Introducing the Geni Consistency Checker

Started by Mike Stangel on Friday, November 8, 2019
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Showing 1-30 of 366 posts
11/8/2019 at 10:54 AM

We're very excited to announce the release of the Geni Consistency Checker! The Consistency Checker constantly monitors changes to profiles in the family tree to detect common errors or inconsistencies and bring them to your attention so that you can make the necessary changes to improve the quality and accuracy of the family tree. Read all about it on our blog: https://www.geni.com/blog/introducing-the-consistency-checker-to-th...

And try it now! https://www.geni.com/inconsistencies

Private User
11/8/2019 at 11:50 AM

Please reconsider "Event after Death" --

that the profile "has a death event listed in his profile after his death date." and ""has marriage event marriage event listed in her profile after her death date"

I always tag folks in Death Events of others if they are listed in Death Notices (or other info) I have quoted or included in the Timeline Event -- it is one way to tie the family together, document how they are related, etc.

And similarly for a any Marriage Event where the deceased is mentioned, they are tagged -- again, it helps document the relationship of the people.

That, as I understood, was a major reason for tagging folks to such Events.

I really do not appreciate having to go thru every single one of those, looking to see - is that what is going on - and then clicking "ignore"

If you really think the category is worthwhile, could you perhaps just put "ignore all" as an option at the top of that category/on the initial bar for it.

Private User
11/8/2019 at 12:19 PM

This was confusions. How can man fix into "private" profils ? Of cause there are events after death: funeral. How can this become a conflict ? Something has happend with names. I am very sure that I have not written "maried name" in the field of "birth name" in many profils. But now it is changes... And has became a inconsistencies..
It is fine with new functions, but firs Geni has to fix old. F ex the functions "inactiv user" is not acting.
Most of the conflict are done by inactive users. It is not possible to fix them. The curators have not time to help to merge dubicates, so they can probabely not help with errors.
Some times ago my list of dataconflict were "closed". "You have not acces to this profil". Well, then I cant see what the conflits are , ore fix them...

Maybe I `m a bit negative, but I hope I will find this new checker as a good way to find conflicts. ( I have already found several persons with "wrong" mother...)

My wish is that old "private" profils automatic changes to "Public". Many dublicats can be merged then.

11/8/2019 at 12:48 PM

"missing birth surname"

I think generally (of course slightly depending on the country), people use the 'last name' text field for family name and 'birth surname' text field for maiden names of women.

It seems, that currently the Consistency Checker considers this to be error, when profiles of men have their family name only in the 'last name' text field and nothing in the 'birth surname' text field.

Personally I would guess, that there's no need to write the same name 2 times.

Private User
11/8/2019 at 12:52 PM

1. If a person never changed the name, we only add it once, it's easier.
2. Children to women in Sweden, only had their mothers maiden name if the father was unknown, but this is rare, because they often just as well could take the mothers fathers name straight off or come up with something unique.
3. Men contrary to women can more easily be 50+ when having children, so if he had children age 62 and at 64, it's not a matter of inconsistency.
4. Guess you're not going to make this tool better...

11/8/2019 at 1:22 PM

Private User if you've tagged a profile in an event, the system assumes you mean that person was present at the event. You should be able to tag a profile in a document (death notice) without triggering the inconsistency.

Private User on private profiles that you cannot fix, the inconsistency gives you a link to contact the profile manager(s) to request that they fix it.

11/8/2019 at 1:24 PM

Randel Vuks your general supposition is exactly how we think people use the name fields, and what we expect. If you have an example that's not working well, you can post it here or send me a private inbox message and we'll take a look.

11/8/2019 at 2:23 PM

Private User:

1. Yes, fine.
2. This does not pose a problem for any of the inconsistency checks.
3. The inconsistency is considered a warning for age 65-75, and an error only over 75.
4. I love your shining attitude.

Private User
11/8/2019 at 2:54 PM

Consistency Checker is going to drive users MAAAAAD with *any* ethnicity that does not use the Anglo naming system (Welsh, older Scandinavian, current Icelandic, etc. etc. etc.)

Private User
11/8/2019 at 2:55 PM

And Burial after Death should NOT generate a Consistency Error, duh! (Or shall we just *stop using* the Burial field?)

Private User
11/8/2019 at 2:59 PM

No, by tagging a person in an event I do NOT mean the person was physically present at the event. Present in thought and memory is quite sufficient. Even mentioned in a Timeline event as NOT included would be sufficient reason to Tag them (so everyone can see that comment about the person).

Often I have just copied the Death Notice from a Proquest entry, without downloading and uploading it as a Document. Also, copy information from JewishGen, where for a person, the father and sometimes father's father and sometimes mother and mother's mother are listed - regardless of whether those folks are still living - and I want everyone listed to be tagged!!.
Also - only upload Documents as Private, so feel I am not violating the terms of service of Ancestry etc. But Timeline Events can be seen by all who can see the Profile - and much better than expecting everyone to wade thru all the Documents that may be attached to the profile to see if there is any documentation about who his/her parents were anywhere, so when I am being very good, I include the info in a Timeline Event, with Tagging to all mentioned.

I have been working on Geni for over 12 years. Have been tagging folks mentioned in events since TimeLine Events were introduced. Quite sure I have at times mentioned that I tagged folks this way. No one ever before suggested it was wrong. No one ever before suggested only people actively present at an event should be tagged to it. -- Even Geni does not follow that - they automatically tag both parents to the Child's Birth Event, regardless of whether the Father was present at the event, in another room, in another country, or even possibly deceased! Is Geni now tagging the last as an inconsistency also, and are folks actually expected to delete the father in that case?
At the moment, definitely no plans to change how I am doing it.

Private User
11/8/2019 at 3:09 PM

How can you convince the system it is correct the way it is?
For Example: that "Earl" is not supposed to be a title there, but a NAME
that "I." is not supposed to be a suffix there, but a middle initial, so is correct in the middle name field (at least till I discover a full middle name)

I clicked "Mark this correct for all users" for five of them, and now I see "(5 ignored - show all)"

Private User
11/8/2019 at 3:12 PM

And another thing, you need to remove all restrictions from the "Suffix" field, or you will cause FAR more trouble than you want. It NEEDS to be used for locatives and other methods of distinguishing between people with the *exact same name*.

11/8/2019 at 3:14 PM

I like it...thank you. Only complaint is that it puts more “work” on the PRO

Private User
11/8/2019 at 3:49 PM

If it complains "Birth surname looks like married name" -- and if you delete the Birth Surname because you agree it looks like the name was just duplicated in both -- then
it is just going to complain -- "Missing birth surname" - Yes?

So - If one has no idea - at least so far - what the Birth Surname is -- but know the Married Name - what does Geni want folks to do, that will not trigger a complaint from the inconsistency checker?

11/8/2019 at 5:28 PM

Some of the inconstency error messages put attention to real errors like birth day after death dates and so on, and these checks will become very useful. But many of the inconcistencies are not errors at all. The worst are funerals marked as after death or in future. (Sometimes, dates of funerals or marriages will be in the future at the time they are entered). And a missing birth name or siblings with the same first names are not necessarily errors. Men having children after age of 75 is unusual, but no error. Becoming 110 years old is also unusual, bur no error. At the same time, Geni make profiles with birth dates after 1895(?) "private" by default, assuming people become 125 years old. That is ridicolous.

11/8/2019 at 6:08 PM

The following are NOT errors:

Arny Solaug Vårdal has a begravelse event listed in the future.
Tip: Go to the profile of Arny Solaug Vårdal and review her begravelse date (3/5/2019).
Ignore

Ester Løseth has a begravelse event listed in the future.
Tip: Go to the profile of Ester Løseth and review her begravelse date (2/15/2019).
Ignore

Leif Vik has a begravelse event listed in the future.
Tip: Go to the profile of Leif Vik and review his begravelse date (2/6/2019).
Ignore

11/8/2019 at 6:11 PM

Suddenly, these inconstencies disappeared, but they were there one minute ago.

11/8/2019 at 6:40 PM

I found two "burials after death" inconstencies. One was 100 years after death, the other one was 5 years after death. Both are of course errors. I believe that these inconsistences are marked only if the burial dates are outside a certain time limit after death. This is GOOD! Thumbs up!

11/8/2019 at 6:54 PM

The following is unusual, but NOT errors:

2 inconsistencies found for Johan Tollakson Arstein
Johan Tollakson Arstein
(1839 - 1928)

Large spouse age difference (1)
Johan Tollakson Arstein and his spouse Karen Pedersdatter Arstein are 46 years apart.
Tip: Correct the birth date of Johan Tollakson Arstein (born 29. September 1839) or the birth date of Karen Pedersdatter Arstein (born 03. Oktober 1885). Ignore

Too old parent (1)
Johan Tollakson Arstein had 6 children between the ages of 64 and 78 years old.
Tip: Correct the birth date of Johan Tollakson Arstein (born 29. September 1839) eller følgende barn:
Astrid Sunnarvik, Ingolf Arstein, Janik Sunnarvik, Hildegunn Bjergene, Petra Johansdtr. Arstein, Asbjørn Arstein

The birth record of Astrid shows that her father was about 79 years old when she was born. "Kvindekjøn", #17: Sogn og Fjordane county, Holmedal in Fjaler (Ytre Holmedal), Parish register (copy) no. B 3 (1913-1940), Born and baptised 1918, Page 15
Quick link: https://www.digitalarkivet.no/kb20050810040017

I really hope that the new feature does not lead people to "correct" such "inconstensies" without checking the sources.

11/8/2019 at 7:13 PM

Not a title, and not an error:

Title in name (1)
Private may have a title incorrectly added to the name field.
Please check the following, Engelsk (standard): ***
Tip: Go to the profile of *** ***** Sjøvold and move the title to the correct field.

11/8/2019 at 7:22 PM

Using the concistense checker to copy a "missing" birth name to the birth name field resulted in the name starting with lowercase letter. ("Sjøvold" became "sjøvold"). This should be corrected.

After all, I think that the new feature may get people to have a glance at many common errors, which is very good as long as people remember that not all inconstensies are real errors, and that it is often necessary to check sources before changing the information.

11/8/2019 at 8:36 PM

Mike Stangel

"missing birth surname" error
Johannes Reinvald
Gustav Roose
Had a question and probably found the possible answer. Appears, that this is considered to be an error only then, when person's family name is different from those of his parents. If this is the case it's justified, drawing your attention to check, whether the persons family name is actually different compared to his parents, or is there a mistake. So, this seems to be OK.

'Event after death' error
As already pointed out earlier, I can also confirm, that burial after death appears to be an error only then, when there is long period between death and burial. So, it is useful to draw your attention to check possible mistake.

'title in name' error
In Estonian language 'King' translates as 'a shoe' and it's quite common family name. Now everyone having that family name has an error in their profile :)

11/8/2019 at 9:51 PM

"missing birth surname" error
[Kokke Jani] Michel
In Estonia, the family names were introduced in 1820s. People living (and who have died) before that, just didn't have any family names. To identify them, beside the first name, the name of the father (and sometimes grandfather) or the name of the farmhouse / or the combination of both was used. We use brackets for that. Like in this example:
[Kokke Jani] Michel
Michel = first name of the person;
Jan = Michel's father's name
Kokke = name of the farmhouse, where they lived.

Additionally, sometimes we use different type of brackets '{}' for family names for the people, who died before they got family names, but it is known, what kind of family name that particular family later got. E.g. in that case it could be [Kokke Jani] Michel {Koch}, where 'Koch' is the family name, but brackets indicate, that Michel himself died before family name was given, so you would not find any reference to the family name among any of the records about him in old church books.

Private User
11/9/2019 at 1:13 AM

Sitat. "on private profiles that you cannot fix, the inconsistency gives you a link to contact the profile manager(s) to request that they fix it."

As I wrote: It is not possible to contact inactive users... There are thousans of inactive users and it is not possible to "transfer" profils to other users.
Many of the profils importet via Gedcom have "private" settings so it isn´t possible to merge ore resolve dataconflicts.

11/9/2019 at 5:07 AM

Suffix in name:

Maria Regina Stafsnes may have a suffix incorrectly added to the name field.
Please check the following, Engelsk (standard): i
Tip: Go to the profile of Maria Regina Stafsnes and move the suffix to the correct field.
Ignore
Arne Jarl Kristianson Vilnes may have a suffix incorrectly added to the name field.
Please check the following, Engelsk (standard): Jarl
Tip: Go to the profile of Arne Jarl Kristianson Vilnes and move the suffix to the correct field.
Ignore
Ragna Johanne Berntsdtr Stafsnes, Sr. may have a suffix incorrectly added to the name field.
Please check the following, Engelsk (standard): i
Tip: Go to the profile of Ragna Johanne Berntsdtr Stafsnes, Sr. and move the suffix to the correct field.
Ignore
Roger Jarl Berge may have a suffix incorrectly added to the name field.
Please check the following, Engelsk (standard): Jarl
Tip: Go to the profile of Roger Jarl Berge and move the suffix to the correct field.
Ignore
Jarl Jostein Iversen may have a suffix incorrectly added to the name field.
Please check the following, Engelsk (standard): Jarl
Tip: Go to the profile of Jarl Jostein Iversen and move the suffix to the correct field.
Ignore
Jarl Johannes Lien may have a suffix incorrectly added to the name field.
Please check the following, Engelsk (standard): Jarl
Tip: Go to the profile of Jarl Johannes Lien and move the suffix to the correct field.
Ignore

The term "i" here refers to a geographical location. For instance, Maria Regina Stafsnes was born at the farm Nordheim, which is situated in Solund. (Many Norwegian family names originate from farm names, and until about 1900, most people had no family name. They used patronyms and/or the farm name as their surname, and the farm name of course changed when moving to another farm).

"Jarl" may be a title ("Earl") in the Viking era, but is today a very common first name in Norway.

Private User
11/9/2019 at 9:00 AM

Please make sure the checker understands the the different titles and suffixes there are for example R' xxxx A.V.D xxxx.

Thanks.

Private User
11/9/2019 at 1:41 PM

If a person is mentioned in a Document, it is appropriate to tag the person to that Document.

If a person is mentioned in the About of a Timeline Event, I think it is appropriate to Tag them to that event, so everyone looking at their profile can see what was said about them, see they were mentioned there, etc.

I majorly hope nobody goes in, where I have very purposely done that, and deletes tags because of this Consistency Checker!!

Private User
11/9/2019 at 1:55 PM

Missed another important aspect: by tagging XXX if mentioned in the About of an event on YYY's profile, it not only allows one to see, from XXX's profile what was said about XXX in YYY's Timeline Event, but on YYY's profile, one can easily tell which XXX is being talked about / referenced and go to it easily and accurately (and vice versa, also).

Cannot imagine why Geni would not want this functionality!!!

11/9/2019 at 6:51 PM

ok... so why does the consistency checker flag a "burial event" that takes place after death as an "after death event". Well, duh?! i would hope a burial event should happen after death.

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