How to merge duplicate family records
The following caveats must be in place to use this feature:
- This article is specifically written to show how to merge duplicate family records. See the following article to learn how to merge duplicate member records.
- First, if you are under a diocese that uses the ParishSOFT diocesan suite, the diocese must turn this feature on for your church. Otherwise, that permission is turned off by default.
- In addition to that permission, each church administrator must give this permission to the staff responsible for merging duplicate records.
- Also, both families must be owned (registered) to the parish or the diocese will need to process the merge.
Note: If both family records have giving history, merging will not lose any giving history from either record.
- Prep: Gather the family information and identify the duplicates.
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Note the family DUIDs and identify which one is going to be the master (permanent) family DUID. See below.
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Note the family DUIDs and identify which one is going to be the master (permanent) family DUID. See below.
- Go to the Merge Records page under the Administration Tab (top image) and using merge type Families, enter the Family DUIDs.
- If there is another duplicate family, merge the second duplicate at the same time. Just enter the second duplicate family DUID in the 'Additional Duplicate Family DUID' field:
- Sometimes the duplicate family will only have the parents or some of the members of the family. You will just select to merge those members into their master member records.
- However, sometimes you will see that there are more members showing in the merge screen than in the family details screen (see below). This should not cause alarm, it just means that the parish has chosen to delete or move those members into their own families, possibly because they are adult children and don't live with their parents (as shown below):
- While the Member Details tab (above) shows only four members, the Duplicate Family Member records (below) show five. The fifth record (Spencer in our image) was likely deleted from the Member Details after moving into their own household. You can handle this in two steps as follows: 1) export the fifth member (Spencer) from the duplicate family into his own duplicate family then 2) use the family merge to merge Spencer's duplicate family/member record into his permanent family record. *See note at the bottom of the page to learn what to do if the fifth member doesn't exist in their own permanent family record. This will process overnight just as the other family merges you are processing.
- Once you have inserted the DUIDs into the correct fields (in Step 3), you will need to select which member records to merge each duplicate member record into in the What to Do fields:
- If there is another duplicate family, merge the second duplicate at the same time. Just enter the second duplicate family DUID in the 'Additional Duplicate Family DUID' field:
- You will again need to select which member records you are merging together and select 'Submit to Queue':
- Note: if your diocese has the sacramental conflicts feature, these conflicts must be resolved before clicking Submit to Queue.
- Click OK when you receive the alert message.
- Go to Merge → Merge Queue → Families to see the pending merge records.
- These records will be merged overnight.
What to do if you have an extra member record in the duplicate family and no matching permanent record anywhere in the system
- Export the extra member from the duplicate family into their own permanent family.
- Update their family status and member status to the appropriate designations
Benefits
- If you do not export this extra member record from the duplicate family, the original duplicate family will still exist even after the merge, because otherwise, the extra member would have nowhere to go.
- This new permanent family/member record will provide any sacramental information that has been recorded for this extra member in case they ever need a certificate. Also, if they return to your organization, you have their record.
Related Articles
Why there are families pending in the merge queue after 24 hours
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