US Presidents and Vice Presidents Clean-Up

The main problem is that these living persons where Geni by default make all profiles private which means that not even curators have access to merge unless each manager manually makes the surrounding profiles public or accept family group access to someone willing to clean up.

I'm connected to a surprising number of presidents. The list is below.

Take a look at this chart
http://www.flickriver.com/photos/thejoshmeister/1354206860/
@Henry Howland, of Fenstanton
is connected to FDR, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, George Bush and son, Winston Churchill and Joseph Smith.

I can see my line to some of them in Geni, but not all. Sounds like a great project.

Presidents:
President George Washington is Brendan Molloy's 9th cousin 10 times removed via Dulcia Douce Booth (de Venables), 18th great grandmother

"President" John Adams is your 12th cousin five times removed's husband's second cousin four times removed. (This doesn't count as a connection...)

Richard Milhous Nixon, President is your 9th cousin thrice removed - connected through Henry Howland

"President" George Herbert Walker Bush is your 11th cousin - connected through Henry Howland

"President" George W. Bush is your 11th cousin once removed - connected through Henry Howland

"President" Franklin Delano Roosevelt (The tree has to be cleaned up to figure out what level cousin) - connected through Henry Howland

"President" Gerald Ford (The tree has to be cleaned up to figure out what level cousin) - connected through Henry Howland

Yes! :) Myself and Gene Daniell are two curators who have started cleaning up some of the US president profiles. I've done George Washington, 1st President of the United States , Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the USA , and part of Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of the United States of America so far. I am cleaning up their profiles and their immediate family. I will come back and tackle their extended family later.

If there is a specific president or VP that you (or anyone) would like to work on then one approach we can take is:

- you add sources for the basic information (names, dates, etc) on his profile. If you add sources for his parents, siblings, spouses, children too that would be great. They aren't primary sources but google books is a good place to look if you need a starting point.

- merge as many of the profiles as you can that are already in the big tree. Be sure to do an advanced search with the "connected to me" option to find duplicates....for now we are avoiding merging disconnected trees and want to focus on cleaning up the profiles that are already in the big tree.

- send myself and Gene a note to let us know which profile you have been working on. We'll then merge as many of the remaining duplicates as we can.

Daniel

Daniel,

Please leave profiles that I manage alone. Up until about a week ago I was maintaining a seperate tree from the "Big Tree" and have been working with the GENI staff to seperate my tree from the "Big Tree" again. The problem is that it appears a number of curators keep hijacking profiles from my independant tree. I see that my name has been added to the managers list for George Washington has been hijacked in this manner. Please refrain from merging any of my profiles as I do not want to be part of the "Big Tree". Please pass this message along to the other curators,

Thank you,
Mark Martrinez

Mark,
I only merged GW profiles that were already connected to the big tree. This is housecleaning, not hijacking :)

Out of curiosity why do you not want to be in the big tree? I don't think there is a way for you to disconnect from the big tree at this point but you'd have to email help@geni.com to confirm.

Daniel

Thanks for reponding Daniel,

Actually, I wasn't part of the Big Tree until a few days ago. I get merge requests all the time. But, I always reject them. My guess is that someone made a merge request and before I could respond to it one of the curators must have approved the merge and I was in. I've actually isolated the connection down to one profile that I can't get to let go. I've submitted it to the GENI staff, and I'm waiting to see if they can make the break for me.

The reason I don't want to be part of the Big Tree is that I have very specific research needs that all the additional profiles would obscure. Also, the Big Tree's middle ages profiles are impossible to make sense of (I can't even get most of the tree pages to load at all). Basically, I'm just trying to keep my work as independant as possible.

Mark

I am psyched for this project and glad to see Daniel and Gene leading the charge. Is it cheeky of me to call it the "dead president's society?" :)

There is a standard header format we're developing for the "top of the overview" tab. Makes it much easier for merging. May I suggest it get used here?

As an example:

<summary> Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney (1941-living) served as the 46th Vice President of the United States from 2001 to 2009 under George W. Bush. He briefly served as Acting President of the United States on two occasions during which Bush underwent medical procedures.

<vitals> Born 30 January 1941 in Lincoln, Nebraska, United States. Currently residence is _____

<parents>

<marriage>

<children>

Weblinks: <includes wikipedia page, but at two other sources would be great such as flickrstream link, official US government biography page>

References: <in standard academic format>

What do you think?

Do you have any information on Chester Author's sister Mary Author Mcelroy?

I try helping on Honest Abe's extended family when possible; it's mighty screwed up though. Help is appreciated.

I am thrilled to see the support this has gotten. I'll work up a list of Presidents and VPs already in the Big Tree, and post them here. I'd be happy to keep track of who is working on what profile so we don't duplicate work/research.

I've gone through Washington to Wilson doing a stack flattening, hit the wives, parents and children as I knew them. It would be great if people want to adopt a few and ask us (Curators) to fix stuff or lock them ... any opinions on what the display name nomenclature should be?

Gene Daniell:

I prefer "President Firstname Lastname" with initials/middle names added where applicable. (ex: President Rutherford B. Hayes). Same goes for VP.

As for people like Richard B. Cheney, 46th Vice President of the USA and Jimmy Carter should use the Quotation marks mid-name. (ex: President James "Jimmy" Carter).

That's just my opinion. If there is a methodology that the public prefers, I won't object.

Dear freinds
You call this tread "US Presidents and Vice Presidents Clean-Up"
As far as I can se these people is individuals, and no "familie"!!
Allthough it is not my area I think it could be a god idea to put a link to predesessor as well as successor and there vice president/president!!

Günther Kipp:

I'm sorry, but I believe there is a language barrier issue here. I'm not quite sure what you're trying to say.

However, I did understand that you suggested listing their successor/predecessor on the profile. I'm not opposed.

Dear Robert
The only think I tried to say was that, they is not familie in the normal meaning of familie, and to people like me who don't have the row of US Presidents/Vice presidents as common knowledge, it would be nice to have the link from one to another

Günther Kipp:

Ah, I see. That's fairly simple to work into the About Me section. :-)

Actually very simpel I do it my self in the royal lines see fx:
Frederik IX, King of Denmark

I like Gunther's idea, by the way.

Also, forgot to mention.

There are probably DNA projects for many of the presidents. If links could be included in the profiles, that would be really interesting.

If someone can complete a merge of John Howland, "Mayflower" Passenger, it will bring FDR into the big tree. I don't have the permissions to do it.

You call "Mayflower," I answer:) On the case.

Here are the results for all of the presidents. Nearly every single one has duplicates.

Presidents:

George Washington (February 22, 1732 – December 14, 1799) http://bit.ly/doU4Ij

John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) http://bit.ly/aqAzkT

Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) http://bit.ly/92coTd

James Madison, Jr. (March 16, 1751 – June 28, 1836) http://bit.ly/cMYjcV

James Monroe (April 28, 1758 – July 4, 1831) http://bit.ly/dBqU7h

John Quincy Adams (July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848) http://bit.ly/cETHF0

Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) http://bit.ly/a733S9

Martin Van Buren (December 5, 1782 – July 24, 1862) http://bit.ly/bkLmog

William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773 – April 4, 1841) http://bit.ly/a9fB7i

John Tyler, Jr. (March 29, 1790 – January 18, 1862) http://bit.ly/bg2Pui

James Knox Polk (November 2, 1795 – June 15, 1849) http://bit.ly/bwvwOI

Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784 – July 9, 1850) http://bit.ly/bozUjt

Millard Fillmore (January 7, 1800 – March 8, 1874) http://bit.ly/cIrGTJ

Franklin Pierce (November 23, 1804 – October 8, 1869) http://bit.ly/biNJ8v

James Buchanan, Jr. (April 23, 1791 – June 1, 1868) http://bit.ly/cZmYoo

Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) http://bit.ly/9Ey40R

Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808 – July 31, 1875) http://bit.ly/9cAj1i

Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant; April 27, 1822 – July 23, 1885) http://bit.ly/akGJFe

Rutherford Birchard Hayes (October 4, 1822 – January 17, 1893) http://bit.ly/bvVDhd

James Abram Garfield (November 19, 1831 – September 19, 1881) http://bit.ly/aIbSby

Chester Alan Arthur (October 5, 1829 – November 18, 1886) http://bit.ly/96hcNA

Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837 – June 24, 1908) http://bit.ly/al6fwm

William McKinley, Jr. (January 29, 1843 – September 14, 1901) http://bit.ly/dr5YKo

Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919) http://bit.ly/bmr3n2

William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857 – March 8, 1930) http://bit.ly/cOaDaX

Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856 – February 3, 1924) http://bit.ly/aj9RCI

Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865 – August 2, 1923) http://bit.ly/aPxhFk

John Calvin Coolidge, Jr. (July 4, 1872 – January 5, 1933) http://bit.ly/cqOf69

Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) http://bit.ly/d7icUC

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882 – April 12, 1945) http://bit.ly/delmLT

Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884 – December 26, 1972) http://bit.ly/bMLmPn

Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) http://bit.ly/9scdyv

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963) http://bit.ly/aMjSpU

Lyndon Baines Johnson (August 27, 1908 – January 22, 1973) http://bit.ly/9vAz3K

Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) http://bit.ly/brmAlv

Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr. (born Leslie Lynch King, Jr.; July 14, 1913 – December 26, 2006) http://bit.ly/aUc7bo

James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. (born October 1, 1924) http://bit.ly/diIrUx

Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) http://bit.ly/ai9js9

George Herbert Walker Bush (born June 12, 1924) http://bit.ly/aFIT4U

William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III, August 19, 1946) http://bit.ly/b4F77V

George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) http://bit.ly/ddsMeb

Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) http://bit.ly/cHLHqF

Private User looks like someone beat me to merging that profile for you.

Naming conventions...I normally do strict first/middle/last names in the names field and then do "President Firstname Lastname" in the display field. I've seen cases where President is entered in the first name field but that tends to make it harder to find duplicates.

Robert, awesome list!! I'll start at the bottom and work my way up since Gene has done Washington to Wilson.

Erica and Daniel, thank you! Erica, you're the Mayflower queen :)

Robert, that is an awesome list! I'll change the profiles that I have access to.

I bet this isn't the only one with a typo. (I don't have access to fix)
Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd President of the USA

Private User:

Fixed the typo.

I made it from Obama back to Nixon. The tree is still a mess for some of these due to the large number of living profiles that are private.

Here are the results for VPs. Sadly, Some aren't represented yet. I'll go through tonight and tomorrow to add missing VPs.

VPs:

John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) http://bit.ly/aqAzkT

Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) http://bit.ly/92coTd

Aaron Burr, Jr. (February 6, 1756 – September 14, 1836) http://bit.ly/aRnVre

George Clinton (July 26, 1739 – April 20, 1812) http://bit.ly/djpgdq

Elbridge Thomas Gerry (July 17, 1744 – November 23, 1814) http://bit.ly/bDVV7n

Daniel D. Tompkins (June 21, 1774 – June 11, 1825) http://bit.ly/acXv7F

John Caldwell Calhoun (March 18, 1782 – March 31, 1850) http://bit.ly/czcURr

Martin Van Buren (December 5, 1782 – July 24, 1862) http://bit.ly/bkLmog

Richard Mentor Johnson (October 17, 1780/1781 – November 19, 1850) http://bit.ly/cwtEwu

John Tyler, Jr. (March 29, 1790 – January 18, 1862) http://bit.ly/bg2Pui

George Mifflin Dallas (July 10, 1792 – December 31, 1864) http://bit.ly/dAgYpV

Millard Fillmore (January 7, 1800 – March 8, 1874) http://bit.ly/cIrGTJ

William Rufus DeVane King (April 7, 1786 – April 18, 1853) http://bit.ly/bK0B9k

John Cabell Breckinridge (January 16, 1821 – May 17, 1875) http://bit.ly/9suXGb

Hannibal Hamlin (August 27, 1809 – July 4, 1891) http://bit.ly/drdlC4

Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808 – July 31, 1875) http://bit.ly/9cAj1i

Schuyler Colfax, Jr. (March 23, 1823 – January 13, 1885) http://bit.ly/aLZyft

Henry Wilson (February 16, 1812 – November 22, 1875) http://bit.ly/c0CgiZ

William Almon Wheeler (June 30, 1819 – June 4, 1887) http://bit.ly/a1QZ38

Chester Alan Arthur (October 5, 1829 – November 18, 1886) http://bit.ly/96hcNA

Thomas Andrews Hendricks (September 7, 1819 – November 25, 1885) http://bit.ly/arLib9

Levi Parsons Morton (May 16, 1824 – May 16, 1920) http://bit.ly/bEPoD1

Adlai Ewing Stevenson I (October 23, 1835 – June 14, 1914) http://bit.ly/aqepmZ

Garret Augustus Hobart (June 3, 1844 – November 21, 1899) http://bit.ly/abEAxU

Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919) http://bit.ly/bmr3n2

Charles Warren Fairbanks (May 11, 1852 – June 4, 1918) http://bit.ly/cov4jN

James Schoolcraft Sherman (October 24, 1855 – October 30, 1912) http://bit.ly/9uzSHb

Thomas Riley Marshall (March 14, 1854 – June 1, 1925) http://bit.ly/9cwjNS

John Calvin Coolidge, Jr. (July 4, 1872 – January 5, 1933) http://bit.ly/cqOf69

Charles Gates Dawes (August 27, 1865 – April 23, 1951) http://bit.ly/9vKAF1

Charles Curtis (January 25, 1860 – February 8, 1936) http://bit.ly/d61uqM

John Nance Garner IV (November 22, 1868 – November 7, 1967) http://bit.ly/9De08X

Henry Agard Wallace (October 7, 1888 – November 18, 1965) http://bit.ly/9LHPfD

Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884 – December 26, 1972) http://bit.ly/bMLmPn

Alben William Barkley (November 24, 1877 – April 30, 1956) http://bit.ly/a0cdOz

Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) http://bit.ly/brmAlv

Lyndon Baines Johnson (August 27, 1908 – January 22, 1973) http://bit.ly/9vAz3K

Hubert Horatio Humphrey, Jr. (May 27, 1911 – January 13, 1978) http://bit.ly/9DqcJd

Spiro Theodore Agnew (November 9, 1918 – September 17, 1996) http://bit.ly/a9GN22

Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr. (born Leslie Lynch King, Jr.; July 14, 1913 – December 26, 2006) http://bit.ly/aUc7bo

Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller (July 8, 1908 – January 26, 1979) http://bit.ly/9BrxwM

Walter Frederick Mondale (born January 5, 1928) http://bit.ly/bspBbt

George Herbert Walker Bush (born June 12, 1924) http://bit.ly/aFIT4U

James Danforth "Dan" Quayle (born February 4, 1947) http://bit.ly/9MDdXa

Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. (born March 31, 1948) http://bit.ly/dzyBwK

Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney (born January 30, 1941) http://bit.ly/98XSCi

Joseph Robinette "Joe" Biden, Jr. (born November 20, 1942) http://bit.ly/bbGHoI

OK, so how accurate do we think the big tree is? I'm related to 31 presidents??? I'm not counting 1 of the 32 below (Woodrow Wilson) because he is only married to a relative. There are others (like both Adams) that are also through marriage, so not counted.

Presidents:
President George Washington is your 10th cousin 8 times removed via Dulcia Douce Booth (de Venables), 18th great grandmother

President Thomas Jefferson is your 12th cousin thrice removed

President James Madison is your 8th cousin 7 times removed

President Andrew Jackson is your 11th cousin 6 times removed

President Martin Van Buren is your 24th cousin 20 times removed

President William Henry Harrison is your 10th cousin five times removed

President John Tyler is your 12th cousin thrice removed

President James K. Polk is your 17th cousin thrice removed

President Zachary Taylor is your 10th cousin five times removed

President Millard Filmore is your 10th cousin four times removed

President Franklin Pierce is your 12th cousin five times removed

President Abraham Lincoln is your 11th cousin four times removed

President Ulysses S. Grant is your 10th cousin four times removed

President Rutherford B. Hayes is your 8th cousin once removed

President James Abram Garfield is your 8th cousin thrice removed

President Chester A. Arthur is your 12th cousin thrice removed

President Grover Cleveland is your 10th cousin four times removed

President William Howard Taft is your 14th cousin

President Thomas Woodrow Wilson is your 7th cousin twice removed's husband (Not related)

President Warren Gamaliel Harding is your 17th cousin thrice removed

President Calvin Coolidge is your 16th cousin twice removed

President Herbert Hoover is your 12th cousin

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt is your 8th cousin four times removed - connected through Henry Howland

President Harry S. Truman is your 20th cousin twice removed

President John F Kennedy is your 12th cousin 6 times removed

Richard Milhous Nixon, President is your 8th cousin thrice removed - connected through Henry Howland

President Gerald R. Ford is your 9th cousin - connected through Henry Howland

President Jimmy Carter is your 10th cousin twice removed

Ronald Wilson Reagan is your 13th cousin five times removed

"President" George Herbert Walker Bush is your 11th cousin - connected through Henry Howland

President George W. Bush is your 11th cousin once removed - connected through Henry Howland

President Barack Obama is your 12th cousin once removed

It makes sense, most of the presidents, especially the early ones were relatively closely related, at 10th cousin, it a very distant connection.