Transform Chaos into Clarity: Organizing Your Merging and Separating Cases

Welcome to the first of three blog posts about our upcoming Merging and Separating Identities course—where we tackle one of genealogy’s toughest challenges: distinguishing between same-named individuals—and today we’re starting with the single most essential technique taught in the course that transforms overwhelming chaos into clarity.

One Technique That Transforms Chaos into Clarity: Organizing Your Merging and Separating Cases

If you’ve ever stared at a mountain of records for multiple same-named individuals and felt completely overwhelmed, you’re not alone. One of the most common challenges genealogists face is knowing how to organize dozens—sometimes hundreds—of records when trying to merge or separate identities. The good news? There’s one essential tool that can transform that chaos into clarity: a well-designed spreadsheet.

Why Spreadsheets Are Non-Negotiable

When you’re dealing with a merging and separating (M/S) case, you’re essentially trying to solve a complex puzzle. You might have many records for “John Smith” in the same county during the same time period, and you need to figure out which records belong to which person. Without a systematic way to organize and analyze this information, you’ll find yourself constantly re-doing work, missing critical details, and losing track of your rationale.

A spreadsheet isn’t just a nice-to-have for M/S cases—it’s a must. Unless you’re dealing with a very simple case (and let’s be honest, those are rare), you need the power of a spreadsheet to manage large quantities of information efficiently. The type doesn’t matter—Excel, Google Sheets, AirTable—use whatever works best for you. What matters is that you can easily add or change rows and columns as your case evolves.

The Three-Section Framework

An effective M/S spreadsheet has three distinct sections:

The Source Section (typically highlighted in one color) This section captures everything about where the information came from:

Record type (census, deed, probate, etc.)
Event date and recording date (use month numbers, not names, for easier sorting)
Event location at the time and present-day location name
Live hyperlinks to online records and links to offline files on your computer
Each record is assigned a number for easy reference

Excel image courtesy of Jan Joyce, Course Coordinator

The Descriptors Section (the largest section) This is where the magic happens. Create columns for every possible descriptor:

Names (including variations, middle names, initials, prefixes, suffixes)
Ages and birth years
Spouse names and children’s names
Occupations
Property descriptions and locations
Signatures or marks (literacy indicators)
Associates and witnesses (FAM & FAN Club members)
Religious affiliations, ethnicities, migration patterns

Start with our comprehensive template and adapt it if you need to. Don’t worry if it seems overwhelming; you can hide columns you don’t need and add new ones as patterns emerge.

AirTable image courtesy of Linda Rogers, 2025 course student

The Labeling & Clustering Section This is where you begin to separate individuals and track your thinking:

Labels for each emerging identity (like “Maryland Henry” or “Late Bloomer Henry”)
Individual rationale (WHY you grouped certain records together)
Cluster groupings (for FAM and FAN Club members)
Action items (records to seek, correlations to make, questions to answer)

The Power of Granular Detail

Here’s a critical principle: create columns with granular detail. One piece of information per column. This might seem tedious at first, but it’s what enables powerful analysis. Instead of cramming “John Smith, age 34, farmer, married to Mary” into one cell, separate these into individual columns. This allows you to sort by age across all records, filter by occupation, or group by spouse name—revealing patterns you’d never spot otherwise.

From Gathering to Grouping: The Process

The workflow is deceptively simple but profoundly effective:

Step 1: Gather Everything First

Don’t start analyzing while you’re still collecting. Gather all sources first, including negative searches and negative findings. These “no results” are often as valuable as the records you find.

Step 2: Squeeze Every Descriptor

Go through each source and extract every possible descriptor. Read word-by-word, line-by-line. Look at who witnessed the document. Note seemingly minor details about property descriptions. Hypothesize or infer descriptors when possible based on legal implications (age of majority, for example).

Step 3: Sort Repeatedly by Different Descriptors

Here’s where spreadsheets show their power. Sort your records by each descriptor—one at a time, then in combinations. Sort by wife’s name and watch records cluster. Sort by location and see geographic patterns. Sort by date and create instant timelines. Each sort reveals different possible groupings.

Step 4: Label and Provide Rationale

As identities emerge from your sorting, label them. Use descriptive labels that make sense to you: “42-Acre Henry,” “Litigious John,” “Clara’s Husband.” Color-code the rows by identity. But here’s the crucial part: always document your rationale. Why did you group these records together? What evidence supports it? Your future self will thank you.

The Features That Save Hours

Take advantage of spreadsheet features that make M/S work efficient:

Freeze panes so headers stay visible while scrolling through hundreds of rows
Hide columns when there’s too much information to scan at once
Split screen to compare two potential identities side-by-side
Cell comments to add analysis, confidence levels, or questions
Hyperlinks to jump directly to sources or reference materials
Version management to save snapshots when you make major grouping decisions

Real Results from Real Students

When testing these organizing methods with students working on a common dataset of multiple Henry Dewitts in 1820s Ohio, the results were remarkable. Students used various formats—Excel, Google Sheets and AirTable —but those who implemented the systematic spreadsheet approach made the most progress. For the course, they labeled and separated four different Henrys, color-coded their groupings, documented their rationale, and identified what additional research was needed. For their own work, many noted that they wouldn’t have seen critical patterns without being able to sort and filter the data.

The Bottom Line

Less narrative, more categorization. That’s the mantra. You’re not writing a story in your spreadsheet cells—you’re creating a database that reveals patterns. Keep entries concise and focused. Let the spreadsheet do what it does best: organize, sort, filter, and help you see connections.

All your notes and rationale should live in the spreadsheet, not scattered across multiple documents. Make it your single source of truth for the case. When you’re stuck, go back to the spreadsheet and try sorting by a descriptor you haven’t focused on yet. The answer is often hiding in plain sight, waiting for the right sort order to reveal it.

Organizing data effectively is the foundation of successful merging and separating work. It’s not glamorous, but it’s the difference between drowning in records and confidently identifying which John Smith is yours.

Learn more and register here: https://familylocket.com/product/merging-and-separating-identities/

This blog post was edited with the help of artificial intelligence.