family tree

it tells you who made the tree when you look at the profile

It tells you - usually - who added the profile. But do not believe it tells you who started the Tree.

Except for when looking at a claimed profile where they joined geni from log-in, not as invite from someone else, thus added their own profile and possibly others - in which case usually you see the line "Added by;" and then after it "Started family tree" followed by a date. -- But since Geni's World Tree is all connected and interspersed - there is not necessarily one person who started any given branch/twig/ tree within the Forest which is the World Tree or etc.

The first profile in Geni was created Friday December 22, 2006 17:51:55 LA time, and technically it is the one who started the World Family Tree.

So, - define tree... https://www.geni.com/worldfamilytree/learn-more

At one point Geni made a major deal of distinguishing between "Forest" and "Tree" --

Not sure if this is the last remaining place where you can still see both terms officially being used or not - but - If you go to "Research" and then to "Share Your Tree" and choose "GEDCOM Export" -- one of the choices is "Forest including connected inlaw trees A Forest export may take several days to complete." -

Thank you for your replies. So anyone can start a family tree on anyone? I have asked my famiky members and no one knows the person who started it.

Jennifer - Yes. Anyone can build out - up to ancestors, and then down from each ancestor to fill in all the cousins - AND build out from spouses of each ancestor and cousin and etc.
Moreover, altho set up for always starting with oneself and building out from there -- a Pro (or Curator) can "cut the tree" -- and some seem to have a great time using that to create, for example, a bogus sibling which they cut off to form the nucleus of a totally unrelated Tree - either because they know it is related somehow, or they think it is and want to build out to see if they can discover the connection -- or because they are big into Projects and adding folks for that purpose.

... Or to start a tree to help a new member get going.

Or because there are people in history who may or may not have current family, but need to be remembered and recognized. Example:

Harriet Tubman

I would think, since as a Curator you can edit folks' private profiles, etc. - you could just build out from the new member's profile and would not have any reason to use the technique of creating a profile which you cut off to create a tree for them.

And isn't creating Profiles for people in history part of adding Profiles for Projects?

1) I suppose I think of the person 1st, the projects they might be a member of after.

2) I might start a family tree first, invite someone to claim their profile second