Introducing the Curator Team

Bjorn,
your invisible post gave an interesting idea.
If there is an artist in the Geni family, let him/her make a collage of the curators' photos, all wearing Geni T-shirts.
You don't have to thank me for saying what is true.

kudos to all of you curators.

I want a t-shirt!!

Need any more curators?? I love playing hookey from writing my script.

Your distant cousin, Dez

I am so stoked! I just recieved in the mail today a family Bible from the late 1800's and about 40 pictures from that era. I will be posting them this weekend. This was recieved from someone I had never met, that was a girlfriend of a cousin of mine who recently died. She was in her 90's and wanted to preserve history. I do not know how she found me, but am glad to recieve this blessing!

I wonder what the criterias for beiing a curator were?

Many profiles owned?
Big activity in forums?
Big activity in discussions?
Been a PRO member for a long time?
Big merger?
Historical knowlegde?
Genealogical knowledge?

So what were the criterias to become a curator? How was the selection process?

Not that I'm complaining about the curators work, but I'm interested how the selection-process was.

Is the curator selection based on activity on forums/discussions/Geni or is it besed on genealogical/historical knowledge?

Remi - based on geographical distribution, area of expertise, genealogical knowledge, willingness and ability to promote cooperation, ability to find and rely on sources.

not based on number of profiles, Pro status, length of membership, participation in discussions or forums.

Geni staff selected the first group, the first group selected the second, the second the third, etc.

Remi ... Good question, answer is that there was not any one particular criteria. It's important to point out that Geni insisted that the selections come from the group, not from Geni.

Those people that have been more active on discussions, have done a lot of good merging, and generally been helpful to others were on top of the list. From there we tried to balance languages, regions, and expertise areas as best we could.

We are up to 40 or so curators and I expect it will go higher as we work out the functional issues.

Adding some additional information about myself (the first part of this was in reply to a message from Noah telling me that I'd been nominated as a potential curator and asking if I would like to be one).

I'll add a few extra comments below as well:

Yes, I am interested. I'm very good in a number of areas although not in all. I've been tested by universities for matching abilities and score very high in that area and scored high as well in the areas of problem solving, critical thinking, etc. (all areas). I tend to jump around a lot since I'm interested in just about everything. I love history. My father was a museum curator for many years and was later an assistant director. My mother was an editor and also a librarian. Both of them influenced me.

I know my faults. I suppose that probably my worst fault is that I am sometimes hesitant to move forward because I want to explore all ideas and areas and sometimes feel as if nothing ever is (or perhaps should not be) finally done. I also want to be fair with all concerned.

I have been involved in many cooperative ventures as well as served on co-op boards. In many of the co-ops where I've been involved there was a consensus voting system and in some of those systems if even one person objected to a motion it could not be passed. There was, however. in that particular system a way for the rest of the people involved to overrule that one person in cases where a change was absolutely necessary. If two people objected there was no way to overrule them.

I currently am a co-owner of two cooperative business. My husband is the vice president of the board (as well as the head IT person) of one of the cooperative businesses. We discuss everything so basically I'm sort of on the board there too (haha). He has served on the board many different times over many years.

I've also worked (a little) in the field of conflict resolution and I believe that could be helpful working as a curator.

Lastly, I was involved many years ago in cooperative schools. I didn't finish my degree in early childhood education and psychology (because of a divorce and a move cross country) but in any case, I believe that my work with children has helped me to get along well with all people. My mother also started out teaching when I was young and she took me with her to her classes at the university of Illinois and so it was something I was already very familiar with.

Thank you for considering me for nomination as a curator.

I also sent the following P.S.

One thing i forgot. This is sort of funny.

I was the president of a co-op house consisting of 35 people (I've lived in several). But really I was a *puppet*. I didn't do anything except sign off on the yearly taxes. That was my sole duty as president.

Haha!

The Curator Team accepted me shortly after that and then I added my prior post here announcing that I was now a curator.

Here are a couple more things about me:

I'm a bit shy, although I speak up plenty when I feel comfortable and I feel very comfortable here. I'm very happy to be here working with all of you.

The reason I wrote a lot above about cooperative business is because Geni is about all of us cooperating and working together.

My language is English. I'm interested in all other languages and would love to learn as many other languages as possible. Someday perhaps I will learn a few more.

I know a lot of the history connected to many of the historical profiles.

I've been working on genealogy for about 30 years.

- Kim Odenweller

Feeling a bit jealous of the purple badge... Congratulations to the newest batch and thank you for all that you do!

Jenna

Hello
I would like to thank Noah and Geni for appointing me as a curator. I will try to live up to the role.
I have been Interested in genealogy and history since school days. For the last 5 years, as a hobby, I have also been researching the royal families and nobility of Europe.

I have a lot of knowledge of Jewish families, mainly from Germany, Poland and Holland.

My languages are Hebrew, English, and some German.

You are welcome to contact me along with the other curators with any question on the site, and I will do my best to solve what I can, with my fellow curators.

I look forward to working with you all.

Ofir

Congratulations on your appointment. You can thank the other curators -- they nominate and vote on new curators. You all are doing such an excellent job!

Thanks Michael, I've already did :-)

Hello, Ofir! Congratulations, and I'm so glad it is you, who is willing to help solve all our problems! I, too, look forward to working with you!
Kitty Milloy, San Diego, CA

I'm looking forward to working with all of the new curators in this continuing journey of realizing the dream of the "Big Tree"!

@FARKAS Mihaly Laszlo, correct me if I am not right. To the best of my understanding Hungarian and Finnish both derive from Mongol, since both countries were conquered by two Mongol brothers and ruled by them for many years, and not from Turkish, as mentioned in your brief profile.
On a personal level, my roots are similar to yours, and I am having a hard time
gathering information about many relatives from today's Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Poland and Ukraine. I wonder if you could assist me first with advise to how and where to look, and if that doesn't work maybe put me in touch with someone who could assist. Any help or advice is welcome and thanked in advance

@Daniel: Finno-Ugric languages have nothing to do with Mongols:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finno-Ugric_languages

my question is, do I get a t-shirt?? I enjoy playing hooky from writing performing merges and researching our ancestors. I have learned far more about history which has enhanced my script.
I so admire all those of you who collaborate, are members of the "Pool" and work together on the "big tree" as Curators. I have already seen improvments.
I am not necessarily asking to become a Curator as much as a request to collaborate if I don't already.
To everyone else who takes the time to look, read, research, learn, help, collaborate, innitiate, respond and work together, thank you, all. We are building something historical within history.
@ Daniel Levy, is this why I found Attila the Hun an ancestor? His wife/ concubine was a Burgundian princess or as the research has led me. It still amazes me.

Daniel, I noticed that there are some Russian-language genealogy sites that are starting to emerge,but of course require Russian language to follow. These might provide additional sources of information for the Slavic groups you described, particularly as our little time-consuming hobby of finding our "old dead relatives" picks up in that part of the world.

Mongols didn't reach as far as to Finland. http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090517015739AAuaEhO

I procrastinated way too long about introducing myself, so please forgive me for resurrecting a dead thread...

Hello! I want to thank the other curators who nominated me to join the group. I work as the IT manager for the Elkhart (Indiana) Public Library, so I spend way too much time online with extensive genealogical databases at my fingertips. :-)

My areas of interest are not restricted to any one particular family, region or era, but I have done extensive work on many families in north-central Indiana, which (perhaps unavoidably) includes many Amish and Mennonite families that migrated from PA->OH->IN.

I have also dabbled a bit in the ancient lineages, and have tried to tie together many of the semi-historical (or mythological) profiles across various cultures in ways that make sense both chronologically and biographically.

Last but not least, I've developed a keen interest in modern celebrity connections, and I have worked on many of the living celebrity profiles on Geni to tie them into the "big tree."

Onward, brave souls!

Welcome Geoffrey,
I am happy to have you on the team.

I know you've been working in the Midwestern families -- I keep coming across you as my ancestors move westward from VA to the Midwest and beyond.

It's amazing how many of the curators are IT professionals. I will be turning to all of you for help. I am barely literate.

Geoffrey,

Maria is quite competent on a computer, don't let her fool you. You do, however, have one of my fantasy jobs: I have put off going for an MLS.

Greetings from New York City.
Erica

I deleted the original post introducing the first 12 curators at the request of a curator who did not want his/her information publicly searchable now that these discussions are google-able. I invite each of the other original curators who would like to repost their information to do so here.

Still waiting for the t-shirts promised on page 3.

Maria: I think you should all demand flowing robes, as interest... :)

Where is the current list of curators, documenting their areas of interest and expertise, including languages?

http://wiki.geni.com/index.php/Curators_on_Geni

Thanks, Erica.
It would be helpful if curators were required to complete their Areas of Focus and their Languages fields in the table whose link you provided.

Duly noted and curators reminded.

Just reviewed mine and it's still okay.