Removed - as they seem to be connected

Elizabeth Taylor is undoubtedly connected however I don't think Peter Sellars is.

Hiya

I get very confused - very easily!!!

I have put him back on. Is there a way of ascertaining whether a profile is connected to the main tree or not?

Geni tells me: Peter Sellers is your fourth cousin's ex-wife's ex-husband's first cousin's wife's half sister's ex-husband.

So does that mean he is connected Justin Durand

How else can we (curators) tell?

He's connected to me, and I'm connected to the Big Tree, so he must be connected.

The clue I use is the message at the top of the profile. If I navigate to a profile and it says no connection found, then I assume (I could be wrong) that the profile is not connected. If it says you are connected to ..., then I assume the profile is connected, and I can ask Geni to calculate the relationship.

That is what I have always thought Justin!

Now I'm confused! How can he be connected to the big tree and not have a much higher number of relatives? When I look at the 'see how you're connected' it says theres no path but I guess that's because I'm not connected to the big tree yet. Am I right?

All it takes is the right connection, Terry. In this case, through his ex-wife, whose ancestry goes back to the Prussian royal family:

Frederick Nicholas I Hohenzollern, Prinz von Preußen
his son → Victoria von Preussen
his wife → Diana Mancroft-Quarry (Lloyd)
her mother → Miranda, Countess of Stockton
her daughter → Peter Sellers
her ex-husband

Do you see connections to any of us, Terry?

I've had a quick check of, I think, everyone's profiles to see if anything's changed but regrettably I'm still not connected to any curators or the commonly seen geni team (Noah, Mike, Natasha..) even though I've recently added some more profiles. We need a German Curator as I've just got back to the 1500's in Pfalz.

Do we remove Peter Sellers again?

re: Connections to the "Big Tree" ... the key, as Justin wrote, is the "no connection" message -- if it says "You are connected to ..." you don't actually have to try finding the relationship path in order to do merges.

The other way to tell is from the "default" tree view -- that is, when your preferences are set to show the "yellow arrows" to add new family members, then the ABSENCE of those yellow arrows means it is a "disconnected" branch. (Only a family group member -- or Customer Service -- can change that "isolation" by making the "first connection" into the "Big Tree" -- and usually there is only the one manager who is part of that isolated branch.)

I'm not sure I completely understand what you are saying Dan. Just because it says 'you are connected' doesn't mean you are in in the big tree. If you click on the 'find relationship' and there is no path and you have less than 5000 relations I would say you are not connected to the big tree. The big tree is over 60 k now.I am not connected to 60k profiles.

I have a feeling that the 'you are connected' message is for public profiles only.

The "no path" message after you try to find a relationship simply means that Geni is unable to figure out how to get from Profile "A" (e.g.: you) to Profie "B". That doesn't mean you aren't "connected to the "Big Tree".

I will say this about the "yellow arrows" -- they are only relevant when looking at "other" profiles -- profiles outside of your own personal profiles/branch. I guess it would be more accurate to say that if there are no "yellow arrows" on the branch you are looking at, then that branch is not connected to yours. Said another way, it means you can't even initiate a merge with any of the profiles on that branch if there are no "yellow arrows".

That "can't merge" capability can, of course, change as a result of becoming a collaborator (for public profiles), or becoming a member of the Family Group (for private profiles), of a manager within that other branch.

Another clue as to whether or not you can merge with a profile:

When in the "Merge Center" (where the possible matches are in a list) ...

... if the "Action" menu choices on the "hovercard popup" do NOT include "Edit profile" as a choice, then you can't initiate a merge with that profile.

(You don't even have to take time to go view the tree.)

I am in the process of adding {{icn_help.gif}} to those people I think are connected - could someone else look and see if they agree please before I remove them!

Chris Evans - removed - might seem unlikely that he is connected but follow the various connection and I am sure he is - I connect through the Gielgud line

Private
Removed as he is connected

I think the following is vindicating advice from Mike Stangle to another user on another thread-
You are connected to the big tree already, at least peripherally. You can infer this from your home page, where the Statistics module on the right says "You are connected to 63,442,685 people on Geni." What this means is that at some point a profile in your tree was merged with a profile that was already in the big tree. It might be a connection at one of your ancestors or it might be through half a dozen marriage lines. As I'm not able to find a relationship path from me to you, I suspect it's the latter.

cheers,

Mike at Geni

Let me tell something about "the big tree marker".

Internally (as you can see it using the API) every user have a true/false value named "big tree" on him/herself and all managed profiles. This marker is telling if you at some stage somehow got involved, - it could be as simple that you once created or managed a profile which got merged into "the big tree". Technically it means that you can get that marker without any real connections to the big tree, and even if you got connected and disconnect again you are stuck with that marker.

This is a marker you get once and there is no way to reset it, and from that stage everyone in "the big tree" get the option to search for the path to you even if it never have existed.

You can easily test yourself with this link: https://www.geni.com/api/profile?fields=name,big_tree

Windows doesn't recognise that Bjorn

I realised that you get the 'you are connected to' at the top of the page even if you are not in the Big Tree but probably because I've worked in the Big Tree but I didn't (at the time of this thread, that I was aware) have a proper connection to the Big Tree. On my home page above the family stats bit it now says I am connected to 63...k profiles which tells me (I think) I'm now connected.

Correct me if i'm wrong.

As I tried to explain: You can get this marker even if you have absolutely no connections at all. As a curator it is almost impossible to avoid getting that marker since you cannot avoid working on big-tree profiles and if you for example add a profile to the big-tree to help someone you are stuck with that marker.

BTW: The link a posted is a valid link, unless you are using a browser that are not updated for 5 years or not supporting international standards. Internet Explorer?

Excuse me Bjorn, I'm sorry but What Exactly do you mean by "that Marker"

I think that's what's causing confusion. Is it the 'you are connected to ' at the top of the profile page or is it the 'you are connected to 63,549,636 people on geni' in the stats section of home page. Or is it both of these?

I've only recently noticed the 63,549,636 people on geni on my home page so thought maybe I had finally joined in the Big Tree. Am I wrong?

I am trying to explain the base of getting "'you are connected to" - You can get that label without having any connections, and there is no way back once you get that status.

OK So, When I've been telling everyone I'm not yet connected to the Big Tree I have been correct.

I am a little unsure at the moment, I may be connected through my recent German family additions. I'll investigate further.

Terry,
I am almost certain you are connected through Penfolds (if not in other places as well)

I did promise I will look for a path between us. Penfolds are in South Australia and there must be some links between them and somebody I am connected to (I actually have numerous relatives here is South Australia who are 3rd or 4th generation born here). There has to be a link somewhere

Terry, - it is really weird if you are not connected after so many years on Geni as an active user. May be you are too focused on helping all others and not your self? ;-)

Even our Chinese curator got connected after just a few days when he started to expand his tree to get a connection.

May be we should start a project to get Terry and Shmuel better connected?