From The Geni Team

We've been reading each and every post that comes to us here at Geni and the post today that asked for more communication from the team really resonated with us.

Even though we haven't been as visible on our blog you should know that we read each and every comment that comes in.  A daily wrap up is sent out to the whole team to keep them aware of what everyone is requesting, problems they are having and reasons they love Geni!

The response to Geni has been exciting and overwhelming--most recently we have been working to address a backlog of emails.  We've hired some new folks that will help us catch up on the backlog which in turn will give us more time to layer on new and exciting features. 

Briefly here are some of the items on Geni's roadmap:

• FAQ's 
• A Forum for users to discuss Geni issues
• More privacy settings
• A way to support various relationships (brothers marrying sisters, adoptions and more)
• Printing and importing files
• Support of other languages

Stay tuned---these are exciting times!

The Geni Team

Comments

[joelion]

brothers marrying sisters?
I hope not too many people are asking for that function!

[Jay Voorhees]

Thanks for the update. I was about to post a comment asking for some features, but you addressed everything I was looking for in your roadmap. I look forward to seeing updates in the days ahead.

[Josh]

I'd like to suggest having a way for users to print out their family trees. This is a much needed feature!

Thanks.

[Ugo]

Hi.

I've got a product suggestions, so I am leaving a comment here, as recommended in your "Contact Us" page.

My wife just got pregnant and I thought of updating my family tree. Problem is, we don't know the sex yet, but Geni forces me to enter either a son or a daughter.
It would be a nice touch to let users add members to the family with more freedom, like in our case.
Generalizing a bit, it wouldn't be bad to let pets in the tree as well.

Thank you and keep up the good work.

P.S. Congrats for Geni's $100M valuation.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/99656032/

[Phillip Molly Malone]

Hi Guys,
Love the service. This might already be in the product and I just haven't found it yet but (and this is probably so under the fantastic usages that you can use the system for now) what about a Birthday, Anniversary reminder system? I mean if my whole family is updating their details in the system, this is going to be the one stop shop (so to speak) of family related dates!

Maybe an email, SMS or even an RSS feed of upcoming dates of interest.

Just a thought, keep up the outstanding work.
Molly

[Geni in a bottle]

I have a suggestion.

With the question of step-kids, it's a very sensitive issue. Often, it's not right to put step-kids under the biological parents. It makes the kids feel somewhat outcast and different from their half-siblings.
I think I've already managed to hurt some relatives' feelings because I focused too much on genetic history.

You really should have "biological parents" in addition to "parents". The tree should reflect the "sentimental tree", and often not the biological tree.
An option to list the biological parents and have an arrow crossing the tree linking the genetic relation would be great too.

Of course, the best is to make this an option on a case by case basis.

Remember, there's biology, legal, and sentimental. The "legal" probably doesn't matter as much as the other two.

[Jay Voorhees]

Would you add MDiv to the list of college degrees. It's what us clergy folks (ministers) get in seminary. Also you might want to add the DMin degree as well

[Jay Voorhees]

Also, add a job title field to the work information. While I am currently a pastor, I have had several occupations along the way.

Sorry for the plethora of suggestions, but I haven't been on in a while and I am getting a sense of the site now.

[Jay Voorhees]

In your road map, I would suggest the ability to link trees via common e-mail addresses. In example, I have a cousin who has set up an account on Geni but I can't invite him to view my tree (which he is a part of) as your system won't allow more than one instance of the same e-mail address. What would be cool would be for me to enter his e-mail into the box in my tree, and to have the system automatically update my tree with his information based on the common e-mail address.

[Eric T.]

This is great to hear. I love the site and I'm really excited to see your future plans get implemented. Keep up the awesome work!

[TSW]

Can the photo display be fixed so that it's easier to just upload a photo and outline the person's face to be centered on the main tree view? Right now more than half of the photos people in my tree have uploaded show only the top half of the face. And if there'd also be a way to modify already uploaded photos to do the same, that would be great.

[J Wu]

Good to hear the team is reading the postings.
More suggestions:
-Display preference options: women by maiden name (as in 'traditional' family trees) or married name (if exists);
- marker/different color border indicating person is deceased
- collapsible levels to improve scrolling around huge families

[J Wu]

Perhaps some guidelines re: uploading photo: e.g., optimal size ratio of photos.
Geni-ers FYI: tree pix/Main photo ratio = 50 x 52 px; profile/lists pixs ratio = 78 x 61 px. So crop photos to size to noted ratio.

[Mike Powell]

Do you have any plans to provide means to join together one or more separate trees into a single tree?

[J Wu]

(Yes, me again.) In the Invite list window, should be filtered to display only non-deceased members.

[Amey]

I assume you have gotten many of these before but...A little unclear about how to enter maiden names for women. Hard to see if someone has kept their name or taken their husband/partner's. Also, middle names are very important in some families to keep cousins straight.... In South American cultures, you use both parent's names (and the mother's is the one that counts :-). Might even be nice to have a nickname field.

BTW, what's the revenue model that is justifying your spectacular post-money??

[USTommyMC]

I have an issue that I didn't forsee.

My father has a cousin (male) from his father' side and a cousin (female) from his mother's side that married. I am having trouble connecting them in the family tree. I can make them either married or as son and daughter under their respective parents but I can't do both. Any suggestions? At the moment I have the female cousin as a double entry, both as married to my father's male cousin and as a daughter to her parents.

[LindaM]

I love the site, and several cousins have joined. Is there some way to steer people to add information about the names they have added. (Make them automatically go to the basic information screen after adding a name) Several people just added names, no dates of birth, death, or profile info and since I am the family geneologist, I really want all the info about each person, not just names. I'm looking forward to the enhancements you mentioned and I've been telling friends and fellow geneology buffs about the site. Keep up the great work.

[MichaelQ]

It would be super handy if you could add a global login for the Family in general. My issue is that I would like to add family members, but I don't know their exact lineage/connection (second cousins etc). If they could login and add their links that would be great.

[Ulf Jensen]

A usefull thing would be if you could see who did the latest update on a persons profile.

[Shajahan]

This is awesome..., But little more features needed.

Query 1:
---------
I created a family tree...
Another person created his family tree..
My fourth ancestor and his fifth ancestor are same...
How we connect these two ?
Specify a method or kindly implement a method to connect these two trees even the ancestor don't have email ID ?

My suggestion to above query:

* In the Add relative option, ask the node ID or email ID to be connected, assuming the Id will be getting from another family tree members.
* Then on adding, it can be added after approving any person from that family tree.
* When the any other family member loging in, show the requested family without showing more details, On approving it's can be added to the first family tree.
* This verification is required or not ?

Query 2:
By mistake I added another family tree and they approved it. How can we break the tree from a point or a link ?

Suggestion:
On right clicking the connecting line to a descentrant, give 'break' option, Then May delete directly or delete it only after approved by a member from the breaking tree.

Have a nice future!
Keep Rocking!

[Daniel Glifberg]

Hello,
I love the site and its functions and concepts.
I would like to be able connect two people already entered into the tree.
I.e. a couple of generations back on realize that a person in two different branches of the tree is actually the same person. Then it should be possible to both merge persons as well as give a new family relationship to already present people.

/ Regards, Daniel

[Tonia Wells]

I would like to see a space specifically for medical conditions with the ability to search for words in that section.

[Tonia Wells]

I agree with the previous request for having a more "sensitive" tree, rather than strictly geneological when having to do with adoptions. I think saying "biological parents" gives the right perspective.

[Gregory]

More name fields are needed. People aren't just First and Last name. In non-USA countries, they have up to five names. Should be a space for maiden name, at least.
Especially in family tree, it's important to put all the names, to track obscure connections, names. Example: How can I input Ruth Arelene Martin Giagnocavo? At the moment, your display truncates the name, and there is no way to indicate that Martin is Ruth's maiden name. GREAT SERVICE!!