ATTENTION Curators, please assist

Thank you Bjorn. You are right, it is. But what I find is, once you merge with someone whose profiles are private, and they refuse to accept you as part of their family group, you cannot see the profile.

ie. Before the merge, I could see Rachel Samuel Cohen Belinfante's husband Jacob Pereira's profile. Now I cannot.

Does that make sense Bjorn?

Or maybe what I should have done was duplicated my own profile of "Jacob Pereira" so that when we merge, we would both be managers of the same profile?

Or, maybe I should have chosen my own profiles over the other managers similar profile when merging and then I would be able to view them!

Hope I am making sense Bjorn. I just find that when I merge with some profiles and the person is not in my family group, I cannot view them. Should I be requesting to "collaborate" or request to "have them in my family group"?

Tried asking the managers of the Jacob Pereira profile to make it public?

It was incorrectly marked as living, so I corrected it, but only family members or a manager can make it public for you as long as it falls within some users family group range.

All the children is already public profiles, - which by the way contains duplicates you can merge, so it must just be a mistake that this specific profile was living and private.

An alternative is asking to become a co-manager of the border-line profiles between your family trees.

BTW: You cannot make a public profile of Jacob Pereira and expect that a curator can merge it into the private profile for you, because it is way out of your own family group range.

Thank you Bjorn.

The profile still says "private" though.

often the reason why a profile is private is because that person is still 'living'.
it happened to me more than once that profiles i added in profile view were 'living' and, by default, 'private'. even when i changed the status afterwards to 'deceased' it was still private. to make it public requires an extra step.

in this particular case i don't expect manager HZR to respond to your request. the other one might.
good luck

Yes, in this case Rachel was born 1816 so her husband Jacob Pereira is likely not living. Still remains private like you said.

Thank you very much rvk. I understand what you are implying.

Merges cannot be reversed, wrong connections can be split and a new copy of the falsely merged profile must be recreated.

be aware of the fact that Rachel now has 2 sets of parents...

oops!

just merge them..

I have a question: Why is it that when I add family members at the bottom of the page and go beyond the spaces allowed, I end up loosing some or all of the people when I have clicked on the "add" tab??? Then I have to figure out who is now missing and go back & add that person(s) in where there are blank spaces/lines. Often times these are brothers/sisters or children not in my direct line and I may or may not have much info on them, but would like to include them in the profile.
Thanks for any help,
Pat

I always add people in Tree-view.

Patricia.....you don't lose them....they go BEYOND the screen's capability....you need to 'click on' the 'CLOUD' at the top of the profile and the screen will then advance UP to the next level; or click on any 'cloud' and it will advance DOWN to that person's next generation downward.

If I am in the person's profile, it just seems easier to stay there to add the extra bro/sis or children.
Where is the 'CLOUD'?? I have basic membership and don't see any clouds anywhere on the profile. Am I just not looking at the profile rite??? When I click on the "+Add another immediate family member" it gives me another 1 or 2 lines but those are the ones that will not always show up when I click on "Add Family".

Tree view

Patricia

Start the "add family" screen from tree view if you can (I cannot). It's funky from profile view and much better from tree view.

Thanks. will try it that way next time.

The problem with entering people thru profile view is that there is no place for any middle name, so it appears as part of the first name.....which means that the only way to call it up is with both names in given-name field, and requires editing.

It requires more steps (1 more) to add people in tree view and then go to the profile view to add info to the 'about me' and other fields (relationships, personal data, work, schooling).

I never use Add Family. Much better to add one at a time through the tree, then go to the profile as Fay says.

I actually will add all the children and maybe the dates of birth and place and THEN go to the profile view and add all the rest of the data...including the 'about me'.

I will take this time to remind EVERYONE that it is VERY IMPORTANT to add something into each 'about me' for every person regarding their parents, dates and places of birth, spouses, and children......

It is the perfect time to do so....since you have the data right in front of you....

If not only protects the integrity of the profile against mis-matches.....but, in light of the MEGA-MESS that some are facing because of misquided matches, is wise to do......UNDOING wrong matches are a very BIG thing to deal with when there is no guide ('about me' info) to help make corrections or know who is correct and who is not..

"A stitch in time saves nine"

P.S. I have quite a few to update myself.....

I tried adding some cousins on my Dad's side of the family thru the Tree View & it was easy, so will do it this way from now on. Often times in the past I didn't have a middle name, but would put the maiden name in ( ) after the 1st name so it would show then go into the profile edit and fix it there. Seeing the maiden name often helps me be sure I have the right person & branch, so I like to see it displayed. Seeing a woman's first & married last name is often confusing, esp if there is more than 1 marriage and children from each wife. Good potential for getting the children with the wrong mother!!!

Thanks for your suggestions. Including the children with dates is one of the ways I have of hopefully decreasing some of the confusion when merges are necessary, esp. if I have little or no info on those children.

Patricia,

Are you aware of the preferences you can set in tree view (name tab)?
It would probably help you to put the maiden name in birth surname and choose birth surname appended in parentheses.
You can also specify to show middle names.

Job thank you very much for that reminder - the way you have it set is what I prefer also.

Where in tree view do you do that? I also know there is a tree setting preference where names are not automatically derived from a spouse, can you remind on that?

http://www.geni.com/account_settings/name_preferences

Is where you set the overall view.

Patricia....I dont know where you are in the time line for your entries.....I also find it easier (IF I am the only one working the more recent profiles) to use the maiden/birth name for women.....

Put the name in both the surname field AND birth surname (you obviously were not on Geni when there was a LONG discussion regarding the non-PC use of the phrase "maiden name".....which was subsequently changed to read "birth surname" (there are also some men who changed names....).

IF I am the only manager I use the birth surname for women.....as you said, it helps to determine who is who....

As people join you as co-managers (and some will change the surname to the husband's name) you will still have the birth name in the 'birth surname field...

You can also put the name into the 'display name field'......with the first name, married name, then (maiden name)

Whatever you choose to do....you CAN enter the info into the about me that lets people know that, i.e. ( Mary Smith was dau. of Joseph Smith and Mary Adams ). If you have dates and places...great.....if not, at least people have a better chance of picking the right 'match' to make.

As to 'tree matches'.....they are ONLY POTENTIAL MATCHES......in NO WAY are they meant to suggest that they are correct......(they are just Geni's best guesses for possible matching).....YOU are the one that has to make that decision........and if you find a probable GOOD match.....go to COMPARE......to see the data more fully.....

You can 'hover' over any name on the compare to find out more about that particular person.....(parents,spouse, etc, birth date, birth location)......to compare it to YOUR data....

Again, do NOT merge unless you are sure that the people involved (all the people) are the exact same..

Do NOT be afraid to 'decline' any 'match' that you are not sure of.......it does not get dropped from the tree....it just goes back into space..... waiting for its proper placement....

Whatever info you have should be in the 'about me' (in the event a mismatch does occur, then you will at least know which combination is correct....and can get help in fixing the problem of wrong parents or wrong spouse, or wrong children)....the more info, the better in 'about me'.

Erica & Patricia,

On the bottom of the tree view window you wil find:
Navigate / Goto ... / Preferences

Choose Preferences

Then you wil get another menu:
Display / Names / Revisions / Advanced

Choose Names

You get still another menu:

Do not display Birth surnames
Birth surname instead of last name
Birth surname instead of last name, in CAPS
Birth surname appended in parentheses (tree only)
Birth surname appended in parentheses

Choose the setting you prefer

There is also a similar setting on http://www.geni.com/account_settings/name_preferences
If English is nor your first language you might also want to look at:
http://www.geni.com/account_settings/language_selector
and
http://www.geni.com/account_settings/localization/
You can also find a date format setting in the tree view preferences in the Advanced menu

You might also try to change the setting Do not guess last names in the names submenu in the preference menu for the tree view

Thanks for all of your help & suggestions. I have a basic GENi membership for a couple of years now and have been slowly adding family members and working on all of the different branches esp. on my mom's side of the family. When I have had a problem or challenge along the way a several curators have been very helpful in answering my questions in working with GENi. I really appreciate how helpful everyone is in the GENi system. Have saved all of your comments and will add them to my GENi notebook for future use (in case I forget) and will start applying what I have learned here.

Again, thank you for taking your time & expertise to answer my questions.
Pat