source tree is never deleted. After a merge, the original record is still there. If the merge turns out to be wrong, there is somewhere to go back to.
Who approves
A merge request is sent to the receiving head of family. Nobody can add a branch to another family's tree without permission — even when the relationship is real. A family tree is a record that family is answerable for.
Before sending a merge request
- Confirm the common ancestor against at least two sources, not just a matching name
- Compare dates: a gap of more than five years in a date of birth needs an explanation
- Compare siblings and spouses — the same person should have at least a few matching names around them
- Talk to the elders on both sides before sending; they usually know whether two branches are in fact connected
After the merge
Recheck the generation numbers. When two trees join, one of them usually gains a level or two above it, and that whole branch is renumbered. Check for leftover duplicates too — the same person existing twice under different branches.
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