The Big Tree or World Tree

Private User, you're already connected to the world family tree.

As for the benefit, I'll direct you to this. https://www.geni.com/worldfamilytree/learn-more

Collaboration on a single world tree is the goal of Geni.

I'm not sure if I'm connected to the world tree or not. The Geni user tips page "How to see if you're a member of the world family tree" is not very helpful; it shows an example statistics box that is shown on the world family tree page. But "my" statistics box does not look like the example: it has two columns, one for me on the left and one for my husband (on the right). At the top of the box it says "You are connected to XXX million...". So that should mean I'm connected to the world tree, right? BUT: Below this it lists blood relatives and ancestors for me and my husband. And while I have 747 ancestors, he has 5,000! So is it only through him I'm connected to the world tree? If I were single, would my statistics box still claim I was connected to XXX millions?

Job Waterreus Nota Bene voor onze tutorial...

Anna Maria Norberg,

On the profile page page of any profile you can see the path between that profile and your profile (It may take Geni some time to calculate it).
When you try a number of profiles you know that are on the World tree and all paths go through your husbands profile it it very likely that your only connection to the word tree is through your husbands profile.

When there is no path between a profile and your profile it means that your profile or the other profile is not on the Word tree (is in a separate tree).
You already know your profile is on the World tree so the other would be in a separate tree (or was added so recently to the World tree that it is not indexed yet).

Hi Job,
Thank you so much for taking the time to explain this to me! Now I have a better understanding of how the world tree works. And I'll start looking at the path between world tree profiles and my own, to see if they all go through my husband...

I'm sooooo confused, and seeking help- not sure if this is the correct forum, but will give it a try. I have a basic account. I am connected to the world tree (that's actually why I use this site). I have found a census record on a relative of mine that I have in the tree- referencing a cousin and their family that he was styaing with at the time. I looked up the newly found relative- and see that their is a profile for that person- but as I have a basic account- I can't access it. Can basic accounts search the Big Tree?
The FAQ states: If you are already in the Big Tree, you can visit any person's profile, and check the line at the top of their profile. If it says "You are connected to XXX" (with the option of finding out the actual connection through the function button, "how are you related?"), then you are both in the same tree; that is, the big tree.

But I can't seem to access that. Ideas/Tips? Thanks.

No, basic can’t use geni search. For public profiles finding them in google works well but your living cousin won’t show, and of course you want to join the geni trees together. Maybe try a common ancestor and walk down the tree until you can reach his profile? Then “follow” it & use contact manager to reach him / her.

For basic users it helps to collaborate with other users. with Geni search you can find any profile you yourself manage, but also any profile of a manager to collaborate with.
So it you do collaborate with most of the users that are working in your part of the tree you can find most profiles in that part of the tree using Geni search.
For family you can add them to your family group to allow them to find and edit private profiles as well.
There is some help documentation available on: https://www.geni.com/projects/Geni-Start-Here-Basics/17603, https://www.geni.com/projects/A-to-Z-of-Help-Topics/38243 and https://www.geni.com/projects/Geni-Help-Portal/17503 or more specific: https://www.geni.com/projects/User-Tutorial-Searching/37608
Also please look at https://www.geni.com/company/privacy and https://www.geni.com/account_settings/profile_privacy/ and https://www.geni.com/account_settings/managed_profiles.
Sometimes it can be hard to find a profile you visited before.
If you made any changes to that profile then these may help:
The activity tab on your own profile
https://www.geni.com/account_settings/download_activity

Thank you for your follow up. So- if I understand this correctly- with a basic account I can't see the one world tree that my data is attached to? And when you mention collaborating- I did try a work around- setting up a profile of someone that I have data on that a profile already exists on (haven't linked them to my tree- because that's the issue- I know there is a link- just can't figure out what it is yet without talking to the profile manager)- but that didn't work- I got an alert that a profile already exists, but did not give me the option to merge as I'm sure I was once able to.

With a basic account you can see public profiles in the tree of other managers, but not private profiles (profiles of living persons or profiles of people died recently that where not made public by the manager).
If the profile is public you should be able to find it using a search engine like Google (if you use google to search you can add site:geni.com/people after the the name to search only Geni for the profile)

If you want to collaborate it is important to get some knowledge about Geni so you should read the documentation and get familiar with how Geni works.
Because a profile can have multiple managers there are some conventions on what to put into the name fields (that can be depended on the part and period of the tree you work on). So you may want to ask a curator that is familiar with that part of the tree (see https://www.geni.com/curators) to help you find relevant information and may be also point you to users that may want to collaborate. For that you may also look at this project: https://www.geni.com/projects/Collaboration-Pool

Re: I got an alert that a profile already exists, but did not give me the option to merge as I'm sure I was once able to.

Basic members can merge and do all the time. But you have to get to the actual profile, you can’t get to it from the blue tree match.

If you cannot find it by using a search engine like Google you can try to locate it by going through the profiles on https://www.geni.com/search/surname_index or https://www.geni.com/surnames.