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Do you know someone, living or deceased, that has made a significant impact in your life? Now’s your chance to honor those you love with a tribute video. The Tribute Network is hosting its 1st annual Tribute Video & Film Festival and you can participate! Create and upload your tribute video to a person or pet (alive or in spirit) who has and/or is making a contribution to your life’s journey. Your video can be… Read the full story

Today, November 11, is Veterans Day in the U.S. It is also observed as Remembrance Day in other parts of the world. Let’s take a moment to reflect and honor the men and women who have served their country in the armed forces. Originally, Veteran’s Day was proclaimed Armistice Day by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson on November 11, 1919, which marked the signing of the Armistice that ended World War I. After World War II,… Read the full story

The 12th Annual Latin Grammy Awards will be held tonight, November 10, in Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay. Two-time Grammy Award winner, Shakira was named the Latin Recording Academy Person of the Year for her contributions to the Latin music industry. Tonight she is nominated for three more awards, including Album of the Year. Let’s take a look at other past Latin Grammy winners on Geni: Ricky Martin – In 2006, Puerto Rican singer Ricky Martin… Read the full story

Today at sundown, the Jewish community will begin their celebration of Rosh Hashanah, the start of the Jewish New Year. Considered one of the holiest of Jewish holidays, it is traditionally celebrated over the course of two days and is best characterized as a holiday of reflection, introspection and renewal. Much time during the holiday is spent in prayer, with people asking God for forgiveness, giving penance and praying for a healthy new year. Like… Read the full story

Progeny Genealogy recently announced an exciting new feature to Charting Companion – Embroidery Charts! Perfect for family reunions, embroidery charts allow you to showcase your family tree to the world. Proudly wear your family tree on a T-shirt, sweater or whatever you choose. This fantastic new feature is available exclusively to Geni users right now, with other versions to be rolled out at later date. You can embroider two types of charts, Ancestor Fan and Descendant Fan Charts, and… Read the full story

Today, TelGen announced the release of their new World Family Tree app, which enables you to browse your Geni family tree from your mobile device. Supported platforms include iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad and Android devices.   The app caches your family tree data locally, which will help you access your tree faster once it has downloaded. Now all users can easily browse their family tree in a variety of ways from the convenience of a… Read the full story

The Federation of Genealogy Societies is holding their annual conference in Springfield, Illinois from the 7th to the 10th of this month. There will be many classes and panels available at the conference for those of you looking for more genealogy training. If you’re interested in coming, here is the information you need about how to register at the event. Geni is proud to have a booth at the 2011 FGS Conference, so we hope… Read the full story

Today we are happy to announce a brand new giveaway! This go ’round, we’re offering a three-month Geni Pro account along with a copy of the Geni Charting Companion to five lucky winners. Here’s the full breakdown: How to Enter 1) Tweet this phrase: Hey! @geni is giving away free Pro accounts. Details here: http://tinyurl.com/GeniPro #genealogy 2) Post a link to your Tweet in the comments below this post on the Geni Blog. Rules 1… Read the full story

Beginning earlier this month, a portion of Geni users have been noticing the names in their tree displaying vertically. As soon as we started receiving reports of this issue, our engineers began investigating why some users were seeing this bug while others weren’t. As it turns out, this is a problem in the latest version of Adobe Flash. We’ve been working with the folks at Adobe, and they intend to release a fix for this… Read the full story

Interested in seeing what happened earlier in the week at IAJGS 2011 in Washington, D.C.? Take a look at some of the pictures we took while we were there: It was a very interesting conference, and we were very happy to see dozens of Geni users there. We’d like to see more of that in the future, so we’re going to make sure you all know when and where you can come see us in… Read the full story

Recently, Geni had its fifth anniversary. In celebration, the whole crew took a day off to race go-karts, eat fondue, and reminisce. At this point, Geni is a fantastic amalgam of veteran employees and new blood. A constant flow of fresh ideas along with the strong foundation we’ve built over the last five years have made Geni what it is today. No matter how long the employees have been with the company, it truly feels… Read the full story

At genealogy shows, we love to give out Geni onesies to parents, grandparents, uncles, and aunts. All we ask in return is that those family members send us a picture of their little one in the onesie. Today, we’re showcasing the first picture we received. As more come in, we’re happy to show them off to all of you. If you have pictures of your baby in a Geni onsie, don’t hesitate to e-mail it… Read the full story

If you’re interested in learning more about the very exciting product from Real-Time Collaboration called AncestorSync, you’ll want to read the in-depth AncestorSync Preview by Tamura Jones. This long-form preview really shows off how impressive the technology is. If you’re a user of desktop software, Geni, or both, you should be very excited about the possibilities of AncestorSync. Also of note, Dovy (of Real-Time Collaboration fame) and I recently did a webinar showing off some… Read the full story

We are proud to announce the winners of the Family Tree Magazine and Geni Facebook giveaway. Grand prize: Sadie Morgan Second prize: Kim Cotton Lori Pilla Laura Ramsay We will attempt to contact all of the winners as soon as possible. Thanks so much for taking the time to enter.

We’re very proud to announce that TreeSeek is now completely integrated with Geni. You can now log in with your Geni account, and make some really great charts of your family tree for free. It’s simple and fast, so here’s how you do it: Step 1: Log in with your Geni.com credentials. Step 2: Create your tree by picking a profile to center on. For example, you’re the central person by default. Step 3: Pick… Read the full story

This Contest is closed. Today we’re proud to announce that we are partnering with Family Tree Magazine to have a really great joint-giveaway. Here is all the info you need: How to Enter: On either the Geni Facebook wall or the Family Tree Magazine Facebook wall, write a post that describes how you first became interested in the world of genealogy. Prizes: One person who posts will be randomly chosen to win a one-year subscription… Read the full story

This is a guest post from Neil O’Callaghan. He generously takes a moment to explain why collaborative genealogy has so positively affected him. The Benefit of Collaborative Genealogy Ok, my cousin Randy is a very interesting guy. He lives in LA, fabled city of the world’s most powerful medium, film, since the 1920s, home to the music megastars like Neil Young and Steely Dan that populated my dreams since I was a teenager, not to… Read the full story

Last week, we ran a contest to give away three 12-month pro accounts on the blog. Today, I’lm pleased to name the winners: Mindy Bass Aaron Dobbs David Wongs Congratulations, all three of you. You 12-month pro accounts are now active. If you didn’t win this time, don’t worry. We’ll be holding many more contests in the coming months. Keep an eye on the blog, twitter, and facebook.

A.C. Ivory of Find My Ancestor has a lot of great insights into the world of mobile genealogy. He’s graciously agreed to write guests posts for the Geni Blog, so sit back, and enjoy: Do you remember the days in your genealogy research when you would have to gather all your family group sheets, photo copies of documents and everything else you kept in your binders full of genealogy to go to the Family History… Read the full story

As you might already know, we’re running a contest to give away three Geni Pro Account this week. Earlier, I showcased three blogs that are working with Geni to give away even more one-year Pro Accounts. Today, I’m happy to announce we have two more blogs participating: Tami Glatz at Relative Curious Lorine McGinnis at Olive Tree Genealogy That brings the total number of eight possible accounts you could win, but don’t wait. Enter now.

We’re giving away three one-year Geni Pro Accounts on our blog, but that’s not the only place you can enter to win a free account. We’re working with bloggers in the genealogy community to give away more accounts on their blogs. As of now, you can win a free one-year Geni Pro Account on Taneya’s Genealogy Blog, We Tree Genealogy Blog, and the Find My Ancestor Blog. If you’re interested in increasing your odds of… Read the full story

As of 3 PM PT April 1st, 2011, this contest is closed We’re happy to announce a brand new contest here on the Geni blog. Follow the rules on this blog post to enter to win one of three one-year Geni Pro Accounts. Also, we’re working with a handful of bloggers with this promotion, so you’ll be able to enter to win a Geni Pro Account on their sites as well. Throughout the week, I’ll… Read the full story

Last week, we ran a contest on the Geni Blog and Twitter with three 12-month Pro Accounts as the prize. As of today, all three of the winners now have their Pro Accounts enabled. Congratulations to @jladeau, @ChristyRoseB, and @TPFelis. I hope you spend the next year making the big tree even better with those shiny new Pro Accounts. If you didn’t win this time, don’t worry. We’ll be holding many more contests in the… Read the full story

Last Friday, Noah Tutak (CEO of Geni) was on Thomas MacEntee’s GeneaBloggers Radio program. Streamed live over the internet, this talk program takes live calls from their listeners. We teamed up with Thomas, and we gave away 10 free 3-Month Pro Accounts and one grand prize featuring Geni swag and a lifetime Pro account. If you’re interested in listening, you can Download this Episode.

Noah Tutak, Geni’s CEO, will be on GeneaBloggers Radio tomorrow night at 10 PM ET. Thomas MacEntee and Noah will be taking calls, and answering questions about how social media and collaboration impact the genealogy community. Even better, we’ll be giving away 3-month Geni Pro accounts as “Door Prizes,” and one lucky person will receive a lifetime Geni Pro account and a Geni swag pack. If you’re interested in tuning in, please read Thomas’s post… Read the full story

As of 1 PM ET on March 11, 2011, this contest is closed. What you could win: • A 12-month Geni Pro Account How to enter: 1. Tweet this phrase: “I want to win a #Geni Pro Account — http://tinyurl.com/GeniWin #genealogy” 2. Post a link to your tweet in the comment section of *this* post. Rules: 1. No purchase necessary. 2. Winners will be chosen randomly. 3. Odds of winning are directly related to how… Read the full story

I was reading wall posts on the Geni Facebook page, and I saw a particularly interesting post from a man named Thomas Pileggi. I thought it would be worthwhile for him to share his genealogy experience with our readers, so I asked him to write up a summary. Here is what he said: I did my first family tree around 1979 or 1980 as part of a training in Family Therapy. I spoke to a… Read the full story

From 1858 to 1947, the British ruled over southern Asia. During this time period, many British women went to India to find their future husbands. A woman by the name of Anne de Courcy is currently in the process of writing a book about these young women from this fascinating period of time. Anne is on the look out for well-substantiated stories, letters, or journals from any women who went to India during the Raj,… Read the full story

While we were at RootsTech last weekend, we had a pretty great giveaway. If you gave us your name and e-mail address at our booth, we entered you for a chance to win an iPod Touch. We had quite a bit of uptake, but we could only have one winner. We picked a number at random, and that number was Devin’s. He came back to the booth, and we asked him to send us a… Read the full story

Today, we sit down with Laura McLean. She’s been a Geni user for years, so we have a lot to gain from her thoughts. How has documentation affected the way you use Geni? Now that more content is sourced, is it easier to tell what needs to be merged? I’m still exploring the documentation feature. I think it’s off to a good start, but there’s a long road ahead before it reaches its full potential…. Read the full story

Shmuel is our Curator from Israel. He has been a Geni user for a long while now, and he has a lot of insight for us. How did you get into genealogy in the first place? Have you been able to share all of your hard work with the members of your family? I caught the genealogy bug pretty early. As a 6th grade student, I was too damn smart-aleck AND lazy. As this was… Read the full story

I live in Delaware. The du Pont family is extremely influential here. Their family completely proliferates through our community. Not far into Pennsylvania is one of the du Pont family’s greatest gifts to our country: Longwood Gardens. Founded by Pierre S. du Pont, this wonderfully lush botanical garden is available year round for a nominal fee for maintenance. Featuring acres of gardens, a huge conservatory, the historical Pierce-du Pont house, and a full gift shop,… Read the full story

Born Vincent Damon Furnier, rocker Alice Cooper turns 63 today. Cooper’s pioneering stage theatrics and violent brand of heavy metal introduced horror imagery to rock and transformed the genre. It was announced in December 2010 that the original Alice Cooper band would be inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Take a look at his Geni profile!

Today, we are pleased to talk to Henn Sarv — one of our Estonian curators. He works hard at making the World Family Tree better for everyone, so we had a few questions. I’d like to sincerely thank Henn for letting us get to know a little bit more about him. How has becoming a Curator affected your work on the Geni website? What results have occurred because of the implementation of curators? Curatorship promoted… Read the full story

Hmm… I wonder what this is hinting at.

Patsy Ann McClenny (Better known as Morgan Fairchild) is 61 years old today. Coming to national prominence after appearing on popular television programs such as Falcon Crest, Fairchild has been a cultural icon since the mid-1980s. If you’d like to know more about Morgan Fairchild, take a look at her profile on Geni.com. Photo Credit

We love to interview members of our community. I was lucky enough to have a virtual sit-down with Erica Howton — a curator who is extremely active. How has being a curator changed the way that you use Geni? Is it a substantial change in more ways than one? Any specific situation that being a curator changed? In a word: connectivity. I started out my tree in total isolation (a private, horizontal tree) and had… Read the full story

The Holocaust is one of the most tragic events in human history. Today, we try our best to honor the memories of all of the victims of the genocidal policy of Nazi Germany. A little while ago, some Geni staffers were given a tour of the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust by Randy Schoenberg — the president of the museum, and an avid member of Geni. He was kind enough to give us an… Read the full story

Did you know that Geni is on Facebook? Well, now you do. Up to this point, our page was main just links to the blog, but that is changing now that I’m here to handle social media. We’ll be doing cool give aways, feedback questions, and Q & As exclusively on the Facebook page in the coming weeks and months. We want you to feel connected to Geni because our greatest resource is you. Are… Read the full story

Now that I’ve got my sea legs here at Geni, and since I’ve told you all what I do, I think it’s important to explain a little bit about why I care so much about Geni and the genealogy community. I am deeply vested in Geni succeeding well into the future, and that’s why I’m here. I want Geni to grow and get better because I am a user, and I’ve been one long before… Read the full story

Amos is related to Kevin Bacon! Have a great weekend, everyone!

This week we interviewed Curator,  Geoffrey Trowbridge . Geoffrey, you have been a Geni user for about a year now. In this short amount of time, you have added well over 16,000 profiles and have become a Geni Curator. What has this experience been like for you? Silly as it may seem, I first discovered Geni.com while searching for a means of displaying my pedigree chart on my Facebook profile.  (Sadly, Facebook no longer allows… Read the full story

This week we interviewed New Zealand genealogist, Jason Wills. He is a Pro user and very active in the Geni community. You have been using Geni for a little over a year and a half now. What brought you to Geni and how has your experience been thus far? When I first joined Geni i was not aware of tree merging and thought it was just like any other Genealogy site so I did not… Read the full story

Today we interview Geni Curator and fellow techie, Rehan Allahwala. Rehan, your blog states that you started your first venture in Pakistan back in 1987. Tell us a little bit about what got you interested in re-selling Commodore 64 games. I started by exchanging games and building my library bigger and bigger, so eventually it lead me into selling these games so I could buy more games with the money I earned; I was in… Read the full story

Today’s post was written by Grant Brunner of Macgasm.net The holiday season is upon us. That means a number of things to different people, but it almost always involves renewing relationships with one’s family. Sharing the merriment used to be limited by geography, but technology has progressed to the point where families can be together even when they’re on different continents. Not only can we share messages and photos, but we can talk face-to-face with services like… Read the full story

Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got into genealogy. On your blog (The Knowles Collection) you mention being related to Morris David Rosenbaum – was it your quest for his story which turned your once hobby into something more? When I was 12 years old I filled out my first pedigree chart. Like so many others I was just curious as to who my ancestors were and where they came from. One… Read the full story

Today’s post was written by Grant Brunner of Macgasm.net A few months ago, I came across this quote from Janet L. Baughman on People Stories: “There are ladies who lunch and gentlemen who golf. Then there are others who find excitement in the world of genealogy, but beware — genealogy can be addictive.” Anybody who has ever spent the better part of their Thursday evening looking through census records will find truth in that quote…. Read the full story

To all of our users celebrating Thanksgiving today, we wish you the happiest of days! Enjoy your loved ones and savor the long weekend. Be safe and have a great day! We’ll be back on Monday -The Geni Team

This week we interview Daniel Walton, one of our Curators and a very active member of the Geni community.  Daniel comes from a very technical background, and in addition to his duties as a Curator he has been helping us test some of our developer features. Tell us a little bit about yourself. How long have you been researching genealogy and do you recall when you first got bitten by the bug? I’m a Computer… Read the full story

Note: Beginning next week, Ask a Curator will no longer be a weekly feature. We like the Ask a Curator feature a lot, and we hope to bring it back on a weekly basis once we work out the logistics of doing so. In the near future, expect to see more Ask a Curator articles as interesting things happen in the genealogy community, and as we find interesting things to highlight on Geni. This week… Read the full story