News

We're proud to announce that Geni has been selected by Adobe as a 2009 MAX Awards finalist in the Social Computing category. The annual Adobe MAX Awards is a global awards program that recognizes the best uses of Adobe software for creating engaging experiences. Winners will be selected via online voting from September 28, 2009 to October 6, 2009, so use the link below to cast your vote. Read more about the awards and cast… Read the full story

Video uploading has been improved! We have updated the Windows browser plug-ins that power Geni's video uploading feature. Users of Internet Explorer, Firefox and other Windows browsers should experience far fewer issues getting their videos encoded and uploaded to Geni. Mac users will still be able to upload videos through Safari on any version of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. We are still waiting for updated Mac plug-ins that will support Firefox as well as… Read the full story

Merging The View Profiles link for pending merges in your merge issues list now uses the new side-by-side format. This allows for faster merging with better verification to help you get through those mere issue quicker. Sharing Shared profiles are historical and famous profiles that anyone can find and view. Your family and collaborators can edit any profile you share. Sharing a profile helps the Geni community find and merge around common ancestors. Anytime you… Read the full story

Now you can quickly make changes to multiple profiles without visiting each profile individually. Use the new Quick Edit and Edit Profiles features to add or modify data on up to twenty profiles at a time. Quick Edit When viewing a list, the new Quick Edit link appears in the Actions column on all profiles you can edit. The Quick Edit action opens up edit fields for that specific profile, letting you quickly add or… Read the full story

Update: Geni.com is back. Click here to return to Geni. Geni.com is down for a few minutes. We'll back back real soon.

List views are a great way to view information about groups of profiles on Geni. We provide thirteen predefined lists such as your ancestors, cousins, and recently modified profiles. Today we’ve released a number of enhancements that add power, flexibility and customization to all list views. First, we enhanced the basic filters. All users can now filter any of the predefined lists by:   All/Claimed/Unclaimed All/Living/Deceased All/Male/Female/Unknown All/Shared/Not shared Then we added a number of… Read the full story

In addition to more powerful list views, we've released the following enhancements today: Custom Family Tree Name Formerly a Pro only feature, now all users can customize the name of their family tree. Just click on your family tree name (on the top where it says The "Your Last Name" Tree) or go to your Family settings page to change it. Expanded merge permissions In order to merge two profiles for the same person you… Read the full story

Update 11:50 AM PST: We're back. We're making a few changes related to Friday's maintenance.

Update (2:30am pst): Okay, things are looking better now. Thanks again for your patience, obviously this took way longer than we had expected. You can now return to Geni.com. Update (12:30am pst): Unfortunately we have run into issues so the site will not be back for another few hours. We’ll do our best to make it quick and keep you all updated. Update (10:00pm pst): We should be very close to bringing the site back… Read the full story

UPDATE: We're back, sorry about the downtime! We're taking the site down temporarily for some maintenance. In the meantime, you can read about our newest features in our user forum.

14 day free trials of Geni Pro are now available to all users. Sign up for a trial to receive immediate, unlimited access to all of the benefits of Geni Pro including: Hot Matches Find matching profiles instantly while you browse your tree or profiles Collaborators Work with other Geni members to complete your tree and update profiles Tree Statistics Comprehensive statistics for your Family Group, Blood Relatives, and Ancestors Start your free trial now!

Use bookmarks to create shortcuts to your favorite profiles, photos, and more on Geni. You can bookmark any of the following: Profiles Photos Videos Posted Links Events Photo Albums Click “Add Bookmark” at the top of any of these pages to bookmark the page: Click the star icon to quickly access the last twenty items you bookmarked: The View All Bookmarks link gives you access to all of your bookmarks. On this page you can… Read the full story

With over 60 million profiles on Geni, there is a good chance that someone else’s tree also contains a profile that is on your tree. Finding these duplicates helps you find new information about your relatives and meet others researching the same relatives. Who knows, you may even meet a new cousin! The new Hot Matches list is the easiest way to find these duplicates. If we have found hot matches for any profiles in… Read the full story

*Update:  As of 12:40 PM PST, it looks like our payments processor is back up and running. You should be able to purchase virtual gifts & subscriptions at this time, but please be aware that there may still be a few bumps in the road today.  We'll keep everyone updated here on our blog as things develop.  Due to an issue with our payment processor, authorize.net, we have been unable to process any payments since… Read the full story

Update 7:00 PM Pacific: We're back. We're taking Geni.com down for a few minutes for some maintenance. Total downtime should be less than ten minutes.

Update 9:40 PM Pacific: Geni.com is back online. We'll be taking Geni.com down for about 30 minutes tonight, starting at 9:00 PM Pacific. Updates will be posted here.

We’ve released a number of enhancements today to make finding and merging profiles easier: Confirm match from similar profiles A few weeks ago we added the ability to merge profiles directly from the hot matches list. This option was only available when you managed or were collaborating with the manager of both profiles. Now you can merge directly from the hot matches list as long as you have edit permission on one of the similar… Read the full story

Inviting someone to be your friend on Geni has always been a great way to share your family tree, photos and news with someone who is not on your tree. Now we’ve added a new Friend Trees page under your Tree tab to give you quick access to all of your friends' trees. Note that your friends can view your tree but can’t make changes like your family can. Standard tree privacy applies when friends… Read the full story

A shared profile is a profile where: Anyone can find and view the full profile The profile’s family and the manager’s family and collaborators can edit the profile     With shared profiles you can make specific profiles more public while maintaining the privacy of the rest of the profiles you manage. You can share any profile you manage. We hope that you will share profiles that are historical, famous, or otherwise significant so that… Read the full story

UPDATE: The site is back. You can visit Geni now The site may be down for a few minutes while we perform some maintenance. We’ll be back in just a few minutes.

With the recent enhancements to hot matches users are finding more and more duplicate profiles and potential tree merges. Now merging confirmed matches is as easy as finding them. Look for the new ‘merge profiles’ link in your hot match results. This link will give you a new side by side merge preview so you can confirm that both profiles are for the same person. Unlike the ‘move this person’ feature in the tree, merging… Read the full story

There are now over 15 million profiles connected on one Geni tree. As trees continue to grow and connect to each other, the distinction between users who are ‘connected’ and ‘not connected’ is becoming less important. We’ve enhanced search to reflect this trend towards one tree that connects everyone. Geni users can now use search to find any profile on Geni whether or not they are connected yet. This will help you find relatives that… Read the full story

Hot matches are the quickest way to grow your family tree. Use hot matches to: * Compare your tree to over 50 million profiles to find duplicates * Save time adding new branches to your family tree * Connect with other users that share common relatives We recently added immediate family name matching to increase the relevance of hot matches. Matches are now based on first name, last name, maiden name, birth year, death year,… Read the full story

We’ve added options to the Advanced Search interface to help you find profiles that previous searches may have overlooked. The first option lets you search names using soundex or metaphone to find profiles with alternate spellings. Each uses a different matching technology, so you can try the same search with each to see what works best for your particular search terms. Next is the Match blank years option. When you enter a year search term,… Read the full story

Since we released our Advanced Search feature, we’ve used it to power a number of features to help you find duplicate profiles and new branches of your family tree. First we made it easy to search for similar profiles. We improved on that by showing your profile hot matches on every profile. Then we added matches on new profiles to let you know when you were adding a profile that may already exist on Geni…. Read the full story

UPDATE: The site is back. You can visit Geni now. The site may be down for a few minutes while we perform some maintenance. We'll be back in just a few minutes.

Geni is designed to help users collaborate with each other on building a shared family tree. When you find a profile that you’d like to collaborate on, you can send the manager a request to collaborate: If the manager accepts your request, you will be able to: View and edit the unclaimed profiles they manage Merge duplicate profiles together Correct relationships in the tree When you are viewing a profile managed by someone you are… Read the full story

One of the advantages of collaborating with others on building your family tree is avoiding duplicate work. With over 50 million profiles already entered on Geni, there is a good chance that someone has already built some branches of your tree for you. Now when you add a new profile to Geni we’ll tell if you a similar profile already exists! When you add a new profile to your tree an icon will appear indicating… Read the full story

Simplified Location Editing Location entry fields now take full advantage of the Google Maps API to find the exact location you are trying to enter. No more drop down menus or typos. Just start typing the name of a location and we’ll suggest matches as you type: Open the mini-map in place to verify the location: You can still edit location details if necessary: Simplified location editing is now standard on profiles, events, photos, and… Read the full story

Finding duplicate profiles is now easier than ever with profile hot matches! When you view a profile we’ll automatically perform an advanced search on that profile’s name, gender, year of birth, and year of death (if applicable) to find similar profiles. We’ll tell you how many matches there are, both connected and not connected. Pro users can view the matches to confirm that they are duplicates and then contact the manager to initiate the merging… Read the full story

Update: We're back, you can start building your tree again! Geni.com is taking a short break. We'll be back in just a few minutes.

The Geni Facebook Application is now available. For the first time, Facebook users can access the most popular Geni features without leaving Facebook, including building a collaborative family tree, getting family news and birthday reminders, and setting up a family profile. Seamless integration between the Facebook application and Geni.com lets existing Geni users collaborate directly with Facebook users. Geni users can add pictures of their family to their Facebook profile; this is a great way… Read the full story

With over 50 million profiles on Geni, chances are good that someone else has already added at least some of your relatives. Use the “Search for similar profiles” link on any profile to find potential matches . We’ll use our advanced search technology to find other profiles with similar names and birth and death dates. You can also use the “Search for Duplicates” option in the more menu to find matches directly from your tree…. Read the full story

We’ve added new tabs and moved a few pages around to give you quicker access to some of our most popular features. Here is an overview of the changes so you don’t get lost: Statistics (new tab) Statistics now has its own tab for easier access Relatives (new tab) Lists are now their own tab for easier access to list views for your Family group, Ancestors, etc. Index has been moved here and renamed Last… Read the full story

Geni users have added a wealth of information about 50 million of their relatives. Pro account features give users a fundamentally new way to access and view this information. Advanced Search enables Pro users to target their research and discover new branches of their family tree. Tree Statistics gives users a fascinating new way to learn about their family history. For less than $5 a month you also get enhanced relationship pathways, priority customer service,… Read the full story

    Tree Statistics is an entirely new way to learn about your family. View life expectancy, birth locations, name frequency, and so much more, all based on your relatives. All users get three Family Group statistics for free. Pro users can view all fifteen statistics in three categories for their blood relatives, ancestors and their Family Group: Family Attributes: Gender Distribution Average Life Expectancy Number of Children Most Common Surnames Married vs. Single Country of… Read the full story

Advanced Search adds a powerful new interface to Geni’s search feature. Search over 50 million profiles by specific name fields, dates, locations, and more: Separate fields for first, middle, last, nicknames, display names, and maiden names Search by gender, connected/disconnected/managed, living/deceased, users/non-users Current location Names of immediate family members Birth, Death, Baptism, and Burial date (exact, circa, before, after, between) and location Try Advanced Search Now

In addition to Pro accounts, Advanced Search, and Tree Statistics, we’ve released the following enhancements today: Family Tree name Pro users can customize their Family Tree name to reflect how they refer to their family. You can find the Family Tree name seting in your Pro Account Settings let’s Pro users customize their Family Tree branding. Birth Order Birth orders are now automatically updated when a sibling is added or removed. Searching profile you manage… Read the full story

Update: We're back! Our engineers need a few minutes with the servers. We'll be right back!

UPDATE: We're back! We need to perform some quick maintenance, we'll be back real soon.

From any list, select My Cousins to view the list of your cousins on Geni. Use the new “hide” filters to find the cousins on Geni that you haven’t met yet – this is a great way to find new Geni users to collaborate with on your family tree. From this list you can easily invite them to your Family Group, view their tree or profile, and more. View Your Cousins List

UPDATE: We're back. We need to perform some quick maintenance. We'll be back in a few minutes!

Connecting your Facebook account to Geni is the fastest and easiest way to add relatives from Facebook to your Geni tree. Connecting is as easy as clicking a button. Then use Facebook’s standard invite tools to invite your relatives to join your tree.  Connecting also allows you to post your Geni activity on your Facebook newsfeed. You can also invite your friends to Geni, where they will be able to view your profile and view… Read the full story

Valentine’s Day is Saturday, February 14th. Have you sent your loved ones a valentine? Now you can send fresh flowers and other real gifts, along with virtual gifts on Geni. You can even schedule your greeting or gift to appear on Valentine’s Day: Send a Valentine’s Day gift on Geni Choose from fun and romantic gifts like these: Geni members get a free vase with any order of fresh flowers from ProFlowers!

Privacy online is very important, especially for children. We've made a couple of enhancements to improve your family's privacy on Geni: Child PrivacyNew Child Privacy settings give you control over the profiles you manage for those under 13 years of age. You can restrict the viewing and editing of their profile. Profiles for those under 13 are never included in search results, and only their relatives and their inlaws can find their profiles from the… Read the full story

One of the goals of Geni is to create a single, comprehensive tree of everyone in the world. Part of this process is curating the tree by finding and merging duplicate profiles. We've made some changes to help the users who are engaged in this process: Request Management: Every profile has a manager, by default the person who added the profile, who controls the privacy of that profile. Sometimes you'll find that a profile is… Read the full story

Update: We're back! Update: Okay, the site may be down briefly in the next few minutes… Update: The site is running fine right now, but we may have to take it down briefly again in a little bit. I'll keep this post updated. We're working on a few updates to the site, so we need to take the site down for a few minutes. We'll be right back.

UPDATE: We're back! 1/29/09 8:40PM – We are performing a little maintenance on the site, we'll be back very soon.

We've released some updates and enhancements tonight: User Stats You will now see User Stats on profiles other than your own (when you have permission). Counts for Pro Users are limited to 100,000. Basic counts are limited to 5,000. Pro Gift Subscriptions – Now you can give a relative the gift of a Geni Pro account. For $50 they get all of the benefits of a Pro subscription – and when we add additional features,… Read the full story

Gift Cards for dozens of popular stores are now available as an option anytime you send a gift on Geni.  When you purchase a gift card we will send it to your family member with a special note from you. With cards from Blockbuster, Footlocker, Regal Cinemas and more, you may find a great last minute holiday gift for your family: Send a Gift Card now