Hey tlman12,
When you boot a device into WinPE, the device will send a Mini-Scan to the core with a basic amount of data for the device. The identifier for this Mini-Scan is typically the NIC Address. See here:
You'll be able to get provisioning history here once you start a template. Once the device is provisioned and named, the Inventory Service will identify the duplicate ID and merge the two together.
Thanks
Aaron