What would you like to know more about?

Combine Duplicate Families

With the Combine Families process, you can find duplicate family records and combine them into one record.

  1. Back up your data.
  2. On the File menu in your PDS program, click System Processes > Combine Families.
  3. If this is the first time you're using this process, options display to build a list of duplicates. If you've built a list before, click Rebuild This List of Families to see these options.
  4. Select how you want to match duplicate families, then click Build List.
  5. Click a record in the grid to see why it's listed as a possible duplicate.
  6. For each family you want to combine, click Review Details Before Combining Families. The information that doesn't match between the records shows in red.
  7. Select the checkbox beside the data you want to keep. The mismatched information (the data you don't select) will be deleted.
    Note: If you need to do more research to determine what the correct information is for the family, click Print Worksheet, and come back to this process later.
  8. To combine the families into one record with the data you selected, click Combine Families.
  9. Click Yes when you're ready to combine the families.

Combine Families Manually

You can combine family records that aren't necessarily duplicates.

  1. Back up your data.
  2. On the File menu in your PDS program, click System Processes > Combine Families.
  3. If this is the first time you're using this process, options display to build a list of duplicates. Since you know which records you want to combine, click Cancel.
  4. Click the Select Families Manually tab.
    1. In the top grid, select the family you want to combine with another.
    2. In the bottom grid, select the matching family to combine.
  5. Click View Family Details. The information that doesn't match between the records shows in red.
  6. Select the checkbox beside the data you want to keep. The mismatched information (the data you don't select) will be deleted.
    Note: If you need to do more research to determine what the correct information is for the family, click Print Worksheet, and come back to this process later.
  7. To combine the families into one record with the data you selected, click Combine Families.
  8. Click Yes when you're ready to combine the families.

Watch & Learn

Learn how to combine duplicate family records or duplicate member records in your Office program. 6 min 51 sec

It may take a minute for the video to display. To watch in full screen mode, click the expand icon in the video player.

To watch more videos, visit the PDS Video Library.