The Geni Blog

GenTips: Finding Those Elusive Female Ancestors

In this post, Geni guest blogger and avid genealogist Lisa Alzo celebrates Women's History month by helping you find your elusive female ancestors.

Do you have an elusive female ancestor that you just can’t seem to find?

She may be the one listed as Mary (blank) in your pedigree chart because you are unable to identify her maiden name; or the first wife of your great-grandfather who seemed to just “disappear” after the 1880 census, but you are unable to locate a death record or burial plot, or the great aunt who supposedly came to the U.S. in the early 20th century but fails to turn up in any online passenger list records.

There’s no question that finding our female ancestors can seem a difficult and seemingly impossible task when compared to their male counterparts. This is due in part to the fact that most genealogical records prior to the 20th century focus on men since they typically owned the property, controlled the government, businesses, etc. Few women left diaries or letters, especially immigrant women who spoke little or no English. But sometimes the problem isn’t that the records are not available, but rather how thoroughly we investigate the sources presented to us. However, with a solid research strategy, carefully honed sleuthing skills, the ability to be open to possibilities and take risks, and a good dose of patience and persistence, you can fill in those blanks. Here are a few quick tips to get you started:

1. Check all records for her husband, especially tax, property, and naturalization records. Also check records for siblings. Look for clues in photographs, newspapers, yearbooks, bridal books, employment, convent, military, and other records.
2. Note the possibility of more than one marriage and multiple burial markers.
3. Learn naming practices and patterns and note regional, cultural, and religious influences. Investigate different suffixes for female surnames (e.g., -ova; -datter, etc.) and add these to a woman’s name when searching databases.
4. Pay attention to spelling variations, and handwriting/transcription errors when searching census, immigration or vital records.
5. Create a timeline to place the woman’s life in historical context.  Geni.com provides customizable free timelines for each ancestor you include in your tree.  If you don’t have a Geni account, it takes just a few minutes to create one.

March is designated as “Women’s History Month.” Consider using this month to focus your research on your female lines. With some extra sleuthing you just might be able to erase the blanks from your pedigree chart, to find those missing pieces and break through the silence to tell your female ancestors’ stories.

Author, instructor, and lecturer, Lisa A. Alzo teaches the  “Finding Your Female Ancestors” course for GenClas

If you enjoyed this Genealogy Tip by Lisa please join us again in a couple weeks for more. In the meantime, get out there and interview your family members and preserve your family history on Geni.

How To: Make Your Geni Tree More Active (Part 1)

On Geni the objective is to create a collaborative environment where multiple family members can work together to build, share, and preserve a rich family history. With each additional family member getting involved, the workload decreases that much more and/or the amount of shared content increases that much more. Therefore, over the next three days we will be posting a 3 part guide that will help you activate your tree in becoming a truly collaborative environment.

Step One: Lay the Groundwork

Before you expect your family members to add content you should first build out the tree as much as you can. This will lay the groundwork and create the social graph in which your family members will be able to join and participate in. To do this go to your Tree and click the yellow arrows:

Top Arrows add Father or Mother
Side Arrows add Sister, Brother, Wife, or Husband
Bottom Arrows add Son or Daughter

Reminder: As you add the living relatives to the Tree make sure you invite them by entering their email address into the 'enter email' box.

Step Two: Invite Family

If you did not have the email address for some your family members at the time you added them to the Tree you will still want to make sure that you invite them. One way to increase the likelihood that they accept your invitation is to create a custom invitation. Sometimes people receive emails and they are not sure if they are really from the person that the message says they are, so the email ends up being deleted. However, if you customize the invitation template and explain to them why it is important that they join, there is a greater likelihood that they will accept the invitation and join the tree. Another reason for creating a custom invitation template may be because of a language barrier. If the primary language the recipient speaks is Spanish and the default Geni template is in English, they may not understand what the invitation is for. To create a custom invitation click the Invite link in the upper right hand corner of any page within Geni. Then click the Edit Invitation Template link in the upper right hand corner of that page. It is there that you will be able to create the custom invitation template that will best convince your family to join.

Remember: After you change the template, that will be the invitation that is sent out to each person. However, at any time you can go back to the Edit Invitation Template page and click 'Restore default subject and message' to do just that.

Now that you have created a custom template you should go back to the Invite page and start inviting your family members. This page will automatically list all of the living people in your family, that are on your Tree. Go through the list, add each family members email address, and click the 'Invite' button to generate the invitation.

If you enjoyed this post and would like information on how to engage your family once they've joined Geni, come back tomorrow for (Part 2).

How To: Make Your Geni Tree More Active (Part 2)

Step Three: Engage Family Members as They Join

As family members start to accept the invitations make sure that you welcome them to the Tree. You can do this by simply sending them a quick message to their GuestBook, which is located at the bottom of their Profile. You may also want to tell them about Geni and that you are trying to create a place for your family to build and preserve family history as well as stay in touch.

You can also engage them by sending them periodic messages and/or by starting Discussions in which they can participate in. The objective is to make them feel like this is as much theirs as it is yours. Also, make sure you never forget to send them a birthday or anniversary greeting through the Calendar.

It might even be helpful to direct them to this post so they can repeat the same steps with other family members. You will really start seeing your Tree grow and become active when multiple people are following these guidelines. For example, when an in-law joins the Tree be sure to tell them to add their branch to the Tree and invite their family to join. Also, offer your assistance if they need it.

Step Four: Continuously Add Content

One of the things that you can control is the content that you add. Believe it or not, lots of family members log into Geni quite frequently but don't add content. You can see who is logging in and when through the Recently Online module found on the right hand side of your home page. Some ways that you can add content is by uploading Photos or Videos. Not just any photos or videos, try to choose the ones that will be interesting to the broader audience such as family reunion photos or photos of common ancestors.  Other ways to create content is by adding new Events, filling out your Profile, posting Latest News, or even starting Discussions. Lastly, if you see that someone is logging in frequently but not adding content then revert back to step three and try to engage them.

If you enjoyed the first two posts and would like information on how to engage your family if steps 1-4 are not working, come back tomorrow for (Part 3).

How To: Make Your Geni Tree More Active (Part 3)

Step Five: Send Reminders

It is possible that family members overlooked your initial invitation and accidentally deleted it. Therefore, if a few weeks go by and they did not yet join, you may want to send them a reminder invitation. To do this, go to the Invite page, by clicking on the Invite link in the upper right hand corner of any page within Geni. Then click the Invitation History link. This will direct you to a page that displays everyone that you have invited to your Tree. You will notice beneath the 'Status' column it will state the status of your invitation. If they have not yet accepted your invitation then you will see a 'Remind' button in the 'Action' column. You should remind family members periodically to give them another chance to accept the invitation, in case they accidentally deleted it the first time. Also, if you send reminder invitations a few times and they still do not respond then you may want to call them and make sure that they are receiving them. You can tell them that it's you sending them and they should accept it. If they are not receiving them then they should make sure that they accept emails from geni@geni.com and if the problem persists then they should contact help@geni.com.

This guide of how to make your Geni Tree more active was compiled from feedback amongst some of the most active Trees on Geni. We feel that if any of you follow these same steps you too will successfully create a fun and interactive family environment where building, sharing, and preserving your family history will happen that much quicker and that much easier.

Tag and Identify People Within Photos

Have you ever looked at a family reunion photo with 15 or more people accompanied by a list of names beneath the photo? If so, you probably know how hard it is to determine which name matches with the approprite face. Geni now offers a solution to this problem. You can now tag and identify people within your Geni photos which will allow anyone viewing the photo to associate the name with the face. To learn how to do this you may want to watch the short video below which outlines the steps:

To start tagging and identifying people within your Photos click here.

Genealogy 101 - GEDCOM Overview

One of the biggest advantages of using the Internet for genealogy research is the ability to exchange information with other researchers or interested parties. To share genealogical information, genealogists often transfer electronic documents containing genealogical information. The most common way to do this is to send that information as a GEDCOM file.

What does GEDCOM stand for?
GEDCOM is an acronym for GEnealogical Data COMmunication. When saved, transferred or shared, this data usually takes the form of a text file, commonly referred to as a "GEDCOM file" or "GEDCOM" for short.

What are GEDCOM files used for?
GEDCOM is a structured method of formatting genealogical or family tree data. Because its format and usage are described in a written, open specification, the majority of genealogy software applications have settled on the GEDCOM file as the standard for input and output. Many genealogists use GEDCOM files to save, transfer or share genealogical content or data.

One service Geni provides is an online representation of the information contained in a family's GEDCOM file or files. Users can simply invite their family   to join their family network and share their information with known family members. Sharing information with potential (or unconfirmed) relatives is another story. Since Geni shows living and deceased relatives, inviting an unconfirmed relative to your family tree is not recommended, as it may risk showing private family information to a person who may turn out to be unrelated. Instead, try determining relatedness before inviting. One way to do this is to mutually exchange GEDCOM files that are configured to show only deceased relatives. If you are indeed closely related and able to build a relationship path to one another, then it is probably safe to go ahead and invite that person to your Geni Tree.

It is recommend that Geni users use (and anyone using any genealogy program) back up their data as often as possible. You can do this through a process known as GEDCOM export, which is a common feature of many genealogy applications, and one that Geni offers online.

How does a GEDCOM file work?
A GEDCOM file is nothing more than a text file formatted along certain rules, as described in the GEDCOM specification. This specification calls for the use of tags (denoted by the TAG label in the file) to describe individuals and their familial relationships. Examples of tags include: INDI for individual, FAM for family, BIRT for birth and DATE. A GEDCOM file is basically a "flat file" database of records with pointers to track the relationships of all the people it contains.

How do I view a GEDCOM file?
It is possible to decipher a GEDCOM by viewing it with any text editor. However, it is usually much easier to read a GEDCOM file with a software application that specializes in viewing family trees or displaying GEDCOM files. The great majority of genealogy applications support GEDCOM. Geni also supports the GEDCOM format, through its Geni's Import feature.

How do I open and read a GEDCOM file?

Save the GEDCOM File to Your Computer:
Whether downloading the GEDCOM file from the Internet or receiving it as an email attachment, save the file to an easy-to-find location on your hard drive.

Determine whether it is really a GEDCOM:
Begin by ensuring that the file that you want to open is truly a GEDCOM file, and not a family tree file created in another custom or proprietary format by a genealogy software program. GEDCOM files end with the file extension .ged. Sometimes, a GEDCOM file may be compressed for faster transfers, and in this case the file is likely to end with the .zip extension. Compressed GEDCOM files must be decompressed before being imported.

Import your GEDCOM file to Geni:

1. Go to the GEDCOM Import page.
2. Fill out the form and upload your GEDCOM file. (There is currently a 5,000-person limit per import, but no overall limit to how many people you may import.)
3. Indicate who you are in your GEDCOM file.
4. View your updated family tree, containing information from the GEDCOM file you just uploaded.

For detailed information on the formats and fields Geni supports, visit the GEDCOM page on the Geni User Wiki.

How-to: Manage Your Profiles

Did you know that when you add a new profile to Geni, you are the 'Profile Manager' of that profile? This means that you have additional control over who can edit and search for these profiles. Here are the default settings for Managed Profiles:

What do these settings mean?

• Who can edit?
• Choose 'Only Me' if you don't want to grant anyone else access to edit these profiles.
• Choose 'Entire Tree' to allow others in your tree to modify these profiles.
• Who can search?
• Entire Tree: Only other users who have joined your Geni Tree will see this person in their search results.
• Anyone: This profile will show up in 'Outside Your Tree' search results. This will help other family members who have not joined your Tree to find shared family members. NOTE: Minors are never included in our public search index.

You'll notice that you can choose separate settings for Living and Deceased Profiles you have added. This enables you to, for example, give your living relatives more privacy than your deceased relatives.

You can also use the 'Searchable by the public' checkbox on any profile you manage (not including minors) to individually include or remove profiles from our public search index.

Keep in mind that when someone claims a profile you have added, they take over control of that profile and you are no longer the manager.

Manage Your Profiles - View more How-to posts - Discuss this post

How-to: Celebrate Valentine's Day on Geni

For much of North American and Europe, today is Valentine's Day. Geni is the easiest way to share your Valentine's thoughts with those you love. Here are some ideas to help make this day special for your family.

Post News

Let your family know that you are thinking about them by posting a quick "Happy Valentine's Everyone!" as your Latest News. Next time your Family logs in to Geni they will see your message on their Family News page. See this blog post for more on how-to post news.

Guestbook Messages

If you want to leave a special Valentine's message for someone today, go to their profile and leave them a guestbook message. When they receive the message they can send you one in return.

Upload photos

If you have family you haven't seen in some time, you can take a special Valentine's day photo and upload it to Geni. Have fun by getting the family together and dressing up in pink, red and white. Then upload the photo to Geni and indicate who is in the photo. When your Family logs in they will see the photo in their Family News.

Upload Your Photos

Invite your family

And remember, Geni is better when more of your Family has joined your Tree.

Invite your family

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Increasing privacy on Geni.com

Because we enable our users to connect with their family through marriage as well as blood relations, our users have discovered and connected with relatives far beyond the traditional genealogical limitation of blood relatives. However, as trees continue to grow in size, the relationships between distant people become less and less relevant. In the next few weeks, we will make some changes to enhance the privacy and performance of your tree, while preserving your ability to find and connect with family.

Although this change is still a few weeks away from release, we wanted to let you know in advance. This change will help us release long-awaited features such as GEDCOM Import, Tree Merging, Tree Revision History, and more.

What will change?

Currently, anyone connected to you on Geni, whether a blood relative, an in-law, an in-law of an in-law, and so on, can navigate to your part of the tree. In the future, only your blood relatives and their inlaws, plus (if you are married) your spouse’s blood relatives and their inlaws, will be able to navigate to your part of the tree. As you might expect, your tree will still include everyone who is related to you by blood, including all your ancestors and all of their descendants.

• Your Blood Relative is anyone who shares a common ancestor with you.
• Your Tree is all of your blood relatives and their partners.
• Your Forest is your Tree, your spouse's Tree, and all of the Trees directly connected to your Tree (and your spouse’s Tree) through a partner.
• You will only be able to navigate Trees in your Forest.

Here are some diagrams that may help further explain these new tree navigation privacy rules. Please keep in mind that these are small trees for illustration only. Actual trees may be much taller and will include many more navigable nodes. These trees are intentionally short and wide to help illustrate the rules. The multicolored nodes represent married couples, making them part of two Trees. Click on the images for the full size version.

Let's say that this is a portion of your tree on Geni:

You will be able to navigate every node in this tree except for the three solid purple nodes in the top right. These nodes represent your spouse's in-law's in-laws. Every other node will still be navigable. This is indicated by the following diagram:

Now let's see how this will affect other users in your tree. Let's say one of the solid blue nodes has joined the tree. What part of the tree will they be able to navigate? All of the colored nodes in this diagram:

Now let's look at one of the nodes closer to the edge. Here is the portion of the tree that a person represented by a solid green node will be able to navigate:

Again, please keep in mind that this only shows a portion of a small tree as an example. If the tree extended further to the right, the green nodes would be able to see even further along those branches. All of these same rules would apply to all of the ancestors of these nodes as well.

Hopefully this helps illustrate the following: You may be interested in people in the yellow tree and people in the green tree, but these people are not very likely to be interested in each other. In fact the overwhelming feedback we have received is that there is a limited circle of interest, and this relationship would fall outside of that circle for the vast majority of users. I really hope this helps illustrate better what affect this change will have, in any, on your tree.

How to prepare

Until we implement these changes, you can download a copy of your entire tree in GEDCOM format. This industry standard file format will give you a record of your current Geni tree.

Download your GEDCOM file now

Your Feedback

Your feedback in this process is very important to us.

Leave your feedback here

How-to: Define Your Family Group

Did you know that your Family group determines whose stories you see in your Family News? Adding additional people to your Family group is a great way to stay in touch with them. Let's see how to easily view who is in your Family group and add the people you want.

View your Family group

You can view who is currently in your Family group by selecting the 'My Family' list view.

1. Click the My Profile tab.
2. Click the View List button.
3. Select My Family from the drop down menu.

Add to your Family group

The easiest way to add someone to your Family group is from their profile.

1. Use the 'Add to Family Group' button on claimed profiles to add them to your Family group.
2. Use the 'Invite to Family group' button to send an invitation to someone outside of your default Family group.
3. Use the 'Invite' box on an unclaimed profile to invite this person to Geni. Once they have accepted your invitation, you can then add them to your Family group if they are not in your default group.

Once you have added addition people to your Family group, you will start seeing their stories in your Family News. They will also see your stories, so go ahead and post your Latest News and add some of your Family's recent Events.

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