I found this service via an article that named Geni on its list of best free software.
For awhile I had a membership at a competing service. I canceled that after a post that I placed on the message board there was deleted.
My post concerned a situation in which a scammer telephoned my frail, elderly mother, and attempted to persuade her to send money to them. They pretended to be my son, her grandson, and claimed to be arrested and in jail in Canada.
My mother called me, terribly upset and completely convinced that my son was in jail in Canada (no, my son has never been in trouble with the law anywhere) even after I informed her that he was with me right at that very moment. Fortunately, she had not sent the scammer the $6000 they requested for "legal fees."
She asked that if the caller wasn't my son, then how was it possible that they knew she had a grandson, and what his name was, etc? I said that it was possible that they got the information from the genealogy site I belonged to.
So, I posted a warning about the scam on that site's forum, and that was the message that was deleted. For as expensive as that site is, I felt that I deserved to be treated with more respect, and I also thought my message was important, so people would know to warn their old folks.
Consider this to be a test post. ;) If it is left undeleted, then I'll know that Geni is truly community minded.
