If you’ve worked in Family Tree for any length of time, you’ve probably run across duplicate records — in other words, two records that represent the same person. An earlier column explained how many of these duplicates got into Family Tree.

What’s the problem with duplicates? Mainly, duplicate records can lead to duplicate research and duplicate temple work. And duplicate temple work may not be such a problem in and of itself — in other words, although duplicate ordinances don’t provide any additional benefit to a person, they don’t really hurt the person either.

However, the person who is hurt is the one who yearns for the blessings of the temple but whose work is delayed as duplicate ordinances are performed for others.

Fortunately, Family Tree allows users to resolve duplicates by merging them. During the merge process, you compare two records to determine whether or not they represent the same person. If they do, you save the best information and combine the two records into one.

How do you do that, you ask? This presentation helps provide the answer:

Duplicates In Family Tree: Why They’re There, How To Find Them, And How To Resolve Them

Finding and resolving duplicates isn’t impossibly difficult, though it takes thought, care, and attention to detail. It’s an important part of preparing the record that will someday be presented to the Lord — a record that will be “worthy of all acceptation” (D&C 128:24).