Geni Pro Just Got a Whole Lot Better

Kris Hewitt 🧬 Ok, thanks. Just FYI those 3 matches do show on the profile. I tested it and it shows the MH tree as a reference even when you click NO on MH to add a reference on Geni. Might just be a glitch for now, but it's not working correctly.

Hopefully there will eventually be a hidden list somewhere of "rejected" matches for review.

For example, I just rejected one by accident and now can't get it to come up to approve it instead :((

Judith,

I'm not seeing any of the matches as disastrous, because the data isn't actually merged. I work a little every day. I'm seeing tons of matches all of my part of the tree, some with good data and some with bad. If it's really the right person, I want to accept ("save") the match for later reference, even if the data is wrong, because I want the luxury of being able to go back through targeted areas. On some of them I will use the matches to contact relatives on MH for more info, and on others I will just use their data when I focus on that area of the tree.

My immediate family has been so thoroughly researched that I rarely find new info, but I'm find lots of matches with ancestral in-laws and cousins that help me extend the tree on Geni. Erica calls it "weaving the tree". I like that way of looking at it.

By working on my extended family rather than concentrating on my direct ancestors, I'm helping make the tree denser, and making me a closer relative of even more Geni users. And that's really the point, isn't it?

Genealogy is all about networking through history. I"m loving the fact that Geni is making it easier to do that.

Wendi, it's easy to go back and change it, but if I tried to explain I'd have us both going in circles. Give it a few minutes and one of the more tech-y users will explain how to do it.

Justin Durand Ok, thanks. Somehow I got it to come up again by luck, but it would be good to know how to do it for the future :)

The matches show on the profile, but a source is not created....

see this one Walter Nelson Ross see the (1) for Sources? If you click No, then it doesnt do that.

Kris Hewitt 🧬 Ahhhhhh ok! that makes sense.

I often find that some of the best source profiles on Geni are created by identifying conflicting information. It sends people into deep research mode, where the collaboration of Geni really shines, and we work to find what is accurate.

Private User Agree.

Does anyone know if there is a way to "force" the system to recognize a match on MH? I have one profile on Geni that isn't matched to MH and I can't figure out why exactly.

Han Kees Alkemade‏‎

I feel like such a dork, but I am LOVING getting all these photos!

Private User, I see what you're saying. It looks like there are 5 matches for that profile on MH. I don't know of a way to force it yet, but I don't believe all the profiles on Geni have been compared. From what I understand, they're still processing them so you may see them visible in the coming week as new profiles are processed.

Ah ok Private User Makes sense. Must be an unbelievable amount of data to process.

So just out of curiosity and to play devil's advocate... what's the point of showing 7 trees as 'matches, if only I'm only using one as a source of info? It seems like perhaps those should be smaller or hidden or something.

Private User -- that's actually a good question. Here's my understanding of it:

First of all, for the "Smart Matches" (as opposed to Record Matches), *you* have the option, when you confirm the match, to either say Yes or No to creating a Source entry for that Geni profile. So, for example, if only one of X number of them has the information you use, just make that one your "Source".

However, keep in mind two things:

1) When you confirm a match, it is noting a 'match' for that person -- not the whole family (this is *not* like a Geni Tree Merge where you also have to worry about the validity of the surrounding family connections because they'll have to 'cleaned up' a merge takes place). Yes, the family is often part of figuring out it the match is valid, but you are NOT saying the entire MyHeritage (MH) family tree matches the one on Geni ... you are just indicating that these two profiles (Geni & MH) reference the same person.

2) When you either confirm or reject the possible "Smart Match", the algorithm gets smarter. It is sort of a "leaning" algorithm, and every confirmation -- or rejection -- helps future matches (eg: against new databases brought online later) be more accurate.

Regarding the display of matches: There are a number of suggestions under consideration which may help both with the usefulness of multiple matches and with the consolidation of matches-confirmed (e.g.: possibly consolidating the notices in the newsfeed, just as additions of profiles or other documents on Geni are consolidated on the newsfeed).

So, stay tuned: I expect both the "form" and the "substance" will get better over time.

... that should be a "learning" algorithm (not a 'leaning' algorithm -- oh my!) ...

I liked the idea of a "leaning" algorithm. It gave me a new way to visualize it ;)

@ Dan... makes sense! Wish I hadn't rejected a whole bunch of matches yesterday because I didn't want them to show on the profiles.

Even if you do not "source" the MH tree, it still shows up on the Geni profile, just not under the source tab.

Another cool thing they'll be able to do, which I think I heard from RootsTech, is if someone in that MH tree adds a new record match to that profile, it can easily identify that record as a match for the profile that you confirmed as a match.

Private User Cool. Do you know if the RootsTech presentation is still available to watch somewhere?

I just added an entire missing branch to my mother's family, many of whom moved to Brazil and are in Who's Who in Brazil. Fascinating. Complete with old photographs. They are ~ 2nd cousins one removed.

Jeff, I'm dreaming of the day MH / Geni tackles the MH side of the matches. So many of my distant cousins have nice little trees on MH, and they'll want to keep those, but for our lines there is so much more on Geni. I'd like to lure them all over here to work on our shared tree.

Some of these MH people have like 4 -5 versions of the same tree so I end up with like 10 matches 5 of them all being from the same person o.O

Private User, the MyHeritage RootsTech Keynote can be viewed here: http://rootstech.org/?start=0&id=K3&video=2255085876001

The first speaker on Saturday is great, but Ori Soen takes the stage around 32:00 and get's into what MH is working on.

Yep, me too, Wendi. I think it shows a great need for helping people consolidate their trees. Might not happen if our lifetimes ;)

One thing I've noticed in my own work is that it's impossible to keep my personal software synced with Geni. I stopped trying a few years back. I enter some of the key stuff that I would really hate to lose, but somewhere in the process I crossed the line -- even with its data conflicts and legacy errors, Geni is often a better resource for me than my own notes. You wouldn't have heard me saying that two years ago!

Wendi, we've also noticed that issue with a single user uploading multiple trees. Geni is going to look into refining that. :)

Justin Durand Yeah, I was trying ot do that too by keeping everything on Ancestry the same as here, but it's WAYYYYYYYYY too much to keep on top of!!! After like 4th cousins I had to give up lol

Great Private User!!

Congrats, Hatte, on your great find. I envy you and Erica, and your leaps made. I'm making incremental progress by mining the MH trees for data but no dramatic breakthroughs. Yet.

I do have one fun story, though. Tonight I'm seeing newspaper matches for a woman who was, um, a neighbor of my grandparents. I grew up hearing three things about her -- no matter what everyone says, (1) she was not my great grandfather's mistress, (2) her daughter was not my grandmother's half-sister, and (3) her son-in-law did not kill her.

So, it's interesting to read the news reports. This isn't something I would have thought to look for. According to the newspapers, she was found by her son-in-law out in the pasture with her skull bashed in. (I knew that.) She was duly buried, and the coroner's jury returned a verdict that her death was "unexplained". (I also knew that.) Then later, her body was exhumed for blood tests, and it was more or less settled that she was probably killed by a ram. (Never, ever heard that!)

This little local drama is interesting reading only because of my family connection. I'm not sure that anyone outside the valley would appreciate the unintended pun in one of the headlines -- she was killed by a ram (not by her son-in-law Buzzy Rahm, pronounced the same) ;)

To me, this is one of the delights of genealogy, the unexpected anecdote.

Clearly you have been doing genealogy for decades longer than I have Justin. What happens to me is that I put down one branch, intending to return to it, to move to another branch and given that I have relatives in Argentina, Lithuania, Rockbridge County, Virginia, Abbeville South Carolina, Peoria Illinois, Muscatine, Iowa, early Indiana, early Colorado, and every early town in Massachusetts and Connecticut, etc. I just never get around to coming back to some branches. This is a terrific forcing function for the branches that you may have overlooked.

Every time I think I'm making progress getting through these matches there are a gazillion more! Think it's time to table the matches til tomorrow and go to bed!

Ni ni all... have fun :D