Introducing the Curator Team

Post deleted by Private User on Jan 13, 2011 at 9:16 PM

I'm thrilled with the newest curators to join our team. They bring a wide array of skills and talents to diversify Geni even more, and they are a delightful group of people that I look forward to working with. Welcome!

Thanks for the welcome, guys.

MARVIN, illusions and delusions are very different associations :-)

I am, however, very serious about documenting the black SA heritage lines. (I know the words 'black' and 'coloured' are pejorative in the USA, but here they're genuine descriptors along with 'white' and 'indian' that we all use to describe ourselves - in case anyone thinks I'm being rude.)
The 'older' black traditions going back may be oral - but the kingly lineages are proudly kept and many of our present politicians - like Nelson Mandela - come from those lines, so I see no reason why they should have any more difficulty than the rest of us in logging data backwards from present day.

The fact that before a certain date the Southern African tree might not link into the 'Big Tree' may serve to highlight a conceptualisation problem with the notion of what we think we're doing in creating One documentable World tree. It may be that the only Big Tree we're producing (or can produce) is simply the Big Post Colonial Tree ;-).

I think it's a good point, you make, MARVIN, because it raises the issue of what constitutes irrefutable sources - as though written history is always (or even often) automatically more than just what our peers will let us get away with saying.

Not until DNA trees will I be convinced of 'irrefutable lineage' - and we're a long way off even producing fewer than 7 separate DNA trees.

So, yes, I think it's valid to hope for the present day descendents of Shaka to map their Zulu heritage on Geni, and the grandchildren of Nelson Mandela to track his Xhosa ancestors for us before he dies, and - as the genetic links across the white and black communities in Southern Africa go back to the 1600s - perhaps Geni will be the first popular documentation proof that we all share more personally in each other's heritage sagas than we previously allowed ourselves to believe!

Sorry - longwinded, I know. It's a big idea, so difficult to talk about shorter, without devolving into allusions ;-). I would you like your thoughts, because mine are pretty much a work in progress.

Post deleted by Private User on Jan 15, 2011 at 12:35 AM

TAMMY, you may have put your finger on the addictive attractions of researching on Geni. Maybe you and I can ultimately share our research as online teacher resources?

I am excited to be the newest member of the curator team!

My focus has been tracing the genealogy of Indian Kingdoms going back to the times of Vedas (almost 5000 years). However, like most Genealogy projects, most information is found for the last 300-400 years. Beyond these projects, I am assisting a few Indian communities connect, clean, merge and enrich there tree's.

While India related stuff remains my focus, feel free to reach out for any help that I can provide.

Welcome Anchit. We really need curators working on that part of the tree.

Welcome!

Anchit welcome to the group.

Welcome, Anchit.

I am excited to be the new curator. You know my full name, but most people call me by my middle name, Kwame. My first languages are English and Patois (Jamaican dialect). I have learned French and Spanish in NYC. I can read some German, Portuguese, etc. I've also tried to learn some Hebrew and Greek (to read old versions of the Bible). I have taken single or multiple classes for Kreyol (Haitian dialect), Nahuatl (Aztec language), etc.

I have been a lecturer in Native American, African, Colonial and Western U.S. history. I have also studied Military history, because some many family members were soldiers.

There is more, but we will talk about that as we work on projects.

Kwame, I am so happy to welcome you as a curator!

Welcom Kwame, glad to have you on board.

Good to have you as part of the curator team, Kwame!

And, Welcome to Anchit as well! I hope you and Kwame enjoy working as curators as much as I do.

Sharon, that's a good idea. I've seen students using Geni to complete assignments. Maybe we can add another dimension so teachers can use it for planning lessons.
Any ideas?

Private User , Private User

There are some genealogy curriculum guidelines out there that we can use to help guide us. eg.

* http://dubois.fas.harvard.edu/african-american-lives
* http://www.pbs.org/wnet/aalives/about.html
* http://www.amazon.com/Links-Past-Through-Genealogy-Curriculum/dp/15...

K-12 professional book publisher Linworth Publishing, Inc., has released a new book focusing on strategies that bring creativity and enhanced genealogy learning to the classroom curriculum.

* I think it was George Gearhart who asked re ideas for school curriculums in a previous thread a while ago, and I sent him the amazon link---he said he would buy a copy of the book. (at that time there was one copy left)

Tammy, and Sharon, Re using Geni to for class assignments,
Jadra plans to give a talk on History lessons using Geni.

See Discussion, "Ideas to Expand Geni's Membership Reach" http://www.geni.com/discussions/93049
plus more curriculum links.

I'm on a roadtrip investigating the French Huguenots - will be back to chat about history assignments in a weeks' time. Sounds fascinating

Sharon, Have a wonderful trip! We can't wait to read your blog project.

Sharon, did the Huguenots go to South Africa? Mine went to Virginia in the American Colonies.

Eldon if Sharon doesn't have a chance to answer because she's already on the road, I will give you the answer through this little table.

It's actually fascinating -- we were thinking about a "Huguenot diaspora" Master Project:

http://www.huguenotsociety.org.uk/history.html

This map indicates the main routes used by Huguenot refugees, the countries to which they went and the numbers settling in each area.

Dutch Republic 50-60K
England 40-50K
Germany 25-30K
Switzerland 22K
Ireland 10K
Americas 10K
N.E. Europe 2K
Cape of Good Hope 400

Erica, thanks for the link. The project idea is great, I'll join. Actually a lot of them who went to the Dutch Republic and Ireland ended up in the American Colony's.

@Malka Mysels,
Thanks! I'll check out the discussion. I wish I could hear Jadra's talk.

Hmm, wonder if there should be an umbrella project of refugees covering Hugunots and Palatines. I've already got a project for the Palatines. Similar time (I believe) persecuted for their religion and looks like they took similar routes but out of Germany rather than France.

Mike, I think they should be separated but related. I prefer 1 goal projects if you know what i mean. To broad a scope could discourage people.

I'm excited to be designated geni.com's newest Curator.

I've been active in several projects including those involving everything from early USA settlement in Connecticut, to Mormon Pioneers, "Namesakes" and the geni programming API. I love the collaborative nature of family history research and enjoy helping others make new discoveries about their ancestors and documenting that information for others.

I have ongoing research interests in the following localities: California, Utah, Arizona, Idaho, Missouri, Illinois, Ohio, New York, Connecticut, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Eastern Canada, Southern England, Ireland and Norway.

My favorite area of geni.com is related to various "projects". Working on these has been, and will continue to be, a model of the success that can be found with collaborative family history. I'm also active in contributing updates to profile's "about me" section to help add historical context to each individual life history.

...well enough about me...there's work to do.

--Randy S.

Congratulations, Randy! I can attest to the creativity, dedication, and commitment you'll bring to the job. You've been a great help in my learning curve and I'm very appreciative!

Congratulations Randy, It's been great working with you on the Mormon projects and I look forward to working with you in the future.

Because of Geni, it turns out that Randy Stebbing and I are 11th cousins. I had no idea I was related to "prominent Puritans" and other American religious leaders.

Randy has been so helpful in fleshing out their profiles.

Like Randy I really enjoy Geni "projects." They are a way to focus and learn about the larger history our ancestors are involved in.

A locality basis turns out to be a very interesting way to understand a life story. I look forward to some gold rush projects for instance!