Big Tree
From Wiki
"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)
