Some embodiments of the present invention include a system and method for removing duplicate records from a group of records in a database system. The method includes generating a first cluster of records from the group of records, generating a second cluster of records from the group of records, identifying sets of duplicate records in the first cluster of records, and identifying sets of duplicate records in the second cluster of records. The method also includes merging at least two sets of duplicate records associated with both the first cluster and the second cluster of records to form a merged set of duplicate records. The merging is performed based on the at least two sets of duplicate records having a common record. Duplicate records in the group of records may then be removed by removing duplicate records from the merged set of duplicate records.