Sten - I have tested out Geni's "how are you related to ?" feature and it amazingly finds links to every single person I can imagine to try out. I think I'm up to 8 presidents, several movie stars. It's a riot! It's either a joke or it is now obvious that when our ancestors came to the US - it has created a situation which is the equivalent to sending 1000 families to colonize the moon. Everyone will become related to one another in some way eventually, if they already are not.
Well, I was on the account of my wife, and for some strange reason the whole bottom menu line was gone... Not fully set up for Geni access as yet, Flash plug-in is missing. Otherwise I for sure know where to look, also my Japanese is good enough to read "Eigo" or Nihongo in Japanese kanji, so that wasn't the problem :)
Alex, believe me, your pedigree will merge faster than you'd believe! We're cousins several times over when we really get into it. Take a penny. Double it every day for a month. See how many names that is? That's also how fast you'll need the collaboration of every genealogist you can. With the net helping us, it's still a huge job. Fact is, we find ourselves playing in each others' sandbox ever faster, because of the rapid research we enjoy today. My two cents. :)
Private User
I started doing family history research about 15 years ago (when I was 13). I think it was the data side of things that has caught me (and yes, now I have a job working with data!). Even now, I find it amazing just how interconnected we all are. I have done extensive South Australian research which I am slowly making my way through putting on here. Am happy to help where I can.
It still blows me away why you want permission to access everyones family Tree. If your a known relative and our trees cross over for each other, I can see this. I have alot of merge issues as well. But if my tree get merged with most of them, my Family Tree is ruin because they are no way related to ME! We just happen to share a last name, but still not a relative!
Dennis Blake
Who wants to access everyones family tree?! What a terrible horrible disgrace! We are doomed, I say. This is the ultimate outcome of genealogical research combined with crowdsourcing and friendly people being interested in our well guarded and online secrets, my friends. And all of this, our very own dearest Geni site even. Imagine the nerve! I demand all sorts of stuff to be stopped immediately by premium customer service (I am Pro)!! Severe punishments must be dished out, responsibles brought to justice! Merge them into Charlemagne, or something. This is just too much for my tender nerves, I'll logoffski my puter before I blow away too…
:P
One of my main reasons to being a collaborator (and I think for many of us) maybe is not to necessarily merge trees, but, for me anyways, to possibly to discover with other people if we have any mutual lines, ant if we do, to see if we can exchange information with that collaborator to get the missing lines of relatives/ancestors for our trees.
That is what it means for me to be a collaborator. Not always to go into someones tree with the intent of merging it with mine!!!!!!
I recently had that experience, Roy. It took a year or more but eventually we built bridges, profile by profile, to the "common ancestors.". It was pretty satisfying to feel - "I thought there might be a connection!". And surprising that it was more roundabout. Could never have done a straight merger.
I welcome the help. There are some areas of the tree I am sure of and some that I need help with. My tree goes into the American revolution, Norway , Germany, England etc. Since I don't speak some of these languages it is always good to talk to somebody who does when I don't understand something. Sometimes I just look down my tree to see if the dates make sense. Even I know that a child can't be born before its parents , but sometimes mistakes are made because of similar or same names in the generations.
The thing is when people request to collaborate, often they don't indicate any real connection. they like to day how many thousands of profiles they have but they almost never indite any direct connection and I mean direct not 100 times removed ( I know that an exaggeration) but you know what I mean. I might be willing to collaborate if there was an actual connection. Like a real cousin. A real blood related cousin or aunt or uncle ete.
You're right Alex. Now I'm very confused.
The change last year means that Pro's can change and/or merge any Public profiles without having to bother to collaborate.
The only remaining use for collaborating is for those few fields that are not inserted into revisions. Presumably this will be corrected in the near future.
Why would someone want to be a collaborator with me? They can (and do) change my public profiles anyway. Am I missing something? What does collaboration do now?