2011

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

Profile of the Day Steve Buscemi Harry Houdini Elizabeth Taylor George Grenville Charles Dickens Interesting Geni Blog Posts Look Who’s Related: Jimi Hendrix and Queen Elizabeth II How to: Block a Geni Member How to: Embed Projects Family Tree Tuesday – Ralph Waldo Emerson Look Who’s Related: Kevin Bacon and Brad Pitt How to: Use Geni Labs Geni Podcast: Hiring a Professional Genealogist American Civil War Records and Genealogy Look Who’s Related: William Shakespeare and… Read the full story

Profile of the Day: Mary Pickford http://www.geni.com/people/Mary-Pickford/6000000006884191734

Geni.com is all about collaborative genealogy — working with others to make the best family tree in the world. A great way to start finding new relatives is by working on a surname page. First of all, go to the surname search page, and enter the surname you’d like to work on. Once you’ve found the Surname page you searched for, you can start viewing the information, and manipulating it. As you can see in… Read the full story

Today’s featured project aims to identify and trace the genealogy of Pirates and Privateers on Geni. We’ve all heard tales of dreadful pirates and heroic privateers, but what actually distinguishes a pirate from a privateer? Acts of piracy are categorized as war-like acts committed by private parties that engage in acts of robbery and/or violence at sea. Privateers practice similar methods, however, the most important distinction is that they are authorized by governments to attack… Read the full story

William Shakespeare, largely thought of as the greatest English writer of all time, is connected to over 54 million profiles in the world family tree. I’d like to take this opportunity to show off a few interesting paths. Most interestingly, one of the greatest English writers and one of the greatest American writers are cousins. Take a look: Mark Twain is William Shakespeare’s 8th cousin 8 times removed Agatha Christie is William Shakespeare’s fifth cousin… Read the full story

Profile of the Day: Steve Buscemi http://www.geni.com/people/Steve-Buscemi/6000000011524319905

If you have ancestors who fought in the American Civil War (1861-1865), finding their military records may provide you with valuable genealogical information.  Let’s take a look at how military records can help further your genealogy research as you build your family tree: Service Records Finding your ancestor’s service records can provide you with some helpful information, however, they can be a bit limited. You will likely find your ancestor’s name, their rank and unit,… Read the full story

[Download This Episode] [Subscribe in iTunes] [Subscribe in Your Favorite Podcatcher] Show Notes: When and why should you hire a professional genealogist? The answer to this question really depends upon the person doing the hiring and their specific situation related to their research. Has your research taken you to unfamiliar territory? Are you having to deal with a foreign language or a culture with which you are unfamiliar? Are you in a time crunch or… Read the full story

On occasion, we have a feature that isn’t quite ready for prime time, but we want to let users take it for a test drive. If you want to try out these beta features as they come out, just head over to Geni Labs. First, go to the settings page, and click on Geni Labs. Then, you’ll find what we currently have in labs. At the moment, we are currently trying out our Post-to-Geni bookmarklet…. Read the full story

Profile of the Day: Harry Houdini http://www.geni.com/people/Harry-Houdini/6000000010801549516

Profile of the Day: Elizabeth Taylor http://www.geni.com/people/Elizabeth-Taylor/6000000007315737362

Many, if not most, people in the western world have played the game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon — a game where you try to find a connection between any actor and Kevin Bacon through the movies they have been in. Well, wouldn’t it be nice to play a similar game with genealogy? Now you can. For example, did you know that Kevin Bacon and Brad Pitt are 12th cousins thrice removed? Pretty neat. Here… Read the full story

Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American philosopher, essayist and poet, who was instrumental in leading the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. Emerson believed in individualism and the need for harmony between man and nature. A staunch supporter of the abolitionist movement, Emerson gave a number of lectures calling for the abolition of slavery. Emerson was born on May 25, 1803 to Ruth Haskins and Reverend William Emerson in Boston, Massachusetts.  His father was one… Read the full story

So, you work hard making your favorite project as good as it can be. So, how do you show off to your friends all of the hard work you’ve done? Easy — just embed the project right on your website. From there, copy the HTML code that looks something like this: When you paste that code in your website, it will look a little something like this: Join the worlds largest free family tree Pretty… Read the full story

Profile of the Day: George Grenville http://www.geni.com/people/Rt-Hon-George-Grenville-Prime-Minister-of-Great-Britain/6000000006999611048

Like any collaborative effort, there are going to be some people you don’t want to interact with on Geni. With the tools that we have, it’s quite easy to prevent contact completely. All you have to do is go to the profile in question, and then follow these steps: If you want to see who you’ve blocked, you can always go to the Block User Settings page. Unblocking members is as easy as a click… Read the full story

Jimi Hendrix, legendary rock and roller, has recently made his way onto the world family tree. When we find interesting new tree-members, we like to see how they’re related to other notable figures. Interesting, Jimi and Queen Elizabeth II are 13th cousins. Who knew? There are a few more interesting paths that we found, so take a look: Queen Elizabeth II is Jimi Hendrix’s 13th cousin Bill Gates is Jimi Hendrix’s 8th cousin once removed… Read the full story

Profile of the Day Eli Whitney Julius Caesar Robert F. Kennedy Saint Patrick Wyatt Earp Interesting Geni Blog Posts How To: View Your Family’s Timeline How To: Alter Privacy Settings on Profiles You Manage Look Who’s Related: Elvis Presley and Other Notable Figures Take a Listen to Geni’s CEO on GeneaBloggers Radio Getting Family Involved in Genealogy Family Tree Tuesday – Ingrid Bergman Last Week’s Contest Winners Look Who’s Related: Robert E. Lee and Ulysses… Read the full story

Profile of the Day: Charles Dickens http://www.geni.com/people/Charles-Dickens/4850927350690030004

This week’s featured project highlights Nobel Prize Winners on Geni. Since 1901, the Nobel Prize has been awarded annually for achievements in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and peace. In his will, Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel requested that his vast fortune be used to create a series of prizes for those who’s achievements provide the greatest benefit to mankind. As of 2010, there has been a total of 813 individuals who have been awarded the Nobel… Read the full story

Privacy on Geni is pretty simple to understand. That said, there are a few settings you can customize as far as the private profiles that you manage, so let’s walk through them. Under the “Private Profiles” section there are two check boxes: Profile Photo and Current Location. If you don’t mind sharing that information with other Geni users, leave them checked. If you’d prefer that they remain private to only your family group, uncheck it…. Read the full story

Profile of the Day: Wyatt Earp http://www.geni.com/people/Wyatt-Earp/6000000003579770707

Between different conventions and different languages, dates can be a tricky subject for genealogists (and everyone else for that matter).  This week we introduced “single field dates” to help Geni users input dates without as much guesswork. Setting your date format in Localization Settings To set your preferred date format, go to your Settings page and click on Localization Settings.  You’ll see the following options: For this example, I’ll use the YYYY MM DD format…. Read the full story

Due to Ireland’s tumultuous history, many vital historical records have been destroyed. Although researching your Irish heritage may prove to be very difficult, take heart in that it’s not as hopeless as you might think. Here are a few general tips on how to get started in your research: Start with your living relatives Begin your research with your close family members and work your way back generation by generation. A large number of Irish… Read the full story

When did your great grandparents get married? Which one of your uncles was born first? Once you and your family have put the information into Geni, you can then access that data very easily with the Family Timeline. If you’re only interested in certain parts of your timeline, you’re in luck. It’s very customizable. 1. You can change the date range (ex. 1908-2004) with the slider in the red box. 2. You can change which… Read the full story

Profile of the Day: Saint Patrick http://www.geni.com/people/Patrick-o-%C3%89ireann/6000000008173864486

[Download This Episode] [Subscribe in iTunes] [Subscribe in Your Favorite Podcatcher] Featuring: Thomas MacEntee

Yesterday, I wrote a post about encouraging your family to participate with genealogy. The feedback I received was “We want more tips!” I heard you loud and clear, so here are a two more tips for getting your family more involved with genealogy. Show Them Interesting Relationship Paths Once your family is connected to the world family tree, you can display paths from your family to really interesting people. Once you show them how they’re… Read the full story

Profile of the Day: Robert F. Kennedy http://www.geni.com/people/Robert-F-Kennedy-U-S-Attorney-General/6000000003098455001

One of the best aspects of having the world family tree is that we can find how many, many people are related to each other. With this year being the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War, I think it is a good opportunity to show how people on completely opposite sides of the war were related. Let’s start with General Grant and General Lee. These two Generals went head to head for the fate… 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

Three time Oscar winning actress Ingrid Bergman was born in Stockholm, Sweden on August 29, 1915. Bergman first began her career appearing in Swedish and European films and made a successful transition to American cinema. Considered one of the greatest actresses of all time, Bergman would be best remembered for her role opposite Humphrey Bogart in the classic 1942 film, Casablanca. In addition to her three Academy Awards, she earned throughout her career two Emmys… Read the full story

So, you’re excited about your family tree, and now you want your relatives to join in the festivities. You invite them to Geni, they sign up, and then just look around — they don’t bother adding anything. That’s a shame. How can you incentivize them to add information? Here’s a few tips: Add Photos Photos make all the difference in the world. When someone can actually see the face of one of his or her… Read the full story

Profile of the Day: Julius Caesar http://www.geni.com/people/Gaius-Julius-Caesar-IV-the-Great-100-44BC-Caesar-General-Consul-and-Dictator-of-the-Roman-Empire/6000000001336610897

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.

Elvis Presley was one of the most well known performers of the 20th century. Thanks to the hard work of many Geni users, The King is part of our World Family Tree. Here are some of The King’s most interesting relationship paths: Elvis and George Washington are 9th cousins 6 times removed. Elvis and Franklin D. Roosevelt are 10th cousins once removed. Elvis and Napoléon are 18th cousins four times removed. Elvis and Benedict Arnold… Read the full story

Profile of the Day Sigmund Freud Agatha Christie Judy Garland Aldous Huxley Alexander Graham Bell Geni How To Subscribe to the Geni Podcast in iTunes How To: Filter the Recent Activity Share Your Genealogy with Friends and Family How To: Invite Someone to your Tree Interesting Geni Blog Posts Featured Project: RMS Titanic The Social Security Death Index and Genealogy The Geni Podcast: What’s a Webinar? Family Tree Tuesday – Susan B. Anthony Look Who’s… Read the full story

Profile of the Day: Eli Whitney http://www.geni.com/people/Eli-Whitney/4225067167990045366

Want to come meet the Geni staff, and get some neat swag? Well, that’s easy. We’re going to be at two big genealogy conferences coming up soon. The National Genealogical Society 2011 Family History Conference will be taking place May 11th-14th in Charleston, South Carolina. We have secured a booth at this conference, and we can’t wait to see you there. The 42nd Annual Southern California Genealogy Jamoboree will be held in Burbank, California between… Read the full story

Today we feature the RMS Titanic project. The goal of this project is to identify the survivors and casualties of the sinking of the RMS Titanic on Geni. On April 10, 1912 the RMS Titanic, the largest passenger ship in the world, set sail on her maiden voyage from Southhampton, England to New York City. Four days into her journey, the ship struck an iceberg and tragically sank to the depths of the ocean the following… Read the full story

We are currently working on getting listed on the iTunes Podcast Directory. In the mean time, you can already load our podcast in iTunes manually. The easiest way is to simply click this link: Subscribe in iTunes. If you prefer, you can subscribe by hand. In iTunes, go to Advanced > Subscribe to Podcast Now, enter this URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/GeniPod Click the OK button, and now you’ll get Geni Podcast episodes automatically in iTunes.

Changing what displays in the Recent Activity tab on the Geni home page is very easy. First of all, click on the Filter drop-down menu under the Recent Activity tab. Next, decide what you want to be displayed by unchecking topics that don’t interest you. For example, you might only want to see public messages. In that case, you’ll just uncheck the Private box. Click the Save button, and let the page refresh. Now you’ll… Read the full story

Profile of the Day: Sigmund Freud http://www.geni.com/people/Sigmund-Freud/315773591250001676

The Social Security Death Index (SSDI) is a wonderful resource to locate the genealogical information of your ancestors. This enormous database holds records for over 77 million people. In 1935, the United States passed the Social Security Act, which would provide federal assistance to the elderly, the unemployed and widows. The deaths recorded in the SSDI are those reported by relatives to either request survivor benefits or to stop benefits to the deceased. While you… Read the full story

Profile of the Day: Agatha Christie http://www.geni.com/people/Agatha-Christie/368026093200007369

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

[Download this Episode] Hosted by: Grant Brunner Featuring: Thomas MacEntee Show Notes: What is a genealogy webinar? Why are they important to the genealogy community How is a webinar different than attending a genealogy lecture in person? How are webinars helping the genealogy community? How can I locate upcoming genealogy-related webinars? GeneaWebinars (http://www.geneawebinars.com) How to register for a webinar? How do I host my own webinar? Skype (http://www.skype.com) Free programs vs. Fee programs. See Web-Conferencing… Read the full story

Profile of the Day: Judy Garland http://www.geni.com/people/Judy-Garland/6000000002098941023

So, you’ve done a lot of work to make your tree awesome on Geni. How do you show off your work to friends and family? The Like button. On every profile on Geni, you’ll find a Facebook Like button. As long as you’re logged into Facebook, this is what it will look like after you click the Like button. Now, on your Facebook wall, a news story will appear showing that you liked a profile… Read the full story