Why will this merge not complete?

Marsha,

I might be wrong, but I think that even though the profile is public - that profile is part of an "unconnected" tree - ie not a part of the big tree...

Apparently, nobody - not Pro or Curator - can complete that merge - its got to be done by the manager who owns the profile and the "unconnected" tree...

Looks like yes, it is an unconnected Tree. And yes, they did restrict merges to unconnected Trees (in Nov. change). Perhaps the person "requesting" it was not someone in the other Tree? Think that would cause the situation you are describing.

The manager of the unclaimed Profile is not the only one who can approve it - it can also be approved by any of his Pro collaborators.

For those a little closer to current time, another possibility is a Pro in the Max Extended Family of the Profile in question, I think.

For Private Profiles, the merge from an unconnected tree can be approved by any Pro in Max Extended Family of Profile (or Profile's manager (I think)).

you can complete the merge if you ask the other user to collaborate with you first

Marsha - just checked - the only person it says approved the merge was you. What do you mean when you say "The merge was 'requested'?

If you just mean it was one of Geni's suggestions - this does NOT mean it was requested.

PS - Take all such suggestions with a major grain of salt and examine carefully. Not all folks with the same name are the same person, and even adding in the few additional items Geni checks, lots of Geni's 'suggestions' are in fact not matches and should not be merged.

That tree is only 14 profiles in a direct ancestor line with no dates attached so I would be careful suggesting any merges to it at all just because the name match. Just look another way...

Well... A few thoughts, and please bear in mind - I'm just tossing them out for what they are worth - and I'm stating it as best I can...

I lost track a long time ago when certain changes took place. I realize that stuff gets announced most of the time in advance, but unless you really commit an awful lot of time and effort - its kind of waste since I've seen a lot change in the past few years.

Sometimes I don't even catch all the subtle ramifications - I try not to fret too much if they are better or worse. I try to be positive that somehow they help resolve something, but lately I'm having a hard time always seeing it.

(I'll add parenthetically that I liked geni so much that I became a life pro member when I joined - I saw it as a bargain - and I was convinced it was definitely a unique opportunity to do something never before done in a vastly superior way to what any comparable site was offering - so I'm wanting to believe its positive...)

But for a lot of people doing searches - its confusing as heck to see multiple profiles for what are obviously the same individual - whether you are a pro doing the search from geni - or - somebody doing the searching from the internet search engines... Maybe I'm obsessive compulsive, but I've done just what Marsha did many, many times - and that's try to round up the lose profiles - particularly public ones - with the idea that I'm helping to make the "big tree" more reliable and accurate.

Sure - if its just a matching name - maybe you can ignore it - but if you've got a dozen matching profiles - its a competing reality - and its confusing and annoying. Maybe I realize they are in some kind of alternate limbo universe - but I can't expect all my non-computer literate kith and kinsman to understand the intricacies of that.

Bjorn - I've got a world of respect for you - you're one incredibly talented and computer savy individual. But - explaining to someone way less computer savy why they are seeing two things that look almost alike - is almost impossible... Geni would be much more useful if we could complete these kinds of merges... My 85 year old mother isn't convinced that all is well if she's seeing the same ancestor twice with only slightly different info - she believes something is broken and ought be fixed...

Jason - I've got a world of respect for you as well... But - I've made literally hundreds of requests to collaborate in the past three years where I've never gotten any response at all... For a while - I'd send messages and try and contact the manager - and eventually I'd even try reporting it as an abandoned tree when I gave up all hope after a year or two of ever getting a response...

Almost all the luck I've ever had was the result of being in the collaboration pool and trying to work with somebody's collaborators - but - I've got many, many instances where even that didn't help - because the obviously matching profile was owned by someone who doesn't collaborate - or maybe put up the tree and left... Or - they've got private profiles whanking up the works that are tied into the big tree...
Or - maybe they just don't like my looks and don't want to answer... Maybe they just haven't figured out how to... I don't know - they haven't ever told me...

And... I've never heard squat from Geni support if they've ever resolved if the manager got the heck out of Dodge or just doesn't like me specifically...

And now - since lots of my hundreds of collaborators aren't pro members - they can't see the matches anymore as I understand it - so they can't do anything helpful to resolve it... So - they can't complete the merge if they want to...

I'm trying to figure what collaboration gets me anymore... If I'm a pro and I can merge public profiles that are on the big tree - then I don't really have to play nice with anybody... But - likewise - all the helpful collaborators in the world can't seem to help me out if they aren't paying members... All the lose ends out there - are going to just stay lose - clogging up the plumbing - sucking up resources - time and effort and disk space - and they'll never get resolved... Not just zombies - now we've got all the ghost universes laying around...

I'm not sure where I'm going with this - I guess I just needed to vent some... But - I'm seeing Marsha wrapped around the axle on this one - and she's a curator - and I'm just generally starting to have some concerns about the whole direction things are going...