How to merge 100+ polygons without loosing data

[GracePowell]

Hi. I am a student and learning ArcPro, so stick with me here. 

I am working on a project with land owner polygons. I have about 100 land owners, but in order to see them all at once I have to select all of them. I want to merge them all so I can query by year, last name, acres, etc. The data is messy and so there are some overlap fields, etc.. 

Below is what I did. 

1) merge data by year. 

2) merge all years together to create a layer with all data. 

The problem is that some off that data is missing. There are over 100 polygons, however in the master merge, I have about 70 fields. Can anyone help me manage the data in a better  way? 

Thanks!

[ChristopherMask]

@GracePowell 

The easiest approach is to do the following:

1) Create a File geodatabase using ArcCatalog.

2) Create a new feature class in the new geodatabase.  In this process, you can add the proper individual fields names and types for the layer.

3) Load Data into new feature class. Here you will load the data from the original layer. In this process you will match the fields from the original layer to the new layer. 

I hope this helps.

[GracePowell]

Thank you, that is helpful. I went ahead and did that but the new files wont show in my contents pain as it does automatically in the video. Do you know how to potentially troubleshoot that? 

[ChristopherMask]

Using ArcCatalog, find the new geodatabase -> double click to expand -> right click on new feature class -> add to current map.

[GracePowell]

Is there a way to add it so that there is only one box to toggle on and off the show the feature class, instead of all of them being individual? I'd like to be a ble to query them all at once and turn them off and on at the same time as well.