Deacon Samuel Trowbridge - Questionable merges.

I noticed a series of merges that don't seem very well considered, this being just one of many.

https://www.geni.com/merge/view?revision_id=80495088170

This particular merge brought in an undocumented child Samuel Trowbridge whose dates do not correlate at all with the family group. Some critical inconsistencies: his birthdate of 1786 nearly 29 years after his 'mother's' death; his 'wife' 60 years older than himself; and his 'daughter' 25 years older than himself.

Knowledgeable effort is required to straighten out the consequences of all such merges, partly because sources are rarely included on the relevant profiles, in that many have arrived here through GEDCOM imports.

I haven't done much with the Trowbridge family specifically, although they are among the original American founders (i.e. early settlers, immigrants, businesses, social reformers, government, and landowners/taxpayers/voters), and a few Trowbridges may be my distant cousins or in-laws (name sounds familiar).

In defense of everyone making questionable or 'bad' merges, I would point out that the automated merge suggestions are often wildly impractical and most require real attention to details, itself very time-consuming and probably better left for those who have the time and enthusiasm to work more accurately on it.

But I can see how some may view them as a sort of "To-Do" list that urgently needs to be completed before it grows any bigger. There can sometimes be a sense of falling behind. So although we have the best intentions, only trying to be helpful -- the sheer magnitude and complexity of the work appearing in our Merge Center can be overwhelming at times. Some may not realize that it is okay to "remove match" from many of them, or to simply ignore and leave it for others more familiar with the families.

PS: This particular string of merges, as may be expected, has also left a ton of conflicting duplicates. Unfortunately the system, while wonderful for the most part, isn't completely foolproof.