December 2010

Yesterday we took a look back at Geni in 2010.  Today we’d like to share our vision for the coming year. Geni’s mission is to create a shared family tree of the world. We continue to believe that getting as many people as possible to work together on a common tree is the best way to achieve this goal. We are committed to developing the best collaborative genealogy platform to enable this crowd-sourced world family… Read the full story

Reading old documents can be a great challenge for genealogists. Overtime, language conventions and handwriting styles have significantly changed. Time and patience are required when trying to understand your ancestor’s handwriting. Here are some quick tips on how to make deciphering old handwriting a little bit easier: First read the document in its entirety and pick out any familiar words or phrases. Remember, be patient. You should read the document several times to get a… Read the full story

As we prepare to usher in the New Year, we thought we’d stop and take a look at the last twelve months to see what has been accomplished on Geni…and the list is quite impressive. The Big Tree Steady growth of the Big Tree has been a constant in 2010.  We started the year with more than 30 million connected profiles, and that number has increased more than 60%.  In fact, there’s a chance that… Read the full story

Profile of the Day: Dick Clark http://www.geni.com/people/Dick-Clark/6000000008913994210

Profile of the Day: Grigori Rasputin http://www.geni.com/people/Grigori-Rasputin/6000000010908111622

On December 28th, 1991 Ted Turner was named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year. His known as being the ex-husband of Jane Fonda and as founder of  CNN, the first 24-hour cable news channel. His profile is one of many included in The Hollywood Walk of Fame project. He has over 5,000 blood relatives already included on Geni. Are you one of them?

Profile of the Day: Salman Khan http://www.geni.com/people/Salman-Khan/6000000010444347026

Update 4:00 PT: Service has been restored.  Our apologies for the brief inconvenience. 3:35 PT: We are experiencing a temporary outage.  Our engineers should have the site back up very shortly, please check back soon.

Profile of the Day: Louis Pasteur http://www.geni.com/people/Louis-Pasteur/6000000010113797834

Profile of the Day: Elisabeth of Bavaria http://www.geni.com/people/Alzbeta-Sissi-Bavorska/6000000002738078199

About a week ago, one of our Pro users, Malka Mysels, offered to do a write up for one of the projects she started, hoping to get others just  as excited about joining her project. Start your adventurous genealogical journey by experiencing past worlds. Stroll through the annals of world history to meet the remarkable ancestors upon whose stalwart shoulders we stand today. In this featured project, we will encounter the influence and persuasiveness of… Read the full story

Last week, we gave tips on visiting cemeteries. We reminded you to take lots of pictures during your visit. This week we offer tips on how to take great gravestone pictures. While some genealogists prefer creating tombstone rubbings, cameras are an excellent non-destructive tool for recording a gravestone. Rubbings may cause damage to the gravestone, especially to older, more fragile markers. A camera gives you the opportunity to take multiple pictures from many different angles… Read the full story

Today we released a new feature that allows users to view revisions on the “About” text for people, project, and surname pages.  The feature also provides the ability to compare two different versions of the text and revert back to a previous version. On any text field that supports text revisions, there will be a history link: To view revisions, click on the history link and a lightbox that displays the revision history will appear…. Read the full story

Profile of the Day: Bing Crosby http://www.geni.com/people/Harry-Lillis-Bing-Crosby/6000000002447358945

Profile of the Day: Vanessa Paradis http://www.geni.com/people/Vanessa-Paradis/6000000005385018025

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

Family Tree Tuesday – Saint Nicholas http://www.geni.com/people/Nikòlaos-de-Bari/6000000007097847692

Profile of the Day: Shirley Temple http://www.geni.com/people/Shirley-Temple/6000000001433283018

The past week has been a very active one for the technology side of things, including a couple really big announcements last week from our engineers at Geni The Genealogy Sphere More celebrities sign on to trace their genealogy (Denver Post) – Guests are revealed for the new season of Who Do You Think You Are. Tracing the Past Street by Street with AddressingHistory (Programmable Web) – Very interesting app for Scottish researchers. Distance… Read the full story

We’ve added two small changes.  The first makes it easier to remove media from profiles, and the second enhances discussion privacy on private profiles. Easier Removal of Media In some cases you will now see a red “X” next to media thumbnails on the profiles you manage.  Clicking the “X” allows you to remove the media directly from the profile, without having to navigate through the various media interfaces. You can only remove media from… Read the full story

Profile of the Day: Richard Leakey http://www.geni.com/people/Richard-Leakey/6000000010504439318

By now, you should be familiar with the many different types of Projects on Geni. This week we highlight the American Football Players Project. This project focuses on the founders, contributors and players for the NFL and NCAA. Some of those profiles included in this project are: Terry Bradshaw – He is a former American football quarterback with the Pittsburgh Steelers in the NFL, who played 14 seasons. George Calhoun – He was a co-founder… Read the full story

Prior to Wednesday’s release of the Geni API, we had been working closely with several Geni users to test the API functionality.  Today two of our users, Daniel Walton and Grant Brunner, share some thoughts about the API. The straw that broke the camel’s back We had been planning to create the API for some time, but it hadn’t yet become a priority.  A little more than a month ago, Noah noticed an interesting discussion where… Read the full story

Note: This short post is a cross-post from the Geni Engineering blog.  The topic is less relevant to genealogy and Geni users, but we wanted to share because we know a lot of you are tech enthusiasts. We released our translation features six months ago and quickly saw our community translate Geni into 20 different languages.   Since then, Geni has been translated into 70 different languages with over 150,000 translations.  It has been amazing… Read the full story

Profile of the Day: John Abraham http://www.geni.com/people/John-Abraham/6000000009458185327

Profile of the Day: Jeff Bridges http://www.geni.com/people/Jeff-Bridges/6000000010564815743

Cemeteries are not only a rich source of genealogical information, but they can also offer us an intimate connection with our ancestors. Tombstones often provide dates, birth places, maiden names, names of spouses and parents. They may also yield information regarding military service and religious affiliation. Keep in mind that nearby graves may lead to the discovery of other relatives. Often small unmarked stones are the only source for an ancestor who died as an… Read the full story

After more than a month of alpha testing, we are proud to announce today’s release of the first version of the Geni API.  The API allows Geni users to develop third-party tools and applications that can interact with the breadth of data that the community has contributed for the past three years. To use the API, visit http://www.geni.com/apps and register your application.  (Note: If it is a desktop application, you can enter any callback URL you… 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

Profile of the Day: Stephen Colbert http://www.geni.com/people/Stephen-Colbert/6000000008210236882

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

Family Tree Tuesday: Charlotte Gainsbourg http://www.geni.com/people/Charlotte-Gainsbourg/6000000008550012105

Profile of the Day: Jane Birkin http://www.geni.com/people/Jane-Birkin/6000000008549932164

Profile of the Day: Dick Van Dyke http://www.geni.com/people/Richard-Wayne-Van-Dyke/6000000009966769589

In less than three years the Geni community has created nearly 100 million profiles, including almost 50 million that are part of the Big Tree.  Among all of those profiles, there are more than 3 million unique surnames on Geni. Today we announce the addition of Surname pages to Geni.  Surname pages create a central point of discovery for profiles, projects, documents and discussions that are related to any given surname.  Geni users can follow… Read the full story

We’re quickly approaching the end of 2010, which means two things:  (a) lots of family time in the next few weeks, and (b) it’s time to start planning for the 2011 conference schedule. The Genealogy Sphere Genealogists are easy people to shop for (The Joplin Globe) – Lots and lots of easy, thoughtful gift ideas for genealogists. National Genealogical Society planning for 33rd conference (Mormon Times) – It’s time to start planning for this year’s… Read the full story

Designed to capture contributors and participants in America’s expansion westward, this project features the likes of many popular folks. Here is just a preview of those included: Jesse James – He was an American outlaw, gang leader, bank robber, train robber, and murderer from the state of Missouri and the most famous member of the James-Younger Gang. Belle Starr – She was another famous American female outlaw. Bill Doolin – He was an American bandit and… Read the full story

Profile of the Day: Martin Luther King, Jr. http://www.geni.com/people/Martin-Luther-King-Jr/6000000008771498401

With Christmas fast approaching, families near and far are preparing to gather together to participate in holiday festivities. It is the perfect time for you to gather genealogical information and bring your family closer together. Interview your family A few weeks ago, we offered tips on interviewing your relatives. The holidays are the perfect time to put these tips into action. You may want to make sure you have your tape recorder on hand to capture… Read the full story

Profile of the Day: Kirk Douglas http://www.geni.com/people/Kirk-Douglas/6000000006843466688

Profile of the Day: John Lennon http://www.geni.com/people/John-Lennon/6000000003638168340

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

Profile of the Day: Shahrukh Khan http://www.geni.com/people/Shah-Rukh-Khan/6000000010444479434

Family Tree Tuesday – Albert Einstein http://www.geni.com/people/Albert-Einstein/4481345450320047133

Today Google opened the Chrome Web Store in anticipation of next year’s debut of Chrome OS notebooks.  We have added Geni as the first family tree app in the Web Store. For Geni users that browse the web with Chrome, it’s simple to “install” Geni as an app in your browser.  Simply visit our app’s installation page, click install, and Geni will be added to your Chrome browser. Once the app is installed, it will appear… Read the full story

Another fun week in the world of Genealogy.  I never thought I’d mention Christopher Columbus and Martha Stewart in the same recap! The Genealogy Sphere Use holiday get-togethers to fill out family tree (The Arizona Republic) – As this will be my first holiday season home as a genealogist, I’m planning on spending some time with my extended family to work on my tree Genealogy: Save, save, save; copy, copy, copy (Coshocton Tribune) –… Read the full story

Starting this week, we will feature a Geni Project every Friday. Today’s featured Project was created by user Ric Dickinson.  It is a collection of profiles and information about the Grandchildren and Great-Grandchildren of Queen Elizabeth II. Hi Ric, can you share with us what sparked your interest in these royal lines? My interest in the British royal family was sparked by my grandmother, who was born in England, she remained an Anglophile all her… Read the full story

At Geni, our goal is to provide the genealogy community with tools for collaboration, and to ultimately create a single family tree for the world.  As growth of the Big Tree (the largest connected tree on Geni) continues, we find ourselves getting closer and closer to a huge milestone:  50 million connected profiles. This week we launched a World Family Tree page that allows the community to see the current status of the Big Tree and… Read the full story

Profile of the Day: Mattathias http://www.geni.com/people/Mattathias-Mattatiah-ben-Maccabeus/6000000002187597738

This week we released two updates to the site.  The first is the addition of Wikitext support to the “About Me” section of profiles.  The second is the addition of Projects to the Notifications box that you see on your home page after you log in. “About Me” Wikitext Wikitext markup is now supported in the “About Me” section for profiles.  When you edit any profile that you manage, you’ll find a Wikitext editor on… Read the full story