# Tools: Merging records

This tool removes duplicates among persons in the database. The tool shows a prompting window where you must select a record to remain and a record to delete (or give this choice to GEDKeeper). When the removed person has links, they may be moved into the remaining person.

When two records are combined into one (merging records), all data for persons is combined without substitution and without distortion - pure addition. This means that if each person had links to parents - the combined person will receive two links to the families of parents. This is not an error situation and is acceptable by the standard. The reason is simple - one person can have a link to the family of biological parents, a link to the family of guardians, a link to the family of adoptive parents and other subtypes. Accordingly, there may be a situation when the search came to one person in the database from two different sides and the person was entered twice: for example, once as a child with his biological parents, and the second time as an adult, with information about the adoptive parents and his own family. When merging, a single record will receive all this information, after which it only needs to be checked and sorted.

It is recommended to search for duplicates with "Check the year of birth" option turned on (from the "Options" tab). This reduces the number of false operations.

Search for duplicate persons can be carried out with the option of indistinct matching of names with a specified inaccuracy enabled - this will allow you to find different variants with slight differences in the spelling of the name.

This tool also processes notes, families, and sources.