Geni.com

Image:Genipage.jpg

At the website users enter names and email addresses of their parents, siblings, and other relatives, as well as profiles with various fields of biographical information about themselves and their relatives. From there users may graphically manipulate sections of their connections network to create a complete personal family tree.{{cite web|last=Marshall|first=Matt|title=Geni aims to build family tree for whole world|publisher=Venture Beat|date=2007-01-16|url=https://venturebeat.com/2007/01/16/geni-aims-to-build-family-tree-for-whole-world|access-date=2007-01-20}}

The service uses the contact information to invite additional members to join, and builds a social network database from the information collectively entered by members. For now users may only see information belonging to themselves, their connected "family group", and to people in their immediate network who have given them permission.{{cite web|last=Butler|first=Phil|title=Geni - Links in A Bottle|publisher=profy.com|date=2007-01-17|url=http://www.profy.com/2007/01/17/geni-links|access-date=2007-01-20}}

Each family tree features a family discussion forum where messages can be posted and responses made. It can be used as such a digest for family news. There are also public discussions, profile specific discussions, and project discussions.

Projects are special interest groups organized around historical topics (e.g. "World War One - Casualties"), immigration patterns (e.g. "Norwegian American"), occupations (e.g. "Librarians"), place-names (e.g. "Christ Church, Oxford University"), or any other subject of general interest that will foster social discussion among members, as well as providing a portal to which biographical profiles may be linked.

From 2008{{cite web |last=Eastman |first=Dick |title=Geni Adds GEDCOM Import |publisher=Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter |date=2008-05-12 |url=http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2008/05/geni-adds-gedco.html |access-date=2008-05-15 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080513231311/http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2008/05/geni-adds-gedco.html |archive-date=2008-05-13 }} until December 2010, Geni had a built-in feature that allowed users to import their family history using the GEDCOM file format. This facility was disabled for eight years because Geni found it was duplicating thousands of existing profiles, often with poor information quality as compared to the existing profiles.

In February 2019 a new GEDCOM file import feature became available that allows the import of profiles which didn’t exist before on Geni. Only a few generations of a tree are imported at a time, continuing only on branches where there are no matches to existing profiles on Geni.{{Cite web|url=http://www.geni.com/blog/the-return-of-gedcom-imports-on-geni-3103096.html|title=The Return of GEDCOM Imports on Geni|website=Geni.com blog|date=2019-02-22}}

Data from public records and family trees can also be imported from 13 supported web sites using an independently developed semi-automatic tool called SmartCopy, which is based on web scraping. Families are imported one at a time; the user can manually edit or verify the information before importing, and also choose between adding the information to existing profiles or creating new profiles. SmartCopy includes a consistency check feature that warns when data may be unreasonable. The user must ask for full access to the tool. SmartCopy is a third-party open source web browser extension that has been available since 2015.[https://www.geni.com/projects/SmartCopy/ SmartCopy], Geni project, access date 2018-01-13

Lists can be compiled of profiles that are expected to have the same haplogroup as a specific profile, since they are related on a strict male line or female line.

Genealogical DNA test results (autosomal tests, YDNA tests and MtDNA tests) can be imported from various test sites. The haplogroup of the test person is indicated and propagated in the family tree to all profiles that are expected to share it. Lists of tested people matching the DNA are presented.

A serious problem with online family trees is the inappropriate propagation of information from one ancestor or family line to another. This can happen if users make incorrect identifications between ancestors and others in the tree already. This can lead to strange results such as people born after their mothers have died or when their supposed parents were still small children. In 2019 Geni introduced automated consistency checking which alerts users to 28 types of such problems.{{cite web | url=https://www.geni.com/blog/introducing-the-consistency-checker-to-the-world-family-tree-104764.html | title=Introducing the Consistency Checker to the World Family Tree | date=November 8, 2019 }}

By 2008, Geni was the chief website operating on the "one great family" collaborative model (now commonly known as "collaborative genealogy"), seen as the next step for genealogy in the digital era.{{cite journal |last1=Bybee |first1=Howard C. |date=2008 |title=Online Genealogical Research Resources |journal=Brigham Young University Studies |volume=47 |issue=1 |pages=153–164 |jstor=43044620 }} Geni's model has been described as a new collaborative, resource-sharing alternative to the "corporate for-profit model" of genealogy research.{{cite journal |last1=Wilson |first1=Pam |date=December 2012 |title=An uneasy truce: brokering collaborative knowledge building and commodity culture |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262238797 |journal=International Journal of Knowledge Engineering and Soft Data Paradigms |volume=3 |issue= 3/4|pages=204–239 |doi=10.1504/IJKESDP.2012.050721 |access-date=1 July 2019 }}

Scientists and academics have used Geni for genetic, anthropological, and sociological research. Due to its size and geographic spread, Geni has been cited as a "key social media website" by researchers.{{cite journal |last1=Edwards |first1=Denny |date=April 2010 |title=NDTA and Social Media |journal=Defense Transportation Journal |volume=66 |issue=2 |pages=147 |jstor=44123268 }} Educators have used Geni's visual and social media attributes as a way to get students interested in family history.{{cite journal |last1=Rankins-Robertson |first1=Sherry |last2=Cahill |first2=Lisa |last3=Roen |first3=Duane |last4=Glau |first4=Gregory R. |date=Spring 2010 |title=Expanding Definitions of Academic Writing: Family History Writing in the Basic Writing Classroom and Beyond |journal=Journal of Basic Writing |volume=29 |issue=1 |pages=56–77 |doi=10.37514/JBW-J.2010.29.1.04 |jstor=43443890 |doi-access=free }} Author A. J. Jacobs used Geni extensively for his 2017 book It's All Relative: Adventures Up and Down the World's Family Tree and partnered with the company to host his 2015 "Global Family Reunion."{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/10/style/aj-jacobs-seeks-the-world-record-for-largest-family-reunion.html|title=A.J. Jacobs and the World's Largest Family Reunion|last=Williams|first=Alex|date=2015-05-08|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-07-01|language=en-US}}

In 2017, a multinational team of scientists led by Yaniv Erlich used 86 million publicly available profiles from Geni, of which 13 million were connected into a single family tree, to study the structure of historical populations over the past 600 years, mostly from Western Europe and the United States.{{cite bioRxiv|last1=Kaplanis|first1=Joanna|last2=Gordon|first2=Assaf|last3=Wahl|first3=Mary|last4=Gershovits|first4=Michael|last5=Markus|first5=Barak|last6=Sheikh|first6=Mona|last7=Gymrek|first7=Melissa|last8=Bhatia|first8=Gaurav|last9=MacArthur|first9=Daniel G.|date=2017-02-07|title=Quantitative analysis of population-scale family trees using millions of relatives|biorxiv=10.1101/106427}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/02/family-tree-genealogy-research/516819/|title=What Can You Do With the World's Largest Family Tree?|last=Zhang|first=Sarah|date=2017-02-17|work=The Atlantic|access-date=2017-06-10|language=en-US}}{{Cite journal| title = Quantitative analysis of population-scale family trees with millions of relatives| year = 2018| doi = 10.1126/science.aam9309| last1 = Kaplanis| first1 = Joanna| last2 = Gordon| first2 = Assaf| last3 = Shor| first3 = Tal| last4 = Weissbrod| first4 = Omer| last5 = Geiger| first5 = Dan| last6 = Wahl| first6 = Mary| last7 = Gershovits| first7 = Michael| last8 = Markus| first8 = Barak| last9 = Sheikh| first9 = Mona| last10 = Gymrek| first10 = Melissa| last11 = Bhatia| first11 = Gaurav| last12 = MacArthur| first12 = Daniel G.| last13 = Price| first13 = Alkes L.| last14 = Erlich| first14 = Yaniv| journal = Science| volume = 360| issue = 6385| pages = 171–175| pmid = 29496957| pmc = 6593158| bibcode = 2018Sci...360..171K}}{{Cite web |first=Francis |last=Collins |url=https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2018/03/13/crowdsourcing-600-years-of-human-history/| title = Crowdsourcing 600 Years of Human History| date = March 13, 2018 |access-date=October 17, 2022 }} Their findings, published in Science, were used to analyze the genetics of longevity and familial dispersion.{{Cite news |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-13-million-people-in-your-family-tree-1519930813 |first=Robert Lee |last=Hotz |date=March 2, 2018 |access-date=October 17, 2022 |title = The 13 Million People in Your Family Tree |work=The Wall Street Journal }}

Much like Wikipedia and other wikis, Geni was criticized in early years over users not citing sources, leading the site's staff and power users to push the community to use more documentation.{{Cite news|url=https://www.geni.com/blog/geni-podcast-citing-your-sources-339021.html|title=Geni Podcast: Citing Your Sources|date=2011-04-07|work=Geni Blog|access-date=2019-07-01|language=en-US}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.geni.com/blog/geni-tips-how-to-add-documents-to-a-profile-388847.html|title=Geni Tips: How to Add Documents to a Profile|date=2015-05-21|work=Geni Blog|access-date=2019-07-01|language=en-US}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.geni.com/blog/geni-tips-how-to-add-sources-to-profiles-389353.html|title=Geni Tips: How to Add Sources to Profiles|date=2015-06-30|work=Geni Blog|access-date=2019-07-01|language=en-US}} As Geni profiles and projects have become more documented, Geni has been cited in academic journals, though some critics remain concerned about the accuracy of collaborative trees as a whole.{{Cite news|url=https://avotaynuonline.com/2015/02/concerns-about-geni-and-other-collaborative-genealogy-websites/|title=Opinion: Concerns About 'Collaborative Genealogy' Websites|last=Pickholtz|first=Isaac|date=2015-02-28|work=Avotaynu Online|access-date=2019-07-01|language=en-US}}{{cite journal |last1=Jorgensen |first1=Danny L. |date=Spring 2015 |title=Mormontown: Collective Memories of a Cutlerite Colony in Iowa |journal=The John Whitmer Historical Association Journal |volume=35 |issue=1 |pages=163–183 |jstor=26317097 }}{{cite journal |last1=Richards |first1=Bernard |date=2015 |title=William Fox Talbot and Thomas Carlyle: Connections |journal=Carlyle Studies Annual |volume=35 |issue=1 |pages=85–108 |jstor=26594487 }}

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{{Wikidata property|P2600}}

{{Commons category|Geni.com}}

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