If you want other researchers to access your research, adding it to the collaborative FamilySearch Family Tree is an excellent idea. Because it is collaborative, you risk someone changing information or even merging identities incorrectly. Inversely, someone may create a duplicate record for a person, resulting in two profiles for the same person. With these challenges, what benefits does FamilySearch provide?

First, it is completely free, and you can easily email the URL of a profile to a family member or fellow researcher. Second, FamilySearch has billions of records that you can easily attach as sources to each profile you create, making it easy for another researcher to view the sources that back up the details. Third, you can also easily upload photos, stories, and audio to a profile and tag each person involved in the memory so it shows up on their profile page. Fourth and last, FamilySearch is not going away. The tree will still be here and growing when we’re all gone. Because of the commitment to family history work by FamilySearch’s head, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, you can rest assured your information will be safeguarded and preserved – all for free.

After I finish a research project, my final step is to make sure all appropriate sources are added to an ancestor’s FamilySearch profile, and relationships are updated. This can include either creating a new profile for a child, sibling, etc. discovered in the research, or merging multiple identities. In this post, I’ll share some tips I’ve learned through the years about merging identities and illustrate through the case of Angeline Weatherford and Susan Louisa Algeline Weatherford- the same woman.

Angeline Weatherford

When I first began researching the family of Henderson Weatherford and Clemsy Cline, I had only two census records to go on to fill out their children’s profiles on FamilySearch: the 1850 and 1860 censuses. Angeline Weatherford appears only in the 1860 census as an 8-year-old girl.

1850 Census Morgan County, Missouri ¹

Henderson Wetherford, 35, farmer, $300 real estate, Tennessee
Clemsy Wetherford 30 Alabama
Eliza Jane Wetherford 10 Arkansas
Mary Ann Wetherford 6 Arkansas
John W Wetherford 4 Arkansas
Clemsy D Wetherford 2 Arkansas
Telitha Cline 10 Arkansas
John Cline 8 Arkansas

1860 Census Dallas County, Texas ²

H Weatherford 45 blacksmith, $400 real estate, 450 personal, Ark
Clemsey Weatherford, 35, Illinois. Cannot read or write
John Weatherford 14, Missouri, attended school in the last year
Clemsey D Weatherford, 12, Missouri, attended school in the last year
Amanda M Weatherford, 9, Missouri, attended school in the last year
Angeline Weatherford, 8, Missouri, attended school in the last year
Isabella Weatherford, 2, Missouri, attended school in the last year

I added the family of Henderson and Clemsy to FamilySearch with the 1860 census as the only source for Angeline.

Susan Louisa Algeline Weatherford

Several years later, I embarked on an involved research project to determine Clemsy Cline’s father. I included DNA in the project and discovered matches coming through a woman named Susan Louisa Algeline Burch Sanders. One of the family trees named her as “Algea Weatherford” with no parents named. Could this be Angeline Weatherford? I started reviewing the sources and found that her location in the 1870 census of Union, Benton County, Missouri, correlated with her mother, Clemsy, and some of her siblings who were also living in the county or neighboring counties. Correlating her age on the census of 1852 in Missouri with the Angeline Weatherford in Henderson and Clemsy’s family, I deduced that this was the same woman. Another interesting fact to correlate was that our ancestor, Dora “Algie” Royston, was almost certainly named after her Aunt Algeline, her mother’s sister. We had often wondered about this unusual name, but discovering Algeline made sense.

I found a profile on the FamilySearch Family Tree for Algeline, with parents listed as Green Weatherford and Sarah. Several sources were attached so I reviewed each one and found several anomalies.

Two 1880 censuses were attached as sources. One showed “Azzarine” as single female in a family, and the other showed “S. L. A. Sanders,” a married woman in Collin County with her husband Sanders and children Ida S. Sanders, Chas Ingram, and John Ingram.

The profile for Algeline also showed an 1860 census for a Susan Weatherford, age 5, in the household of Green W. Weatherford and Sarah of Franklin County, Missouri. This appeared to be a different person altogether.

The 1910 census attached to Algeline was for widowed Alga Ingram, in the household of her son, John W. Ingram. Also in the household was a Charlie Weatherford, hired hand, age 14. The family lived in Maysville township, Garvin County, Oklahoma.

Reviewing my family tree, I found that Charlie was likely Charles Weatherford, Algeline’s nephew and the son of Samuel Henderson Weatherford. Born in 1896, he fit the profile of a male age 14 in 1910. Samuel Henderson Weatherford and family lived in the Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory in 1900. That area would become Oklahoma in 1907 with statehood and encompassed Garvin County. Samuel had moved to Texas by 1910, and his son Charlie likely stayed behind to help his aunt for a time.

AsI reviewed each source, the family connections, shared locations, and DNA connections, I felt I had enough evidence for me to determine that Algeline belonged in the Henderson Weatherford family, not the Green Weatherford family.

Merging Angeline and Algeline

The first step in merging is to make sure you’ve done your homework and clearly identified the individual with spouses, children, and details such as birth, marriage, and death. You can do this in a research log or by attaching the records to your Ancestry tree or your tree in software such as RootsMagic or Family Tree Maker. With the details straight in your tree, you can start the merging process. I used my Ancestry tree to attach the records and adjust relationships, then I could refer back to it as I corrected the profile on FamilySearch.

Next, note the ID numbers of both parties. I write these down on paper to make sure I don’t lose track of either person. Next, you click “merge by ID” under tools on the right side of the details page. A screen will appear that lets you compare. Because I have few details for Angeline, the algorithm thought that this was likely not a correct merge. My research showed otherwise, so I’m comfortable with the merge. This is a nice feature so you can approach this carefully. Note: this is an updated merge experience so that it will look different from past experiences with merging.

Once I went ahead with the merge, I had a profile that needed cleaning up. Two sets of parents, some incorrect sources, etc. I deleted the incorrect census records and added several reason statements along with an alert note directing viewers to read research reports I had written for Clemsy Cline. When you click on “collaborate,” you can set the alert. I typed in a basic timeline and my reasoning for the merge. You can view the profile and sources here: Susan Louisa AlgelineWeatherford.

A final piece of evidence is the physical similarity between Algeline and her sister, Isabella. Isabella’s photo was taken about 1905, and Algeline’s perhaps in the 1920s.

Although the FamilySearch algorithm deemed the merge unlikely, with solid research into all the members of the Weatherford family, correlation of the records, genetic evidence, migration and shared localities, and naming patterns, I felt confident Angeline from the 1860 census was truly Algeline.

If you have a similar case, be sure to carefully construct the research independently from the FamilySearch Family Tree, then do the work to merge.

Best of luck in all your research endeavors!

1. “1850 U.S. Census, Morgan County, Missouri, population schedule, Buffalo, p. 270 (stamped), dwelling 726, family 726, Henderson Weatherford household; digital image, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 1 Jan 2019); citing NARA microfilm publication M432, roll 408.
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2. 1860 U.S. Census, Dallas County, Texas, population schedule, Scyene post office, page 120 (penned), dwelling 834, family 835, H. Weatherford household; digital image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com: accessed 1 Jan 2019); citing NARA microfilm publication M653 roll 1292.