Merges and Duplicates

Private User

6/29/2022 at 2:28 AM

I am not sure this is the place for this, but I am at my wits end and hope someone here can offer suggestions on how to address what has become an overwhelming problem.

How can I get Geni to take up the issue of people creating obvious duplicates, and then requesting to merge with the original owner of the duplicated profile.

I would like to understand why allow the duplicates in the first place, instead of alerting the person creating the duplicate, to send a request to be added as a manager on the profile.

Why is that so hard.

I am having to clean up too many conflicts caused by merges. There are instances when the information being merged is incorrect and it becomes time consuming with the need for additional research. Invariably one merge creates numerous other merges that may also need to be verified when the information is different.

This has been an ongoing problem that I have faced over the years.

Am I the only one who sees this as an issue?

Erica Howton C

6/29/2022 at 2:47 AM

Of course we all see the problem.

Basic members cannot easily act on tree merges. It is possible to become quite proficient using google and avoid the duplicate & merge issue, but many users are intent on building their own tree, as they know it, and do not quite understand the “one tree” concept. (Spoiled by Ancestry!)

Gedcom uploads are my biggest threat, as members will upload large files instead of small, targeted ones that extend the tree. Curators are authorized to remove those duplicate trees instead of merging, but we need to be notified. So use the discussion “Attention, please assist” for curator assistance on it. https://www.geni.com/discussions/245980

And keep educating. A friendly - hey, why don’t I add you as a manager, and your data entry is done! May go a long way to alerting casual members to more effective methods.

Private User

10/14/2022 at 5:52 PM

Hello Erica,

I am just seeing this response to my original post. I guess I am not being alerted. i will figure out why.

Thank you for your response. I have actually done what you suggested and have asked nicely at first that I add people as a manager on my profiles. I have explained my reasons realizing that often others may not understand that merging one profile creates numerous duplicates. Sometime it works and people are apologetic. But mostly I just get ignored and the behavior continues.

In Jamaica there are so many interrelated families and many of us are related on several surnames. This is really at the heart of the problems I am having. So generally someone joins Geni not realizing their family have been there for years.

I even had one person delete my profile because the original profile was not the name he knew his relative by. I had to explain that I had in fact worked with another descendant to create the branch and had the source documents. That I am the keeper of my family history so my tree includes the family of my cousins who have also contributed. I just could not understand why he would delete my profile rather than contact me and explain the change he wanted to make.

I have so many profiles on the tree so I tend to get a lot of these problems. I am not happy if the information being merged is incorrect. One example of this is earlier this year I had to correct one complete branch of my husbands side of the tree because someone had merged numerous profiles but they had confused the generations because of the similarities of names among family members. it was a nightmare to fix.

I have now come to accept that Geni is about creating this huge world tree and is less concerned with accuracy. Also I was constantly asking one of the curators for assistance with some of these issues. Its just been too overwhelming with everything else I am doing..

For the last few years I have been volunteering my time helping others make sense of their DNA results, in order to find parents or grandparents.

I have now stopped building my tree here and will only continue to maintain what is already on Geni, such as updating existing information. t am no longer checking the accuracy of the numerous merges or the duplicates that also need to be merged and am now keeping my tree elsewhere.

It just all became too much. All the fun was being removed from a hobby that means so much to me.

Erica Howton C

10/14/2022 at 7:25 PM

(Sigh)

I understand, particularly the similar names problem.

My solution as a geni volunteer curator is to (relentlessly) lock data and relationships fields. This prevents deletion. I know there are a couple of curators working with Jamaica families and no doubt there’s only so much they can do.

So we have a general “ Curators: Please make this profile a Master Profile” discussion:

https://www.geni.com/discussions/217560?msg=1410848

And also, a general “Curators, please assist” discussion, where we can use curator tools to correct profiles: https://www.geni.com/discussions/245980?msg=1545450

I hope you consider making use of these services.

Private User

10/15/2022 at 8:18 AM

Hi Erica,

I appreciate the suggestions andI will definitely look into it. Also thanks for hearing me.

Merges and Duplicates

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