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Using the ‘check for duplicates’ feature, what fields must match? Must it be exact?

I had Maurice Victor Donald von Battenberg displayed. When I did a general search, his name came up as 1 of 2. The other name was ‘Leopold Arthur Louis MOUNTBATTEN’. Looking at all NAMES for each, one has “Prince Maurice of Battenberg …” and the other “Prince Leopold of Battenberg …”, still not a match except both include “Battenberg”. Was this what trigged being duplicate?

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 Alter-Drukarsh connections |The Garelicks|Journal 3.3.12 -  PHP Version 8.1.17 - mySQL 8.1
The Royals |The Kennedys|The Gerrer Rabbis  3.3.12 -  PHP Version 8.1.17 - mySQL 8.1

It is a simple check only, tending towards more rather than fewer results (better to give you too many than too few)

It checks individuals with a surname the same as or containing the surname of your new entry, plus a first given name that also is or contains the first given name of your entry. All or any names for an individual will be considered.

It’s hard to exactly answer you question about those specific individuals. I need to know what each has for their SURN and GIVN fields, (as many as each has) as these might different from their NAME tag.

Is “Prince” included as a name prefix, or as a given name? That would be an incorrect but quite common data entry. If so, it will be part of the match.

Nigel
My personal kiwitrees site is www.our-families.info

Would it be possible to allow sort via the column headings? I ask because I’m only at 560’ish and there’s over 3000 records so not all are proper name format. My edit records do not include Prince/Pricess for prime name. I added those as additional 1 NAME. I’m adding — what’s technically incorrect — surnames based upon the House they’re born into or married into.

So, date (full or at least year) would give further match. Hence, being able to sort heading if I want to sort by birth, date or name. Like the List pages.

----- [updated: 31Aug2023]

 Alter-Drukarsh connections |The Garelicks|Journal 3.3.12 -  PHP Version 8.1.17 - mySQL 8.1
The Royals |The Kennedys|The Gerrer Rabbis  3.3.12 -  PHP Version 8.1.17 - mySQL 8.1

It would be possible, but not worthwhile in my view.

Checking for duplicates will always be a futile exercise with poorly structured data so until you have been able to set your data up I cannot recommend you use the tool. Surely it makes more sense to tidy up what you have before entering more?

Your comment “My edit records do not include Prince/Pricess for prime name. I added those as additional 1 NAME.” is irrelevant. ALL names are checked, not just the prime name. I think that’s a logical thing to do. But regardless of what name you put it in, it should never be a GIVN name part. It is a name prefix.

I thought about including dates in the match, but again, data availability can be very unreliable (I just read a discussion from someone on the webtrees forum campaigning to be able to enter dates with no year – like “23 March”!!). It would also require you to add more information to the new person before you run the duplicate check, which is a waste of time if that person already exists.

Nigel
My personal kiwitrees site is www.our-families.info