Incorrect Family Names

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RevWJones
Posts: 53
Joined: Mon Aug 15, 2005 1:58 pm
Location: Ypsilanti, Michigan
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Incorrect Family Names

Post by RevWJones »

Has anyone else experienced this issue: We've noticed several families with incorrect Family Names. Our Secretary is in the midst of cleaning up our database as we have many families moving here and there. She noted today that several personal profiles have incorrect family names. These family names are also elsewhere in our database with their proper families.

We don't know what the magnitude of this problem is in our database but we are concerned that this is just the beginning.

Please if you've seen this problem, please let me know what you've done about it.

Rev. Wardell Jones
Data

NeilZ
Posts: 10209
Joined: Wed Oct 08, 2003 1:20 am
Location: Dexter NM
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Re: Incorrect Family Names

Post by NeilZ »

RevWJones wrote:Has anyone else experienced this issue: We've noticed several families with incorrect Family Names. Our Secretary is in the midst of cleaning up our database as we have many families moving here and there. She noted today that several personal profiles have incorrect family names. These family names are also elsewhere in our database with their proper families.

We don't know what the magnitude of this problem is in our database but we are concerned that this is just the beginning.

Please if you've seen this problem, please let me know what you've done about it.

Rev. Wardell Jones
Data
Rev. Jones,

Oft times this happens because the kids have a different last name due to a remarriage. Other times its because when people are adding contributions they may be reading off an old check with a former name.

There are two ways to keep this from happening:
  • 1) The main thing is training. Make sure those adding people to the database first verify that there are no other records for the family or person in the system. This is easy to do in the Add New Family wizard. Simply enter the last name of the person you want to add, then click on the Next button. The system will then look for records with the same last name, and it will list any Family Mailing List or Personal Profile records found on the database.

    9 times out of 10, you'll find the person already in the database with this method.

    2) The database should be checked for duplicate records on a regular basis. At one church, I checked monthly because we were adding new families to the system weekly. Not necessarily new members, but we tracked all checks donated, as well as attendance for follow ups.
This helps to keep the system up to date.
Neil Zampella

Using PC+ since 1999.

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