Announcing Curators

No, last week was a record high.

The curator list is now posted on the Public Discussion board at http://www.geni.com/discussions/6000000009792416945.

Günther Kipp it isn't official but I've been tracking the number of outstanding merges that I can see for a few months here:
http://forum.geni.com/topic.php?id=64641

"The ultimate goal of Geni is to create a single, accurate family tree that connects all of our users. Over time, as duplicate trees have been merged together over and over again, the tree has become, quite honestly, a mess. We are fully committed to building the most comprehensive and accurate family tree in the world." (see first post in this thread)

This implies ONE profile for ONE person - and that all duplicates of a person within the Big Tree will eventually be merged.

However there are Geni members/users out there who are not aware that they are part of the Big tree.

HOW YOU KNOW IF YOU ARE IN THE BIG TREE
Check the Home page and the Statistics box you see on the right hand side with the numbers of relatives you have etc. The top line there says:

"You are connected to XXXX people on Geni"

If this number is appr 44,667,339 you ARE connected (number at the moment). The connection is not necessarily through your direct ancestors, but can be through various in-laws being connected through marriages to other trees that connect to - etc.

HOW TO KNOW IF ANOTHER PERSON IS CONNECTED
If you already part of the Big Tree, you can visit any person's profile, and check if the line at the top indicates "You are connected to XXX" (with the option of finding out the actual connection). It this field instead says "This is the Public profile for XXX" with NO mention of connections, the profile and his/her tree is NOT part of the Big Tree. If you wish to merge with such profiles/trees, make sure you write an email and explain properly that they do not only merge with you, but they join the Big tree with thousands of users and millions of profiles - and there will be many more merges.

HOW TO GET OUT OF THE BIG TREE
At the moment there is no real and easy solution to this. You should probably:
1. Contact Geni Help (NB: They have a lot to do at the moment and it may take a while before they respond)
2. Consider closing your Big Tree account and start a separate tree where you do not collaborate with anyone, or invite any family members (as these might merge into the Big Tree again)

WHAT HAPPENS
The numbers of outstanding merges increase to >150,000 within the last days.

@Günther

Noah posted this in the forum:
http://forum.geni.com/topic.php?id=70271

"We've also found some pending merges that were not converted to the new merge center, so there may be a one time increase in the number of profile merges in your list. I'm sure we'll work through these quickly.
"

Anne ... Well said!

so who r the curators

This discussion, Ryan: http://www.geni.com/discussions/6000000009792416945

srry @Erica Isabel Howten I'm new to the public discussions and used to the forums

No worries! It took us all time to figure it out.

Biggest hint: if a discussion is not interesting to you, click "unfollow" at the top of the page. That reduces "noise."

I think this is great some people are better at verifying things than others. Especially if they speak the native language. Some trees are word of mouth, some are family bibles, some are built on research. I know my Krabbenhoft tree is correct because there is a book out Krabbenhoft and kin. I however rely heavily on my Norwegian speaking friends when it comes to tracking the Norwegian side. It will be interesting when I add the Montegue side of the family. I believe the family has been traced in Europe.

I'm wondering, @Noah Tutak, if there is a quantitative way to rank tree and contributor quality so that all users could know who the best contributors are. One variable would be the amount of documentation submitted per node. At this point, I've got a bunch of merge requests I'm doing nothing with, because I have no way to validate the research of those requesting the merges.

I haven't uploaded any documentation myself because (1) much of it is unscanned hard copy, (2) I often don't have permission from those who've shared it with me to share further, (3) Geni's documentation capabilities are weak, and (4) I'm uncertain about the long-term viability of for-profit proprietary platforms like Geni by contrast with LDS (who've earned trust over the years) or an open-source, public, fully GEDCOM equivalent kind of Jimmy Wales-ish Family Graphopedia that has yet to emerge.

I like what you guys are doing, and think it's impressive in some ways, but an awful lot depends on cleaning up the mess by boosting the prominence and participation of those who really do try to validate each node and ensure accuracy. I go back and forth on whether to add to what I've got posted here, or put my efforts elsewhere.

I'll continue to be on the fence until the documentation features are more robust (and tied to each node) and you've got a way to rank users by the quality of their submissions.

In my experience, the LDS is not a good source. The info is added by individuals with no vetting by the LDS. It's exactly like rootsweb only not as easy to use. JMNSHO.

I put this together in Excel, and it can be coppied ind pastedd in a excel file, and you might find it helpful in keeping straight who the curators are and what lines they are working on. I know I am a bit confused about where I can and cannot work.

1st Name Middle name Last Name From Area of Expertice
Rehan Allahwala Pakistan
Harald Tveit Alvestrand Norway Viking
Mimi Arcala [ACTIVE USER] California, USA
Pablo Benítez Barreto Uraguay
Anne Marit Klauset Berge Norway
Heather (Fachet) Bond Alabama, USA
Bjørn P. Brox Norway
Yigal Burstein Israel
Gene Daniell 4 New Eng Area USA
Susanna Engberg Barnevik Sweden Olof Skotknung
Maria Edmonds-Zediker Sam Jose, Ca USA
Martin Severin Eriksen Norway
Ofir Friedman Israel
Flemming Allan Funch Danish/France
Noah Grzegosz Tutak La, Ca USA
Kevin Lawrence Hanit Toronto, Canada
Sherry Lynne Houy Ft Hays, KS USA
Myrna Huthmacher Mt Dora, FL USA
Erica Isabel Howton NY USA
Terry Jackson England
David Lee Kaleita Michigan, USA
Shmuel Aharon Kam (Kahn) / (שמואל אהרן קם (קאן Israel Biblical tree
Günther Kipp Denmark
FARKAS Mihály László Hungary
Kristi Laurel Mas Irvington, NY USA
Vance Barrett Mathis Bonaire, GA, USA
Kim Odenweller Illinois, USA
Janet Palo-Jackson Colorado, USA
Lúcia Pilla Sao Paulo
Henn Sarv Estonia
Lars Bertel (Lasse) Söderström Finland
Erin Spiceland Huntsville, AL USA
Justin Swanström Denver, Co USA
Geoffrey David Trowbridge Elkhart, IN USA
David Usherwood London, England
Marsha Gail (Kamish) Veazey Texas, USA
Margaret S Verner Seattle, WA USA
Daniel Dupree Walton No Carolina, USA US Pres./Civil War Gen
Lori Lynn Wilke California, USA
Pam Wilson Atlanta, GA USA Anglo Norman gamilies
Richard Aaron Wilson California, USA
יגאל בורשטיין Калоян Иванов Иванов Bulgaria

Thanks that's great Myrna!

I'm in Madison, Wisconsin though.

Marsha, the LDS can be a good source but you have to be extremely careful what you are actually looking at for as you state a lot of their records are contributions and these are often dubious however the IGI on the LDS is generally Parish Records and although these are not always complete the ones that are their are pretty reliable as they are simply copied from the original records held by churches. (they are incomplete because some churches did not wish to have their records copied by the LDS)

Similarly, although we as curators aren't condoning using Roostweb as a source there are good bad and terrible trees out there. The good ones will have primary sources quoted and so could be useful.

Additional: I was born in Austin, Texas. I grew up in Illinois though. :-)

Thanks Myrna for that list. Very useful, as I don't think all of those 42 listed curators have introduced themselves as yet.

(You listed 43, including the two merged on the last line, but I think you included Noah in error. He may be in your curator discussion group, but not actually a curator.)

I was fascinated to see that of those 42, only 2 seem to be in the Southern Hemisphere. I look forward to hearing of more Southern Hemisphere curators.

Also we don't have curators from either of the two most populated countries in the world: China and India. Together they represent almost 40% of the population of this planet.

Keep up the good work!

Thanks, Myrna! It's a good starting place. I work on Arledges in America (1660s-present) and all my own families. In the historic tree, I've focused on using my French and Latin skills and my interest in medieval history, so the Anglo-Normans are my main area and I also work some on French counts until we get more French curators. I also have started curating the Boone family, a link between the Anglo Normans and my own more recent ancestors. I live in Cartersville, Georgia, USA.

Kim, I've lived in both Austin and Madison (ah, the great college towns of America--went to grad schools there) as well as Chapel Hill too.

David--yes, we are actively seeking curators from a broader range of geographic locations and cultural traditions to help make our tree truly global and not just Euro-American.

When it comes to curator locations it is currently more important to get people focused and especially active in maintaining certain lines than where they live.

I did for example check up India yesterday, where it in theory should be potential many users, but the feedback I got was that there currently are no need for a specific curator for India because most trees does not go far back and causes merge/conflict problems (actually only two and they are collaborating), and many of those accounts are inactive. If needed they might need a curator for each region since a person from the south of India does not understand people from the north, religious and cast barriers and so on.

Australia and Africa is another example, - I can't remember hearing about any problems in specific regional lines that needs a specific curator at the moment.

We are however covered up with a 24-hour monitoring of requests posted in the zombie and attention curators threads.

I would assume curator(s) covering Russia and Ukraine would get higher priority, but in the long run most areas should be covered.

At the moment the number of curators have reached a critical number which require better tools to be organized before expanding further.

Curator Discussions and Projects are among the things currently discussed. We are currently drowning in internal messages just between the curators, - around 50 per day.

I love this. Too many times I have been stuck and somebody else has the answer. I am glad somebody is out there checking how accurate profiles are. Family bibles, bad handwriting, not knowing how to spell a name, let alone the habit of immigrants to change their names and spellings to more match their new country can lead to errors. Plus naming habits are different country to country.

Has anyone looked into touching the Native Americans in the USA. The genealogy is going to be hard to trace and it is hard to get your fingers on tribal roles. Not only that but with some tribes you have to track into Canada for records. Some are very difficult and some are impossible. The French fur trappers in the northern US sometimes had two families. Their french wife who stayed behind and then their Indian family also. Some children stayed with the tribe and some went into their father's society. It will be easy to make mistakes. Some history is word of mouth only.

Private User

Shari, yes, the Native American genealogies are a particular interest of mine (and several other curators). I've been cleaning up "The Cherokee Tree" as I have a verified ancestor-by-marriage connection, and it's looking much better. The Pocahantas profile was a mess and a curator made it into something lovely: Pocahontas

I can't speak to the Canadian tribes but it's certainly part of my personal agenda to help get "workgroups" going for the different tribes. I hope you join in when we start those projects.

I am not related but my children have ties to the Turtle Mountain Chippewa. One of my suggestions is to contact the churches on the reservation also. They have marriage and baptism records. Sometimes it is the only place the father is listed in the older generations. No written language in the past makes it more difficult. A lot was passed on by word of mouth. If you look at the payouts of the treaty settlements they had to list tribal members for those.

So who would I talk to about requesting some help finding more information about an area on my tree that is very sparse?
I am having difficulty trasking down Jewish ancestry.

Malka Mysels

Could you talk to Chris Duben? I know you are working on the Jewish trees....

This Project may help you:

http://www.geni.com/projects/Jewish-Ancestry-Research-Guide

Otherwise, start a new discussion with some of your "brick walls." Posting public profiles back some time in history may help in that discussion.

Chris, feel free to email me with any questions. I spent two years tracking my Jewish relatives through many different sites, books, and journals. Through Poland, Lithuania, the Ukraine, England, and Argentina. There are good, free sites, that you can do research on for Jewish ancestors. It is truly amazing what's out there, if you are lucky enough to have some breadcrumbs to track. On the other hand, sometimes the deadends remain deadends for a long while.

Myrna - Thanks for doing the list! But I'm in Wellington, FL. :-)