Cool Projects

The first project I think is pretty cool is:

http://www.geni.com/projects/Margolis-and-Frankel-Families

It's a very active project started by fellow Curator Hatte B. This project is a great example of good project. It has a complete project description that details the scope of the project, why it was started and what it hopes to accomplish. I think that is one of the reason that the project has attracted 60 fellow collaborators on almost 100 others that are "following" its progress.

Let's start :-) My favorites:

* http://www.geni.com/projects/Scandalous-Women
* http://www.geni.com/projects/Personalidades-Brasileiras
* http://www.geni.com/projects/Imigrantes-ao-Brasil-Immigrants-to-Brazil
* http://www.geni.com/projects/Presidentes-do-Brasil-Brazilian-Presid...
* http://www.geni.com/projects/Os-bandeirantes
* http://www.geni.com/projects/Fam%C3%ADlia-Imperial-Brasileira

Another cool project is ...

http://www.geni.com/projects/Authors-of-Great-Literature

This project is attempting to gather together all the profiles of famous novelists, playwrights and essayists. So far curator Yigal B. and the numerous others collaborating on this project have found over 350 profiles of the people that have contributed so much to world literature.

They have even made the project description into a hyperlinked index to the profiles contained in the project arranged chronologically. This is a perfect example of a great project!

Thanks Lucia it looks like Brazil has some great projects going!

I'm sure there are several users that will be heading over to check out the "scandalous women" project right now:)

http://www.geni.com/projects/New-Amsterdam is an umbrella project that curator George J. Homs led. It is cool for a number of reasons. First, it is linked to related projects. Second, it has a wonderful "table of contents" for the family of projects on New Amsterdam. Third, these projects were developed collaboratively by a number of people through the use of discussions linked to the projects. Look at both the umbrella project and follow the links to the sub-projects. If you are interested in the history of New York City or of the impact of the Dutch on the United States, you will love these projects.

As a former New Yorker, I love the New Amsterdam projects, because I've always wanted to know what it was like when the Dutch ruled New York City.

I like the Jamaican projects we have started, because it gives an eye-opening view of Jamaica, a country with a rich but often lost history.

The http://www.geni.com/projects/Indian-Wars projects have been a real eye opener for me. Most of these wars I never heard of - and as soon as I do, suddenly I find amazing numbers of ancestors who participated.

There is a wealth of original documents available on line which has made the http://www.geni.com/projects/Salem-Witch-Trials-Colonial-America-in... chime alive. We're up to 113 profiles and apparently I'm related to many. When we started the project I had only one family profile to offer. This blows me away.

But my favorite project Is http://www.geni.com/projects/Scandalous-Women. Whenever I get down I find a subversive women to scare the men with. Great therapy.

I think the RMS Titanic project is pretty cool but it only has about 50 profiles included. Since there were over 1,500 people that died there's a lot of additional work that can be done with this project. If you have an interest in the Titanic I'd encourage you to check out this project. You can check out the passenger list from several locations on the internet and see if you can locate one on geni that isn't included in the project yet and add it.

http://www.geni.com/projects/people/RMS-Titanic

The http://www.geni.com/projects/Chinese-Emperors project is also very interesting and could continue to benefit with researchers adding additional information to it. Currently it includes almost 60 profiles.

Here are a few other "Emperor" related to get involved in:

http://www.geni.com/projects/Byzantine-Emperors project

http://www.geni.com/projects/Tenochtitlan-Rulers-the-Aztec-Emperors

http://www.geni.com/projects/Japanese-Emperors

http://www.geni.com/projects/Tsars-and-Emperors-of-Russia-%D0%A6%D0...

I would like to draw people's attention to http://www.geni.com/projects/Celebrities-not-yet-connected-to-the-b... and throw down the gauntlet. Try to get some of these people joined onto the Big Tree.

---- http://www.geni.com/projects/Who-Do-You-Think-You-Are

This is one of my favorites because it's one that really seems to get users excited. People around the world love this program (and all its different editions!), so it's neat to see everyone working together on it. It also makes viewing the shows more fun!

---- http://www.geni.com/projects/Namesakes

This is one of my favorites because it's so fascinating to see how many people have an ancestor who gave their name to something.

---- http://www.geni.com/projects/American-College-University-Founders

I'm still the only active collaborator on this one, but I like it because it shows forgotten efforts by so many people. How many people know off-hand that Thomas Jefferson, Lucretia Mott, or Benjamin Franklin helped found major colleges and universities? Or how many people are aware that there were literally thousands of colleges and universities scattered across the U.S. in the 1800s that have now been forgotten? So many descendants probably have no idea that one of their ancestors formed a tiny college somewhere at some point. I can't wait to find more of the closed/forgotten college founders to add into the project.

-- http://www.geni.com/projects/Jewish-Families-from-Prague

One of the things distinctive about this project is the use of original source vital records for many of the 141 current included profiles.

http://www.geni.com/projects/people/Jewish-Families-from-Prague

It is great to see projects that not only gather profiles that have something in common but that also bring in source documentation to support the genealogical information for each included profile.

There are several sports related projects of differing quality. All of them could use some volunteers to locate qualifying geni profiles and add them to the projects.

http://www.geni.com/projects/Basketball-Hall-of-Fame
http://www.geni.com/projects/Pro-Football-Hall-of-Fame
http://www.geni.com/projects/College-Football-Hall-of-Fame
http://www.geni.com/projects/American-Football-Players
http://www.geni.com/projects/International-Football-Players-Soccer
http://www.geni.com/projects/Wimbledon-Champions
http://www.geni.com/projects/Great-Athletes-all-sports
http://www.geni.com/projects/National-Baseball-Hall-of-Fame-and-Museum
http://www.geni.com/projects/Olympic-Medal-Winners
http://www.geni.com/projects/Famous-Cricketers
http://www.geni.com/projects/Fast-Furious

Randy Stebbing@randy, I am not about to start another sporting project however I would like to suggest one for anyone who might be interested in starting one. (I am very NOT sports orientated)
Rugby.
The reason I suggest this, besides the fact that it is not listed above is that my grandmother's maiden name was Wilkinson and our Wilkinsons were all from Farnham in Surrey and that is where Jonny Wilkinson is also from.

Re sports - we have quite a few sports personalities in http://www.geni.com/projects/Notable-New-Zealanders

I would also like to start an Aussie sports project under http://www.geni.com/projects/Australian-Portal

Is chess a sport?
http://www.geni.com/projects/Chess-Masters

According to http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Is_chess_a_game_or_sport

Chess today is a recognized sport of the International Olympic Committee. The first official World Chess Champion, Wilhelm Steinitz, claimed his title in 1886; the current World Champion is Viswanathan Anand.

Today I wanted to bring several locality based projects to your attention:

The first is a large project devoted to Dutch immigrants to what later became New York City. The project has over 2,100 profiles!

http://www.geni.com/projects/New-Amsterdam-Immigrants

Often a larger geographic area will have a portal for an entire country. To find these portal pages search the project pages for the word "portal". Or you can start with a "portal" page that links to other "portal" pages: http://www.geni.com/projects/Portal-Index

Here are a few example of many excellent portal pages:
http://www.geni.com/projects/Australian-Portal
http://www.geni.com/projects/Eestlaste-Geni-Kogukond
http://www.geni.com/projects/Spanish-International-Portal
http://www.geni.com/projects/U-S-A-Indigenous-peoples-Portal

There are 100's of other location based smaller projects including these interesting ones:

http://www.geni.com/projects/Jewish-Families-of-Strassnitz

http://www.geni.com/projects/Robben-Island-Penal-Colony-South-Africa

http://www.geni.com/projects/Original-Proprietors-Hartford-CT

What are some of your favorite location based projects and why? How has researching a location helped you in your research for your ancestors?

Researching a smaller location has been critical for me in "breaking down the brick wall.". I started by studying neighbors on census reports.

Speaking to Erica's point about breaking down brick walls, when I have studied Litvak and Ukrainian Jewish families where I'm stuck, I look at the records in Jewish Gen for that village/town and look at what other families people are looking for. I also look at my own DNA matches whose ancestors were from that village or nearby. I have started a number of small projects on Geni devoted to document the families and the intermarriages of a specific town or region of Greater Lithuania or of Ukraine or of the U.S. where all the immigrants were from one region.

With Jewish families having taken surnames in the early 1800s and then often having changed them again upon immigration to the U.S. or South Africa or England/Ireland, one needs to look at marriage patterns and other clues since tracing surnames alone won't help.

I started studying Washington County, Georgia (my wife's family homeland), and it has led me into a whole world of research. I could teach several college courses with this knowledge: http://www.geni.com/projects/Washington-County-Georgia

I've introduced a series of Projects in preparation for the Queens Jubillee. The Umbrella project is Queen and Honours with subsequent projects to detail people awarded with the varying honours also one for those who said 'No'

Thanks Terry. Link is http://www.geni.com/projects/Queen-and-Honours

Here are some cool projects that involve politics.

http://www.geni.com/projects/United-States-Senators
http://www.geni.com/projects/2012-U-S-Federal-Election
http://www.geni.com/projects/Prime-Ministers-of-the-United-Kingdom
http://www.geni.com/projects/Presidents-of-the-Philippines
http://www.geni.com/projects/Israeli-all-Knesset-members
http://www.geni.com/projects/Israeli-Heads-of-State-and-State-Autho...
http://www.geni.com/projects/English-and-British-Monarchs
http://www.geni.com/projects/Golden-Ages-Antwerpen-Politics-Government
http://www.geni.com/projects/Pr%C3%A9sidents-de-la-R%C3%A9publique-...
http://www.geni.com/projects/Premiers-ministres-de-France-Prime-Min...

Members of the Society of Friends (often referred to as Quakers) began immigrating from England, Wales, and Germany in the late 1600s. A large group of Quakers settled near Philadelphia. By 1700 the Society gained considerable influence in most of the New England and middle-Atlantic colonies. Quaker migration to the southern colonies, especially North Carolina, continued until the Revolutionary War when the strength of the Society began to decline. Many Quakers left the southern states and migrated primarily to Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Canada.

Most Quaker records include births, marriages and deaths as well as certificates of removal when a member moved from one congregation (meeting) to another.

This project helps coordinate research into your Quaker ancestors on geni:

http://www.geni.com/projects/Quakers-Religious-Society-of-Friends

Time Magazine has often had notable people featured on their covers since 1923. Here is an interesting project that is trying to locate every person who's been featured on a TIME magazine cover over the years.

http://www.geni.com/projects/Cover-of-Time-magazine

This is a cool project I hadn't noticed before which covers the country and music of Brazil.

http://www.geni.com/projects/Brasil-M%C3%BAsicos-e-Cantores-Famosos...

And for something totally different check out this "Sound of Music" project:

http://www.geni.com/projects/The-Sound-of-Music