Whilst I am no fan of Geni and I agree with all that Nicole H, Jill W, RVK and others have written, I’d like to add three points not made to date:

  i.  Against Geni, are so-called Geni “curators”:  whilst some curators are probably doing an excellent job, I have seen and read reports – often on Geni itself – of other curators who are being openly accused of adding false facts, names, connections etc to families to which they are unrelated – and really annoying the family members who supposedly “manage” the family’s data.  This “curator” feature seems to be unique to Geni and not found on ancestry, FTJP etc.  Potentially a great idea; but potentially really, really annoying.

ii.  In favour of Geni:  I have seen a few excellent, well-researched trees on Geni.  It’s definitely possible if you want to do it.

iii.  Bringing us back to Reba’s original post.  Reba wrote, “I feel it is my time to wrap up my tree research, and publish them for future researchers. I will find a family member for the 4 binders, which have the 4 family trees, family narratives and paper copies of sources. I’m thinking maybe Geni as a substitute for FTJP”.   Please tell us more about what you are looking for from your family tree repository.  You want to store:  narratives (are they currently in the form of word or text documents?), copies of sources (what is their current form? How would you like to display them?) , family tree charts, I imagine?  Anything else (photos?  videos?) 

Reba – do you use any software at all currently?  Are you looking to type in information manually or transfer via an existing gedcom?   Do you want a private site for your data or a public one?   Do you want your data to reside on a repository (geni, ancestry etc.) to which you will need to pay an annual subscription in order to keep it “live” and up to date?  Do you want those viewing your data to require a password to view it?

All software and tools have their pros and cons, and rather than a discussion about the pros and cons of Geni per se, please tell us more about what you are looking for.

Best wishes, Joyaa
Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia
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Researching ZAUSMER, ZOUSMER, ZESMER, CHOUSMER, CHAUSMER, TSOUZMER etc, MARCUS, DAVIDOFF in Polangen, Kretinga, Darbenai, Libau, Riga, Memel
SCHORR, SCHERZER, JURIS and DAWID in Buckaczowce, Ottynia, Nadworna, and Kolomyya
KEMPNER in Berlin, Lodz, Warszawa and London
MOSES (often MANSELL) in London and South Africa
LEVY, BADER in Berlin, Schwerin, Friedeberg
and GERSON, SIDERSKY, FREED, RIMAN in Gumbinnen, Leipzig, Koenigsberg, Danzig, Berlin, Vilnius, Sirvintos and South Africa
www.zausmerforest.com