How to merge two gramps files

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Hi there, I started using gramps in 2021 and think I understand how it works.

I gave my family file to my dad, who started to rework it. He expanded my part of the family (left my wife’s family alone), but also changed a lot of the wording, e.g. used maiden names for everyone instead of married names. When I tried to open his file, it unfortunately merged it with my existing family tree, so now I have lots of duplicates and I can’t easily figure out which ones to delete without messing up the family trees. I basically gave up 3 years ago, but now want to give it another try.

I do still have my old family tree file as a backup though - is there maybe a way to open up both files at the same time to go through them to correct the issues?

Using 5.1.6 on a MacBook with OS 10.14.6

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Hi @Moritz, I used to have a Mac too, and was able to make a second copy of Gramps so that I could run both at once. See this post. In that case I put the copy on a USB stick, but that is not necessary. The key is changing the APPDATA settings. I no longer have a Mac so cannot do further experimentation.

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First, make a Clone to run an experiment.

One the Clone. Use the Isotammi addons Family Auto Merge tool and MultiMerge gramplets to merge the identicals in each Category. (Starting with Families… as it simultaneously merges the Family members.)

Then use the Find Possible Duplicate People tool to start working the “close but not identical” matches.

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Did your dad work with Gramps too? And if so, did he send his work to you in .gramps format? And do you still have that file, or if not, can he send it again?

I’m asking, because if you have .gramps files, and only import those in empty trees, the IDs and internal handles are persistent, and the files can be compared with the import & merge tool. And if you want, and have some visual diff tool, you can also create GEDCOM files from either tree, and compare those to look for changes.

Merging persons is a lot of work, and the duplicate finder may miss a lot of duplicates, because it scores duplicates by the amount of data that they have, meaning that persons without birth or death dates get a low score, even if they had the same ID and handle in the original file. Those original values are lost when you import in a non empty tree.

Also, if you gave up 3 years ago, why don’t you just use his tree, and abandon your own?

And finally, how big are these trees?

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