having to do with data integrity - I maintain a coldfusion database at a small shop that keeps addresses of different contacts. These contacts sometimes contain notes in them.

When you are merging two duplicate contacts, one may be created in 2002 and one in 2008. If the contact in 2002 has notes prior to 2008, my question would be does it matter if you merge these contacts and keep the 2008 contact's ID number? Would that affect the data integrity or create any sort of issues with the notes earlier than 2008?

I hope I've accurately described my scenario, as I am not familiar with the proper technical terms.

I really appreciate the help sir!