Trying to avoid duplication/merge issues

Started by Teri Lee Reymann on Wednesday, June 20, 2012
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6/20/2012 at 8:48 PM

I have an ancestor on my tree (Isaac Allerton, Sr., Mayflower passenger, b. 1586-d. 1659) who is my 12th great grandfather. There are no ancestors shown previous to him, his parents, his wife, siblings, children. When I go to his profile, it is all there. Why is it not showing on my tree? Do I just add them on, thereby creating duplicates and merging issues? I'm finding a lot of ancestors like this and want to know how to add them to my tree. Oh and by the way, there is no "tree" above their names that you can click on to see their branch of the tree! I'm very confused...

Thanks for any help you can give me!
Teri

6/20/2012 at 9:48 PM

Sounds like it was a privacy issue?

6/20/2012 at 10:24 PM

There are a couple of private profiles in the 1750s annoyingly in the path between Terri and "Mayflower" Allerton but that wasnt the problem - her profile was un merged into the Master Profile for him and did not show to me as a tree match so I didn't know to merge it. David figured it out and did the merge.

Terri do you know how to use the "pushpin" tool to see your relationships?

6/20/2012 at 10:52 PM

Ah so HER Issac had no immediate family when she looked in tree view, but when she searched for Issac A she would get directed to the MP, who does have family.
So the problem was actually the lack of realisation that she was dealing with two completely seperate profiles for the same person?

6/20/2012 at 11:11 PM

Or not having merged her profile, which had no parents, into the MP, who does.

6/20/2012 at 11:18 PM

Erica, I am really new to this, just signed up on May 30. I'm still figuring it all out. No I haven't used the pushpin, didn't know what it was for. It's hard for me to ask for help because I don't want to seem a pest. Guess I'll be picking everyone's brain until I get this thing figured out! I thank everyone for your patience with me!

6/20/2012 at 11:24 PM

Was I looking at the wrong Isaac Allerton Sr.?

Erica what do you mean by "not having merged her profile, which had no parents, into the MP, who does."

6/20/2012 at 11:28 PM

Teri ask as many questions as you want. The more pests asking questions the less obvious any one particular pest is. :)
What ever you do, DO NOT read the FAQ, please, don't. Don't do it.

6/20/2012 at 11:32 PM

You were not looking at the wrong Issac.
You were looking at two of them.
What Erica means is that when there are two profiles (or more) for one person the managers of those profiles can "merge" the two profiles to make just one profile managed by both parties.
This is the way that different family trees created by different Geni users are blended into one big tree over time (refered to as the World Tree, One Tree, Big Tree and George, depending on who is part of the conversation).

6/20/2012 at 11:37 PM

As for "MP", it stands for Master Profile.
It's like a locked status for profiles that are either very high quality, or very popular or very contencious [sp].

For example Jesus Christ is a MP because people keep changing the link to his father between God and Joseph (apologies in advance to anyone offended by that joke, either by the religious insensitivity or just the lameness of it).

6/20/2012 at 11:48 PM

No apology needed for the lame joke, but an apology would be accepted for "What ever you do, DO NOT read the FAQ, please, don't. Don't do it." LOL I have gone through most all of the FAQ, sometimes my comprehension isn't as good as other times! (age perhaps? I'll try to read them in the morning when I'm fresh and ready to go! By this time of night I sometimes become delusional...LOL) I will continue to peruse them from time to time, but if I just don't get it, then I'll become a pest! BTW, I like "Big Tree and George!" ;o)

6/20/2012 at 11:51 PM

Replace "and" with "or", my bad.
I blame my son, he's mad keen on Curious George at the moment, my wife is planning to buy me a yellow hat for christmas.

6/21/2012 at 12:01 AM

I love questions, particularly ones Alex can have fun with! :)

The idea is that, for instance, Isaac Allerton, "Mayflower" Passenger had many copies and tremendous and heroic efforts by merge monkeys named "George," we have collated them down to one from 138. Unless a new member arrived today and it didn't occur to them to read the FAQ, which are hidden somewhere un-obvious anyway.

Isaac is one of the few profiles I curate (look after) that has locked data fields. That's because thanks to a fabulous researcher who shall remain nameless JENNIFER, it's perfect. Honestly.

6/21/2012 at 12:10 AM

There's a Wiki too.

I can have fun with any question, sometimes feeding the trolls is entertainment in itself.

6/21/2012 at 12:12 AM

Yes, I can already tell Alex has fun with most everything!! I myself am a pretty big fan of Curious George!! He lived with us through 4 children!! I think he may have gone to my kids house for the grandkids! lol

Make sure you take a picture of you with your yellow hat for your profile picture, Alex!

I will try desperately to read the FAQ before I ask anymore questions! (oh how boring that will be!) :/

6/21/2012 at 12:16 AM

I lurked a lot in discussions too and learned stupid merge monkey tricks from people who actually describe them well, like Curious Alex.

Private User
7/15/2012 at 8:04 AM

Erica Howton: Wow, what a wonderful compliment, *especially* coming from Geni's Queen of Biographical Summaries! In most cases I'd say, "Shucks, tweren't nuthin', ma'am!" but in Allerton's case I have to admit that it almost killed me. I actually had to read books and stuff, so I'll take that bow! /bows/ Thank you for all of the help you've given me cause I have been the most pestilential of pests and you've been kindness itself!

Private User
7/15/2012 at 8:21 AM

Alex Moes: I like to feed the trolls, too... ;-P

Teri Lee Reymann: Welcome to Geni! Sorry I'm a little late with that, but just ran across this very cool discussion. It took me forever to find the FAQs when I got here and the sad truth is most of them are not tremendously helpful, so please ask many many many more questions. I follow a bunch of people specifically to learn from them, and often benefit from the answers to *their* questions!

The only thing you can do here that will arouse the masses is to - consistently and/or often - make bad merges. Unfortunately, even though I thought I was being careful and "knew" what was was doing, I had to learn the hard way to think twice and then think again before merging files. If you find yourself in this position my advice is to fess up immediately by messaging the file managers and then meekly offering to do what you can do fix things. I've never had anyone yell at me when I've gone this route (even though they've probably wanted to...). Good luck and remember to have fun!

Curious Jen, Reformed Merge Monkey and Unrepentant Asker of Bajillions of Questions

7/19/2012 at 10:15 PM

Thank you Jennifer for the vote of confidence for me! Believe me, if it isn't blatantly obvious that the profiles are for the same person, I don't even touch it!! So far so good!

I have read through FAQ...Greek? or am I just comprehending? lol

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