Need help fixing Colonial American trees? Post it here!

You might want to cross-check that first. Findagrave.com isn't a primary source and can have inaccurate information (if someone submitted the wrong info).

Private User Geni has her born in Haverhill and passing in North Brookfield. A minimum of a days' travel, if by horse. Or 2+ days on foot.

Also, the Essex Institute Historical Collection volumes 27-28, pages 118-119 has Abigail Hale, the daughter of Thomas Hale and Mary Kimball, as being from Brookfield. So does Mass. Vital Records for Boxford - http://ma-vitalrecords.org/MA/Essex/Boxford/aMarriagesH.shtml. Thomas was originally from Boxford and her mother from Bradford. Mary Kimball per Mass. Vital Records for Bradford was the daughter of Richard and Mary.

Emily Kent Marget disconnect done for Mary Hale

I trust your research.

Hi Erica: Thanks for the reply. As a basic member, I am unable to access the full profiles of persons whom I have not added. The search function will only give me a skeletal response. Although geni's home page offers no clues as to how to merge od do anything else, through trial and error I found I could access the help page by clicking on my name of all things and did find somewhat cryptic instructions on merging. From what I gleaned, it appeared I had to access the profile that I wanted to merge with. If I am wrong, or if you have a workaround, please let me know. Thanks.

We have workarounds ! Many Basic members are champion merger people.

Here’s a nice (old) guide on merging:

https://wiki.geni.com/index.php/Profile_merging

You’ll find it easier to access the world family tree now that we’ve got this family merged in, I think, and your contributions in the area are most welcome.

There is a google trick to finding profiles, I use it all the time (faster).

Geni Name date Spouse

Erica Howton Thanks

Henry Heater I am a Basic user and NEVER use the Geni search. (It's cumbersome and invokes a paywall.) I always use Google on the man and the maiden name of the wife. Much faster and profiles found on Google can be accessed by anyone for free! (I will admit that sometimes the parents of the desired couple need to be Googled to get profiles in Geni.) Also, the Google search may direct you to town histories, Find a Grave, etc. involving those two people. As for merging, when you do one, please do the "resolve duplicates" and "resolve data conflicts" that appear after a completed merge. I am cleaning up trees and find unresolved conflicts quite a bit. (Annoying!)

More mess. https://www.geni.com/merge/view?revision_id=69168473050 created a problem. There are 2 Samuel Spoffords that were the sons of Samuel Spofford and Sarah Spafford.

http://ma-vitalrecords.org/MA/Essex/Rowley/aBirthsS.shtml has 2 sons for Samuel & Sarah - "Samuel (Spofferd), s. Samuel and Sarah, Sept. 15, 1677." and "Sammuell (Spofforth), s. Sammuell and Sarah, Feb. 16, 1689"

http://ma-vitalrecords.org/MA/Essex/Rowley/aDeathsS.shtml has "Samuell (Spoferd), s. Samuel, bur. Sept. 23, 1677"

http://ma-vitalrecords.org/MA/Essex/Boxford/aMarriagesS.shtml has "Spoford (Spofford) Samuel, and Sarah Stickney, June 17, 1717" making Samuel born 1689 a more logical choice.

Not sure how to fix this.

Emily Kent Marget To me the easiest solution is to edit the date fields for Samuel Spofford and make a new profile for his died young older brother.

Undoing the merge you saw wouldn’t solve it, as it still carries the wife & children. The brothers were smerged before Aug 2014 - which is the date we can undo no earlier.

And done. Samuel Spofford

Erica Howton Thanks for fixing Samuel Spofford.

Hi Emily: I routinely use google, and sometimes it lets you see the entire geni profile, and sometimes not. Likewise with respect to contacting a profile manager. I have read the general instructions on mergers, which suggest that if you wish to merge a profile managed by someone else, you should contact the profile manager and ask for a merge. I have done so, contacting the manager of Gen Simon Spalding (mp) for a merger with his son's profile (Colonel John Spalding). So far no response. Does a curator have to step in, or is there some way I can unilaterally do the merge?

Capt Henry Edward Heater I admit to just simply doing the merge without notifying the manager.
When you contacted the manager of Gen. Simon Spalding, did you also contact the curator? That can help get the 'ball' rolling a bit faster. (FYI - Some curators are more responsive than others.)
Without the link to Gen. Spalding, I cannot tell if he has locked relationships. The "Revisions" tab will likely tell you what fields are locked on him. It could affect any merge on his children.

Emily: I did not contact the curator. This is the profile: General Simon Spalding MP
Gender: Male
Birth: January 16, 1742
Plainfield, Windham, CT, United States
Death: January 24, 1814 (72)
Sheshequin, PA, United States
Immediate Family:
Son of Simon Spalding and Anne Spalding
Husband of Ruth E Spalding
Father of Col John Spalding; Sarah Spalding; Rebecca Spalding; Mary Spalding; Anna Spalding and 2 others
DNA Markers: details
Added by: Clarissa Greene on April 11, 2011
Managed by: Clarissa Greene, Elizabeth and Michael Wayne Purcell
Curated by: Hatte Blejer on partial hiatus

Capt Henry Edward Heater If it’s a curated profile and a match, go ahead with the merge. Hatte is traveling at the moment. Relationship locked profiles can be merged also - it protects against erroneous family being dragged in. Basically - if profiles are public / deceased in Colonial America (before 1776), and the match is right, merge if you can. If it’s later, a single manager, any uncertainty - contact manager or request a merge.

It is *much* easier to point to the correct profile by copying the URL (the 'web address' at the top of the browser page that has " www.geni.com " in it) and then pasting that URL into the message or reply you are typing.

Such as General Simon Spalding ... which (when you are typing the message) looks something like this (without the extra spaces):
https : // www.geni.com / people / General-Simon-Spalding / 6000000012214055572

Dan Cornett Thanks for showing what I was trying to get from Henry. URL links are necessary to prevent incorrect actions.

Erica Howton, please check the merge you did on Friday. He has conflicting parents and zombie siblings. Thank you.

Corp. William Brooks

Jane Penney (MP) has 2 daughters that look quite similar - Cicely Chapin (MP) and Cicely Chapin (added Feb. 2019)

Thanks for helping clear this issue from the 'tree'.

Private User I unmerged. I don’t know which is correct - Corp. William Brooks or Corp. William Brooks - or if they are the same, but yours has FindAGrave support.

Hope this helps.

Dan: Yes. I acessed the mp using google; however, when I pressed on the url, it would not give me a "copy" option.

Goodman John King, of Weymouth had extraneous parents again. I detached them.

They were the parents of Reverend John Goodman King, Vicar of Abbotts Langley. Thanks to Private User who noticed.

Since I’m on travel, I just detached and locked relationships on Goodman John King, of Weymouth. We should check both profiles next. I’ll return in a couple of days.

Capt Henry Edward Heater This is how I am merging your John Spalding with the existing John Spalding

Tree view > move profile (existing)

Tree view (yours)

Drop existing on top of yours > are they the same ? Yes.

This opens up a merge compare.

Yes, merge these profiles.

Erica Howton Thanks for fixing Cicely Chapin.

There’s a sister conflict here

Sarah Saxton & Sarah Jones with same dates & different husband. Unsourced: I am disconnecting.

Emily Kent Marget uploaded source document

https://media.geni.com/p13/74/0a/ee/bb/5344484c4906104d/d74e3e1a-98...

You might be interested - History of Enfield has several Sarah Parsons born in the early 1720s, might be possible up place her with parents.

Here’s search results in the book

https://books.google.com/books?id=ja0yAQAAMAAJ&lpg=PA1761&o...

Erica Howton I agree with your disconnect of Sarah Jones from Samuel Parsons & Hannah (Hitchcock) Parsons. The last of the Saxton children was born in 1744 and Thomas Jones married a Sarah Parsons in 1742.
Dowling (https://gw.geneanet.org/tdowling?lang=en&n=parsons&oc=2&amp...) does have a brother of Sarah (Parsons) Saxton - Luke - who married a Sarah Osborn. Unfortunately, Dowling does not list all of the children of Sarah's siblings.

Philip Parsons, Jr. Is really the only possible father. The rest of her siblings are in his “about.”

First time I’ve been in the History of Enfield. It looks very complete.

Hi Erica: First, thank you. Second, I have merged duplicate profiles in my tree using the procedure you describe. My question is when I have a profile in my tree that matches an existing profile, how to I get that other profile to appear so that I can move one on top of the other? I assume that you place the less complete profile on top of the more complete one.

Need two windows or tabs. Order of the “drop” doesn’t matter much.

So - your profile window 1, move. Window 2, the other profile. Should see yours on the light box, refresh the window as need be.

Henry Sherman Jr has too many parents: Henry Sherman, of Varina Parish And I suspect that all of them are wrong. Henry Sherman Senior and his wife look like Henry Sherman Junior and his wife with different birthdates. His new set of parents are worse. Henry Junior was born in Virginia but his father John Sherman never left England. His new mother Ann Sparhawke died two years before his birth, and is buried in England even though her death is listed in New Hampshire.