[windsurfer]

I have a store purchased copy and serial for FTM 2008 and am willing to trade a copy for FTM 2005 with serial. e-mail me

[jyb]

I have moved your post to the correct forum.

[amackert]

I have been using Family Tree Maker for years but I have a question.  I have duplicate names in my"view family names" .  They are the same individuals.  Is there a way of merging them?  It is so time consuming to pull each of them up and delete them by using  edit, sometimes I have information in one member and more information in another. How does it happen that I have so many duplicates?  Thanks Alicemackert@msn

[jimecarr]

Don't know about FTM 2005.  2009 has a tool to help.  If 2005 is similar, go to the menu item Edit, then Find Duplicate People.  This will search for possible duplicates, then list them with a weighting value as to how close they are.  It allows you to compare each possible match for all facts, then you can decide to merge, making facts preferred or alternate.  After the merge, you can fine tune the results with edit.  Pretty painless and quick.  If that feature is not in FTM 2005, consider upgrading.  In fact, there are plenty of improvements and you may find it very helpful to upgrade regardless.

Duplicates get there because you enter them, plain and simple.  You may enter them by manually adding them, or they may get added when you are doing a merge of data found during a web search.  When family names are available to add during the merge, FTM will ask you if you want to merge with an existing individual, add as a new individual, or ignore.  You may be selecting add instead of merging with an existing individual.  I think this is the most likely way they are getting added.  Just watch carefully when doing your merges so that you select the proper action.

Hope this helps.  Good luck.