Safe way to get all data from GENI?

Pedrag, I am sorry that you feel Geni have lied but cannot agree. Their bi-line has always been 'everyone's related' and they are trying to create a single world tree. I don't think anyone is "denied access to their own data" as you state. IF there is a profile of a relative that has been locked to prevent bad data from being added and you have a piece of information you would like to add or you have a primary source and it gives data different to that already on the profile then you can contact the manager or curator of that profile and state what information you have and from which source that information comes. If it is a primary source or a reliable secondary or tertiary source then they will include the data on the profile.

To read your tree and move the data is relatively straightforward. You can download a gedcom.
Go to the 'family' tab at the top of the page and near the bottom is the option 'share your tree' this will take you to where you download your gedcom. Gedcom's are acceptable by most programmes either private ones that just run on your computer or public online trees.
Please do not try to delete all your profiles as these are now likely to be shared with other people on Geni.

I wish you luck but hope that you don't abandon Geni altogether but keep in touch periodically as it is always improving.

Maybe they did not lie to you, but they lied me a lot. Thez broke agreement we long time ago when Geni started and when I decided to participate in project.

No there are no locked account. I did not merge any account or tree with others, and did not let and curator access to data. Limitations I suffer are product of policy limitations introduced after I entered data.

I cannot even export such data as they limited me so it goes out of my export options (yes, export is also limited).

And after all, as I can read here, export does not work well, it exports just basic data, often with bugs which renders tree unusable without manual labor to find and fix missing stuff.

Of course I will abandon Geni and ask for removal of all data I entered as soon as I manage to get my data and use it on other service.

Predrag, there is only one way to get data downloaded from Geni, and that is by gedcom, with the limitations gedcom-files have. And you will only get the basic data, no about me, no timeline.

The gedcom-standard is from 1984, with latest update in 1996, but there are no other genealogical data communication standard that has the ability to talk to every other genealogical software that excists.

So, if Geni is your only genealogical database, and you want to get your data out, gedcom is the only way you can do it, no other options.

You should ofcourse have started your genealogical database by using an offline software, but you would have had to use a gedcom file in those softwares too, if you wanted to transfer your data to another genealogical program.

Good luck with your genealogical work.

The timelines have always been ignored by Geni, and the EVEN tag which handles timelines, which has been in gedcom since it's inception is never utilised.

For some obscure reason, Geni suddenly started using Projects as a permanent adjunct to the tree. Projects are now being used where genealogy would use Events within the timelines.

By Geni's own definition, Projects are a work-space to act as a forum to help develop the tree. Now they're being treated as being part of the tree itself.

Why aren't timelines being used? A large amount of effort seems to be being spent on developing the Projects feature, which would be better spent on utilising the Timeline feature, which already exists, and is the norm in genealogy.

Projects in a gedcom? I don't think so. Timelines? They're already accommodated in standard gedcom.

Last time I looked at my Gedcom, it looked like it had info from the About Me Section and the Timeline Events -- this is skimming thru it with an editor (office word??), not uploading it -- haven't gotten that far yet. (Still doing all internet on Public Computers, no offline software, etc.)

Don't you see that Geni is a unlike other genealogical sites and is more of a 'history' site with a genealogical basis. I like that you can go to a profile and there will be a written piece about the person in the about me but then you will also find the person has been attached to projects and this will extend the information on the profile giving a much rounder picture of that person's life.
Sure TImelines have their place I guess but in all the years I've been on Geni I have to say i've barely ever visited the timeline. Do you really think they give much rounder impression of the person?
I'm hoping that Geni will approach involving places more in future. What do you all think of that?

I saw an example / explanation of how Ken had been using Timelines. It was fantastic. If you had seen that much info there when you looked, you would be looking regularly.

I think Geni really should give some indicator of when Timeline holds more than just the auto-created Events with info from the Basic Screen - ie when folks have added info, documents or etc. - so you will click on it if (and only if it) it has some info beyond what you get from basic screen. I bet most folks aren't using it much if at all -- but for those that do, amazing nuggets are hiding there.

Terry - see my comment above. Also -- re: "I'm hoping that Geni will approach involving places more in future." - is there a typo there, or am I just dense at the moment? Not sure what it means.

I like flexibility. Ken has a valid point, but just because Timelines have been used for this in the past does not mean that they are the best way or the only way to document information about a person or a family or a group of families or a village or a group of villages.

I would say that what I have done with The Margois and Frankel Familes project bears little resemblance to what Timelines attached to a profile in Ancestry achieve.

I think Projects are a strength of Geni. I find that my families likes to have information presented in English, nicely formatted in a SINGLE place but with links to profiles and to other projects in the narrative.

This has nothing to do with how and what data Predrag can get with his gedcom export, but he is able to import into his other genealogical software. The only valid export form is Gedcom 5.5 and every tag starting with an underscore "_" is probably not recognizable by other genealogical software. So, please, keep to the Gedcom 5.5 standard and not what Geni use as tags in their gedcoms. That is the only thing that will help Predrag.

"About Me" sections are in fact exported as:

NOTE {geni:about_me}

How to later interpret that data is another matter, just know that the data is not lost as long as you do not screw up the original GEDCOM.

"Timeline Events" are not exported, however it may perhaps seem that way if you copy/paste/search for some particular profile hard facts within a GEDCOM, such as birth, death, etc. That data is actually pulled from the regular profile content that do get exported—but which also help to populate Geni's online timeline—together with those manually created events, which are the ones without a seat on the GEDCOM export train.

Image URL's is another example of what's included in Geni's GEDCOM export. Basicly, in all those cases where the data is stored in the file, it's then up to the capabilities of the software/service provider you've chosen to be able to do something constructive with it, i.e. pull images from Geni, convert {geni:about_me} lines to a readable format, allow for customized code/addons and whatnot.

On a personal note, there has been a few instances when I also have been less than satisfied with Geni, though if you are looking for something even remotely similar to Geni in functionality and community, then most of the options "out there" are still pretty much at the level of stone age nonsense in comparison—not counting Geni's long winded road of Flash/HTML5/iOS idiocy, of course.

So, if you're able to get over the emotional "a-corporation-lied-to-me" phase, just stay, chill, and see what goodness tomorrow brings.

… and yeah, pretty much what Remi said—which I missed beacuse of *not enough refresh* ;)

GEDCOM 5.5 supports the EVEN tag, as did earlier versions of GEDCOM. That is the tag for timelines. The only site I've found that does not recognise the EVEN tag is Geni.com.

Any gedcoms either imported or exported to/from Geni will have the Timelines stripped out. I did a bit of sleuthing and found out where the Geni information came from in a few cases. Sure enough, the original site contained masses of information that was lost in the gedcom import. In two cases I was given access to the gedcom file and yes, the EVEN tags had been dropped.

Hatte. An Event may have an infinite number of profiles attached (same as Projects), so that an event (say, The Voyage of the Mayflower) would tag each passenger and would appear in the timeline of each. Photos, documents and texts are handled neatly. At present, most people are jamming all photos and documents directly on the profile, which provides no context, and you have to wade through them all to make some sense of them.

For your example of a village - this is simply an undated event - and will appear in the timeline of each tagged villager. You can add photos, documents, texts. Unlike projects, you can view it in the Timeline without having to jump from the person to the project. It works well with places and other static items.

Terry. The reason you haven't seen timelines 'in all the years you've been on Geni' is that Geni has methodically stripped them out of all gedcoms, and gedcoms are the source of a substantial part of Geni.

Also, with merges they dovetail in well, rather than messing up the About Me section.

Timelines make life easier. I've noticed that several Geni standards require that you enter a list of the children, the spouse and various other details into the About Me. Why? They are automatically shown in the timelines. If you add a child, do you need to check the father and the mother?

No Terry, Geni is not more of a history site than others. Projects (especially in their current format) are a very new addition.

Remi - your argument is self-defeating. You say that Predrag should develop his tree offline first. If he has done this, there is no way of him using Geni, apart from laboriously typing it all in again. Also, if he has used timelines, which are present even in Family Tree Builder, he will lose them anyway during import.

Similarly, if Predrag has entered further info into Geni only, he will lose it when exporting.

Finally, take a look at one of the simpler Timelines
Edmund Spencer

Wow! That was a lot of words. Will anyone read them?

Ken

Thanks for sharing this profile. I think you already know I'm a fan of your elegant work, but now I get to say it again.

What I personally would enjoy is a bit about his personality or life and times in the "about" to help me put those factual events into context.

Erica. This is presenting the facts, together with the sources and other information - nothing else. His personality and life would simply be a personal opinion which would be open to debate, although this is frequently shown in an obituary. If an obituary has been found, show it as an event - don't simply include a link. In this particular case, we couldn't find one (yet).

Most people in family trees are not famous (although my great-grandfather could play the jew's harp pretty good) and creating some kind of meaning to the whole of their life is presumptuous. That can only be up to the reader.

If anyone has further info on Edmund, they can add it without having to battle text in the About Me section. Merging? - I think you can see how neatly that would work, without having to unmangle the About Me section.

Not sure why Geni shied away from timelines - the site handled them well - except for revisions. Projects seem to be a canard.

I think it's apples and oranges (projects & profile timelines). Also, this is your family - don't you get to have an opinion, or anecdote?

Another point about dreadful mangled "abouts" - I often deal with profiles with 10-50 managers (or copies), and from a time frame with few original source documents. And what there is is in books, so need to be "snipped" in to add to the timeline, which is a lot more painful & time consuming than linking from Wikitext.

I dont see how you could do a profile timeline for a mass event like "served in WWl.". I'm pretty sure it would break Geni servers to have that many profiles associated with one document. :)

Nice profile Ken and I did read your entire post. I have to agree with Erica, Timelines and Projects serve different purposes. I use Projects to add historical flesh to a family tree or group of trees. And in my family projects, I tell a personal story or share family stories about a particular family. It's readable, it's got character, and it gets the family interested in the places, the people, the events. It incorporates genealogy but it is not confined to genealogy.

Olav. The six main events (birth, death etc.) are partially in the Geni gedcom export. While the date and place are present, any other notes or information are not.

I haven't had any difficulty with About Me in the gedcom export, except that it is rarely used in our part of the tree, so that it is a non-issue.

Hatte. I actually agree with everything you've said. My point is that Geni is attempting to make Projects a replacement for Timelines - mostly by neglect. This ain't gonna work.

I have 1.5 million profiles ready for import (to somewhere), and they all use the genealogical norm of timelines. Geni is pointless because if imports were reinstated, the importer would strip out the EVEN tags anyway - only Geni does this.

If I can get back on-topic, Predrag is experiencing the same problems as many of us. The fundamental parts of this genealogical site require attention, and expanding bells and whistles (like the new Projects extensions) at the expense of basic genealogy seems (to me) to be commercially disastrous.

It's difficult to see the site attracting custom, when current and prospective customers are prevented from entering gedcoms. Each (I don't think there's an exception) curator recommends that you have your tree off-line first, and then transpose it into Geni. Why would anyone do that?

My point is that instead of going off on a tangent with Projects (which seems to be using a great amount of development time) why not encourage the use of the existing Timelines, which work very well, and get the essential parts of Geni working?

From the group I'm working with, I know that Geni may have a problem when subscription renewal comes around. I was an exception as a Basic member, but none of us would mind paying for a working application.

If the new intention of Geni (as mentioned by curators in this discussion) is to become more of a historical site, then the interest of us mere genealogists starts to wane.

Almost everyone is primarily interested in their own family tree (like Predrag), and if Geni has changed this focus - which appears to be the case - then I don't know where the interest is going to come from.

If Predrag is like myself, our connection to Alexander the Great is of no interest whatsoever, but Geni has put this to the forefront at the expense of our family tree.

Ken

You're asking questions that only Geni can answer now so I bow out.

Erica. There's no questions - it's just my opinion.

N.b. I can comment that it is likely different teams at Geni working different aspects of the product, and I do not believe at the expense of other aspects. In other words people who work on the Project tool would not otherwise be working on GEDCOM.

Thanks Ken for another good answer. I personally build my tree on Geni and export it. I use my home PC program as a backup and to print reports from to share with relatives, especially older ones who don't work online.

At some point I will put more energy into my backup tree, but for now I'm happy that I can export large Gedcoms and take advantage of having all the information from Geni about in-law trees and lines that I have not researched myself.

I'm definitely more into the collaborative part of genealogy than timelines but I see your points and they are good ones.

Ken, I may be an exception for the curators you've come across for I use Geni as my main point of working on my own genealogy, not my home computer. The reason I have used timelines is my own laziness and not being as imaginative as you as to their potential, I guess. I think we have to give Geni some scope for tackling the different aspects and remember that they are a very small team looking after a world-wide product and all that entails. They read discussions and blogs etc and decide which aspects seem to be a priority to its users and this unfortunately won't always be our own priorities, but given time....

Also I think everyone has different interests. I know of curators who long since mastered their immediate family trees and are interested in history, or population dynamics, or helping others master 'their" trees, as examples. I vary.

Geni is a software tool, in rapid development. My thought about timeline and and events are that they work well, so there's been no development effort needed - correct? (Exposing revisions, which is part an engineering project).

So the effort comes to educating fellow members on use of timeline.

Ken, you should write (and illustrate) a blog post.

It will never happen that I will use Geni or another online genealogical software as my main database. I use my private computers for that. In my offline software I have full control, easy backups without using gedcoms, a lot more functions and flexibility, and I will never be afraid of loosing my genealogical database ever. I am not as sure with these things when using online softwares.

Ken, ofcourse we all should use offline software as our primary software, if not only to make sure that you don't loose your data in case of disasters like bankruptcy. If that happen to an online genealogical software provider, our data would be lost and the only backup we have is a gedcom which in my eyes is far from good enough. Gedcom is a lousy backup-tool and it was not made to be so either. It was made only to transfer basic genealogical data from one software to another. And today it's way outdated.

I have to say that I use online sites (not just one but Geni is my main one) as I DID lose all my genealogical information when my home computer crashed irrevocably.

I am sad to hear that, Terry, but you forgot one of genealogys most important "rules". Take regular backups of all your genealogical data including text files and pictures. I work on one computer, have backups on 2 others, have backups in dvd-rom, USB-pens and external harddrives that are kept in fireproof safe. On top of that I send all my files to a friend of mine twice a year, just to have complete backups outside my house.

Yes, I'm paranoid, I know, certified :-)