ATTENTION Curators, please assist

Sorry I was steaming at the ??? profile.

I had a lot of trouble merging it in BTW. It was TRASH.

@Doris Bragg has lost her password. She paid for pro and has not been on for months.

Plz help her resolve this. She is using my tree but I dont have pro.

https://www.geni.com/login/send_password

Barbara, fixing that problem revealed a new one:

Who are the correct parents here?
Marie-Madeleine Bourg

Thanks. I already had it that way. Let me know if you see anything else amiss in that area.

Erica... There still seems to be a Dudly mixed in the soup here, is there someway we can fix this so it can be merged after the fix?

http://www.geni.com/merge/compare/6000000002354585854?return=merge_...

I believe there are 2 separate sets of parents trying to be merged as one here. Do you think this is so? If so can we might fix this problem?

http://www.geni.com/family-tree/index/6000000001560068229?highlight...

Erica... I meant Dudley, it is in the Hopkins line

Barbara, how does it look now?

Can you delete this person from Geni
Elizabeth White
WHoever it is sent me a vulgar message with a nasty website link.
Thank you,
Nancy Ferguson

Someone have already reported her. A classical spammer - no other profiles then "her" and in my opinion Geni should not allow people to send messages and post discussions before you have added a minimum number of family members.

Take a look:

For Stephen Burroughs

His fathers:
Unknown Profile
John Burrows, Jr., of Groton

But different set of grandparents:
http://www.geni.com/merge/compare/6000000000658938579?to=6000000001...

Good catch LipLip.

John Burrows, Jr., of Groton

appears to be married to two ladies and I'm pretty sure it's actually just one, explaining the discrepancy.

I'm researching and documenting more. Don't merge!

Private User

I think John Burrough vs. John Burrows, Jr. is now mostly sorted out.

Thanks again for the catch on it.

Carole (Erickson) Pomeroy,Vol. Curator Good call!!!! Thank you!

Erica Howton You welcome. :)

Erica Howton - I noticed that there's a Fuller descendant thread in just begun in the discussions. I went into the tree and it's pretty messy a couple of generations down where this fellow's ancestor Jemima Smith Hatch fits. Who's working the Fuller tree? I'll be glad to jump in, but it seems more appropriate for others who work more in that branch. Ben?

http://www.geni.com/discussions/95497?msg=706894

Hatte Rubenstein Blejer

Got it and on it. Good catch, thank you. This is going to benefit my own direct family lines as well, so double thanks.

Thanks Erica Howton. I'm also related since it's the Fuller's great granddaughter.

I don't know if anyone else is having this problem, but I can't access the revisions that are being done on my family tree. Also, I no longer have access to Andre Jundt, Joseph Jundt, and several other members of the Jundt (Yount) family that I had originally entered into my tree. There are a lot of people who are merging profiles and they are eliminating me as a manager. Also, there are many replicas of the same people which makes following the lines difficult. Nearly every member of the same family and their cousins named children after ancestors; that is why so many times there are different birth dates in the same year or decade. Be sure you enter the child with his or her correct parents. I am finding most of my information on the RootsWebFamilyProject where quite a few members of the Yount Family have posted their lines of the family.

dear, curators. do you follow any guidelines before merging two public profiles? do you merge unilaterally? or are profile owners consulted first? thanks

Wanda Sue
is this the profile you are looking for? -- Andreas Jundt

When I searched on the name, I saw a profile managed by you and I saw 9 duplicates entered by 9 other managers. The common fact for all ten profiles is year of birth. (1580). Is it possible that you were viewing one of the other profiles when you couldn't see your revisions? I saw 8-10 entries by you on the revisions tab of the above profile.

Ideally, all ten profiles for Andre Jundt should be merged into one profile that all ten manager share and can update, etc. Geni's mission is to have one profile for every human who ever walked on earth.

Mona Liza,
I can't speak for all 80+ curators as to specifics, but I can discuss with you how I approach merges.

There are key facts that must agree -- decade in which they were born, region where they were born and parentage. I am especially careful with middle names and generational suffixes. As examples, James W. Smith is rarely if ever the same person as James A. Smith. James Smith, Jr. should not be merged into James Smith, Sr. Edward III should not be merged into Edward I.

When I have the merge window open and I can view the side-by-side profiles, I find two things very helpful. First, has one profile been made into a Master Profile (MP)? If so, I match details to the MP to decide if I am merging.

Second, have you noticed all the colors used in the side-by side? If the two profiles are mostly green, go ahead and merge. Green means facts are identical on both sides. Blue means data is similar, so compare and decide. Red is a warning color. Look at the red data. Does the red data override the other data in the side-by-side? If you are very confident that the profiles are the same, despite the warning, you can complete the merge. If you have any doubts you can either "decide later" or undo the match.

And your final question was do we notify managers when merging. Generally, no, and this was true even before I became a curator. This is because I have over 400 collaborators. When you agree to collaborate with someone, you are placing trust in that person that they will be careful in making merges. I probably merge 50-100 profiles a day. I could not be effective or efficient if I had to ask 50-100 users for permission before I completed the merge.

Thanks for the reply, Maria!

Next question for curators: is there a way to tag a public profile as one which should NOT be merged without the profile owners' approval? I need the "Do not touch" period, especially when I am in the middle of validation or documentation. Since the undo of a merge is a messy affair (as I discovered first hand), I am looking for ways to avoid bad merges. Suggestions?

As someone who is not a curator, about all you can do is to put it in as part of the person's name IN THE DISPLAY field. For example, James A. Smith would be the person's name, using the name fields. Then go to Display Name and type in James A Smith - do not merge! There are people who do not like additional information added to the field, but it works.

Curators have the ability to add a text box at the top of the profile when creating a Master Profile. If you are still researching the profile, it is probably not ready to be a Master Profile.

If you have a profile that is as finished as you can get it -- sources added, facts verified, merges done, and if possible, a bit of information about the person on the overview tab, -- you can ask a curator to review the profile and and make the MP for you. We have a discussion for just purpose -- http://www.geni.com/discussions/83475

Mona,
I forgot about one more feature when I was writing yesterday, because it's one that I rarely use, myself. A fellow curator suggested I mention it to you.

You can ask a curator to use the text box at the top of a profile without making the profile an MP, to post the "Please don't merge - research/ revisions under way." If you choose that option, please stay in touch with the curator and have them remove the message as soon as possible.

Hi Private User

Great to see you and hope all is well.

Maria pointed out a couple of techniques we use. Another I use might be this one. It's a little more subtle and detailed but might "fit" what I'm guessing you're going through. Bear with me!

I think I would make TWO master profiles in this case - one in progress, and another to "merge together all other duplicates." I would use curator notes to say: "this profile is a work in progress, please do not merge." Perhaps even lock it temporarily to all but the profile manager and curator. This gives you the chance to complete the documentation correctly.

But presumably new users are coming on Geni all the time and happily discovering their ancestors, so we want to encourage them to the "one master profile" idea. So I would have as curator notes on the second profile - please merge with me!

When ready, one of the profiles is DEmastered and the two become one validated, documented, multi managed and curated profile.

Brilliant Erica but how do you know that they will find both and not just find the one that says please do not merge? I'm going to try this out.

Erica: You say "Perhaps even lock it temporarily to all but the profile manager and curator".

I didn't know that was possible. Is that a new feature? I thought locked MPs were locked EVEN to the profile manager.