ATTENTION Curators, please assist

Dan,
http://www.geni.com/family-tree#6000000007225501801

Sally Thomas when I expand that link to 3 levels of ancestors, Nathaniel Ide does appear twice - but he has a little green "x2" attached to him, which means that the same person is displayed in 2 places.

He is both the brother of Sarah Lee's maternal grandmother and the husband of her paternal grandmother - the tree-drawing algorithm can't figure out how to draw him once without making the lines totally snarled - so it's resorting to drawing his box in 2 places and marking it with "X2".

(Sorry, Reuben Littlefield, not Sarah Lee.)

As Harald noted, when you see a little x'N' in the lower left corner of a profile, that means they appear 'N' times in that tree view -- just to simplify the drawing, not to indicate they are duplicated profiles! I've actually seen some tree views with x3 or x4 (e.g. where one person married multiple siblings over time).

That x'N' is not a "permanent" thing, it varies, appears, and disappears depending on the current 'focus' person for the Tree View.

Oh! ok... well I guess that explains that! Silly me I thought I was doing some good house keeping by moving them into one.... Thank you kindly for explaining it... :-)

By the way, that x'N' is "clickable" ... it will take you to (re-center the View without changing anything else) the next of those "displayed multiple times" profile occurrences in that Tree View.

With x2, you can go back and forth; if >2, it cycles through them. That let's one see the different "contexts" in which that profile appears.

It happens if, for example, a man marries one woman and she dies and he then married her sister.

Also will appear sometimes if cousins marry....since they are related in 2 different ways.....as husband/wife and as cousins.

It would be nice if Geni would explain the symbols and colours in tree view in a way that most user would easily find. Maybe a link in the bottom of the screen of in a pop-up when you hover over a profile. If you click the help in the bottom of the screen you get a page where you would not know how to find (I'm not sure the information is there to find).
There are other pages (like the search result screen) that could use a link to explain the symbols as well.

Job Waterreus Thanks for your feedback. That is an excellent idea. I'll discuss with the team.

Alex Clayton White

thanks, I think it would help a lot of users.

I think it already IS explained somewhere.....I just am so used to it that I forget WHERE it is.

Yes, - but I don't remember where myself.

It could have been under User Tips in Blog section instead of the FAQ, and this section is unfortunately partly forgotten and sometimes not well maintained, especially wher it links to videos:
http://www.geni.com/blog/geni-user-tips

Bjorn.....I thought it might be under 'Forest;...but it is not.

... and so Job suggests that such 'help' be tied closely to an icon and/or word on the relevant screen. e.g.: when in Tree View, have a direct link/icon that goes to something that explains all the 'widgets' on that screen and what they mean. When in Profile View, that would point to a different "explanation" assist. Somewhat distinct and separate from the "Help" at the bottom of all pages.

I just had occasion to set up a couple who married and were also 1st cousins....so they both ended up with the 2x circle in the tree view.

They are related in two distinct and different ways.

ummn curators, we have a locked profile that needs a change... it needs to reflect in the display name the middle name.
Mary Sheffield's current profile which is now a master profile, does not have her name showing as Mary Ann Sheffield. The vital stats of marriages in RI shows her as Mary Ann Sheffield marrying Asa Tallman. Thus whoever has the authority to change the master profile of Mary Sheffield m. to Asa Tallman, should change the visible name in the profile to Mary Ann, not just Mary. Can we do that please? Her name is Mary Ann, not Mary.... Here is the profile I am referring to....
Mary Sheffield

Sally I think you meant this profile: Mary Ann Tallman

It had been written as Mary Ann Sheffield - can you check and make sure your name preferences are set for "show middle names"

That account setting is here

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

And you want to make sure

Set your preference for general name display:

Ignore display name
Show suffixes
Show middle names

That "show middle names" is ticked ON with a check mark

The default is for it to be off. Took me a long time to discover this myself ....

What I want to do and cannot is make the DISPLAY name as Mary Ann Sheffield, not a display name as Mary Sheffield.

The display name is derived from the field entry, and will show as your own preferences are set. There's no reason to over ride that, is there?

The display, based on my account name preferences, shows to me as

Mary Ann Tallman (Sheffield) in profile view

Do you see something different? Are you in tree view or profile view?

Yep, that's the right Mary Tallman.
Erica... ok, I did check my settings, I think I have it right for future work. Thanks for the tip. Right now I am concerned with making this particular profile show the display name as Mary Ann Sheffield. I ask here because I am not allowed access to the profile which has been made into a master.

When you click on the profile, ( Mary Ann Tallman ) yes, all appears to be right. When you look at my tree it is not... tree = http://www.geni.com/family-tree#6000000007227246392

Sally in profile view it shows to me correctly as written out above. So - confused as to what else would be needed. You may need to refresh the screen so it shows to you similarly as it does to me? (I don't know how your other name preferences are set, including tree display preferences).

Sally thank you for clarifying it's a tree name display issue. That's a different setting.

This FAQ may help

http://help.geni.com/entries/20041587-How-To-Customize-Your-Tree-Di...

You will see a hyperlink to a tab for "names.". I don't know how yours are set or the detail - I don't use tree view - but there is probably a similar customizing option there as well.

Ms. Erica: Geni Shows Elizabeth Lyons 1324 as my 14th ggrandmother: Via the Churchills at Margaret Woodville and Richard Woodville as his great Grandmother....My inquiry shows Elizabeth Bose-Lyon related to John Lyon but I have not seen that in GENI format....does that make Elizabeth Bose-Lyon Queen Mother a Grandaughter of my same Elizabeth Lyons? DCR

Hi Dale

That question is a genealogy one. Would you mind starting a separate discussion from the profile is question? That way the genealogists can dig in and we keep this discussion more focused on application issues.

Many thanks.

Sure, no problem....just saw you and blurted it out! LOL

ok, Erica, I know how to set preferences, vertical, horizontal, no. of gen. showing, etc... My question remains how do I change a master profile, a locked profile, to display on the tree when you look at the tree to show the full name of the individual... Can a curator do that for me, since I cannot? by going into the tree (which I posted a link to here already) and opening the the tree and then the profile, and then the profile and then fill in the blank for display name with the name Mary Ann Sheffield?

Sally it's your TREE "name preferences" that may need adjusting now.

Look at the screen shot here.

http://help.geni.com/entries/20041587-How-To-Customize-Your-Tree-Di...

There's a tab at the bottom of the screen named "preferences.". Click that.

Then there's a hyperlink for "names.". Open it.

I think you will find there that you have "show middle names" set to "do not display" - and that's why you don't see it in tree view.

The MP is set correctly. The change the display name "hard coded" means that if I have my preferences set differently, I don't get the display that's most comfortable for me. So we avoid doing that except in cases like disambiguation, titles, honorifics ... prefixes ...

https://www.geni.com/family-tree/html5#75897699

That's HTML tree view

I see her name as

Mary Ann Tallman (Sheffield)

Erica & Sally
I see her name as Mary Ann Tallman in the tree view, if it is the HTML tree view I see Mary Ann ... , thank goodness I don't have to use the HTML view there is only one person out of ten that displays the full name, all the others do not display a surname.