Colonial American tree cleanup

Last updated 23 December 2023

Make Geni members aware of this specialty area, where members share their knowledge and trees. Invite collaborators, please!

Project objectives:

• Find and merge Colonial American duplicate profiles.
• Ensure profiles have biographies and sources.
• Improve and enhance trees.

Project scope:

• The first generation to settle in North America was born no later than say 1580.
• Their ancestors for a generation or two are in project scope also.
• Colonial America became the United States in 1783 so profiles born later are out of scope.

Use discussions:

• Project collaborators can add profiles to the project, but for action, use discussions. Direct link: Colonial American Tree Cleanup Discussions
• If you have trouble merging duplicate profiles together, post links to BOTH profiles in the project discussion: Need help merging Colonial Americans?
• If you have other kinds of technical trouble with trees, post the profile link AND a description of the problem in the project discussion: Need help fixing Colonial American trees? Post it here!
• If you’d like collaboration on a Colonial American tree cleanup, start a discussion from profile with specifics, and log it in the discussion, Need help polishing Colonial Americans?
• If it’s a trickier genealogy question, have interesting period-specific information to share,, etc., feel free to start a new discussion within the project.

Use Geni standards:

• Naming conventions: Colonial American naming conventions
• Master profiles: Geni Master Profile

Use the ‘photos and documents’ area:

• Upload to Photos and Documents for Colonial American Tree Cleanup documents and images that pertain to Colonial American trees. They are then stored forever, even if the original document is removed from the internet, and can be tagged to additional projects and profiles, as well as being visible to geni members. No more bookmarks!

Use and add to the ‘References’ section (below):

• Links to external sources encouraged.

Did You Know:

• As a rule of thumb, it's probable that if you have a profile born before 1700, it's in the Geni tree already.
• Geni uses blue boxes (& blue circles on tree view) to let you know that there may be a duplicate of the profile you've created.
• It can be difficult to find duplicates on Geni, because often the spelling of a profile from before 1700 can have several variant spellings. If you have trouble finding duplicates for early profiles, please contact one of the Colonial American Curators. The list of curators, by geographic area, is here: Geni curators.
• Hint: use Geni Advanced Search to identify possible matches and then use the results of the search to make a targeted Google search, which may capture spelling variations in results, and let you click right through to examine.
• Instead of creating duplicates of the historical profiles on the Colonial American part of the tree, just use the top right pop-down menu to Request Management. Or, if you have information that differs from what you are seeing in the tree, you can contact the managers -- or the curator, if it is a Master Profile -- or start a public discussion from the profile itself. (Please be aware, though, that the quality of your sources will matter to your argument! There is an enormous amount of misinformation on the web, and personal trees that are on the web, without sources to back them up, are not in themselves reliable sources.)
• Remember however, that if you're in the World Tree, & Geni shows a relationship line between you & that profile, it is already part of your tree Once you connect the nearest ancestors you can into the World tree, you are connected to all the early ancestors who are already on the Geni World Tree.
• If the historical area interests you, there is usually a project that you can join to participate in research & help keep the line correct.

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References:

• “Age of Consent in European & American History” (September 9, 2013) (document attached)
• “Why No Middle Names?” (U.S. National Park Service) (document attached)
• “The Use of Middle Names” (Bob's Genealogy Filing Cabinet) (document attached)

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Page contact: Erica Howton