Hidden - Where did this record come from?

In 2016, Geni acquired the trees from ftDNA’s old pedigree tree when that company decommissioned it. The living person who had submitted their pedigree was named HIDDEN (and their living relatives). The expectation is that if a member recognizes themself, they can rename / merge etc. Otherwise, left as is.

I'd add that "Person does not exist" is not the right way to show this person or her husband's (James Terrell Redd, III) name. They do/did exist -- we just don't know their name. I would suggest using the traditional "N.N." or "FNU LNU" options.

You can actually figure out some of the names by looking "up" in the tree. For example, Private birth surname would be Hackney, due to her father's father being William P. Hackney. And James Terrell Redd, III's father was James Terrell Redd, Jr. so there's another surname you could add. Mildred Rupert Redd birth surname is Hancock. And so forth. :)

I took the liberty of adding their real names to the tree. It was just a matter of looking in the families of the profiles that have names for relatives who matched the surname combinations.

I suspect this is an important discussion thread in days to come. Let's watch and see.

Well, at a certain point we were asked by Geni to leave these HIDDEN alone unless specifically requested by a member who thinks it’s them; there’s a DNA link attached usually. However that moment in time is probably “past it’s expiration date.” We should get an official OK and still be mindful of privacy concerns.

>>> "...we were asked by Geni to leave these HIDDEN alone unless specifically requested by a member who thinks it’s them."

I believe that doesn't apply once a DNA tree is merged and management is assigned to a Family Group member, which is what happened in this case. These are all within John's Family Group, which gives him the right to go ahead and edit, expand, etc.

But generally, I agree about being mindful of privacy concerns, and I don't add names to ones that aren't in my Family Group.

Oops, a thousand humble apologies. John Royall if you feel that I have overstepped then I shall quickly undo my edits.

@Tamás Flinn Caldwell-Gilbert I appreciate your straightening out these records. I had no sources for doing that. I don't understand how you found the information, but I'm glad to know who these distant relatives are.