Relationship Path - technical difficulties?

Mike Stangel - wrote: 10/28/2011

It will always be the case that some paths are too far to find, and that even relatively close relations might not actually be connected on Geni (if my cousin started a tree today and didn't merge it with mine, Geni obviously wouldn't be able to tell me that he's my cousin). So the wording on the failure case should be more like "we can't find the path" rather than "you are not related." I believe it currently says (in English) "No path found to <profile>" which is pretty close to what I would suggest.

Private User - wrote: 10/28/2011

But Geni combines calculated paths, where the record so far is mentioned here: http://www.geni.com/discussions/100094?msg=743567

Randy Schoenberg - wrote: 10/28/2011

I thought this one was a bit cute/silly
http://www.geni.com/path/Randy+Schoenberg+is+related+to+Vlad+the+Im...
(According to Geni: I descend from Jacob; he's from Esau -- and that's the difference right there!)

Private User - wrote: 10/28/2011

❝Look for more path search options coming soon❞

How many years have we seen this message? ☻

Randy Schoenberg - wrote: 10/28/2011

Mike Stangel Noah, Justin and I had a good discussion on this when i visited a few weeks ago. I hope you got the notes. There are things you could to to improve the algorithm.

Not sure if you changed anything recently, but I did notice that Peter Rohel and I went from being relatively close in a sideways connection to being very distant blood relatives. Perhaps he added an upward link that gave us common ancestors, and you default to common ancestors (but then not sure why it isn't working like that all the time). In any case, after a certain distance, the common ancestor thing isn't really as interesting as a shorter sideways connection.

I wrote; 12/31/2012 - Mike Stangel, Noah Grzegorz Tutak

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~prohel/stories/Fa...

My web page above - has abt. 300 famous people on Geni.

Over the past 6 months - I noticed periodically few of the Profiles Loosing the "shared path link" - I included on the page with the Profiles.

However - in the past 2-3 weeks - I noticed perhaps 75%+ Lost Paths !!!

1) any chance in the FUTURE - Geni can save the Shared Path - even if the Path has been changed - and is different now ??

2) is there a Different Solution - that would STOP the LOSS of established Shared Path - when changed due to New profile, Merge, etc. ??

Many Geni users use my Famous web page - to construct Their Path to the same people - from the Path I have (use to have) for All the Profiles on the web page.

*** I have spent 200+ hrs on the page - and I am NOT looking forward to - Searching, Re-constructing, etc. - the Paths that have Now been Lost.

Geni's path feature is Excellent - but if Users keep Loosing it - there is a Problem, and Not only of Their time loss finding & re-creating it !!!

Thank you both for your Help and I hope - Solution can be found :)

Peter

Mike Stangel wrote: 12/31/2012

Peter I can regenerate these paths for you. We do store these but don't guarantee permanence... we had a situation a couple months ago where some paths were lost. I'll kick these off and you'll get email notifications of those that find paths.

I wrote: 12/31/2012

Mike Stangel - Just updated the one for Joanne Woodward + Paul Nemann.

Thanks Mike, it will save me time - no rush, when you get to it.

Happy New Year to you and your family :)

Peter

Private User wrote: 12/31/2012

Mike Stangel and Peter Rohel

I have noticed some changes in the relationship paths the past week or two as well. I had paths to some users that are now gone. It seems like if a path was there and neither of us became unlinked from our trees that the path shouldn't disappear. Was the limit on the number of names between two profiles changed - or something along those lines....

No major urgency. Just curious.

Happy new year to all! :))

I wrote: 1/28/2013

Mike Stangel, Cecil Stuart Dana:

Cecil is wondering why the Path of - Phillip Lovell is No longer his wife's 9th GGF - since he was Merged into the Big tree ??

1) Phillip Lovell is - Cecil Stuart Dana's wife's 7th great aunt's husband's great grandfather
http://www.geni.com/path/Cecil+Dana+is+related+to+Phillip+Lovell?fr...

2) Phillip Lovell is actually - my wife's 9th GGF *his grandson Path below

3) Nathaniel Lovell is - Cecil Stuart Dana's wife's 7th great grandfather
http://www.geni.com/path/Cecil+Dana+is+related+to+Nathaniel+Lovell?...

Am I right in my deduction that it's due to it being - a closer relationship - as #7 comes before #9 ??

Geni is or was planning to give us multiple Path routes - blood, closest, etc. - and we'll just have to wait for it :)

Thanks Peter for your help.

Thank you Geni Team for rdtoring the paths.

see also: "How to construct a path"
http://www.geni.com/discussions/119720?msg=850060

I wish that Geni would give us the option of providing our paths to our ancestors through either the mother OR the father.
I was researching my path to HM King David the other day, through the help of a cousin.
At first, the profile said, "no path."
Thank God I save all of my paths so that I can go back and retrace my steps to see why it is that once I had a path to this particular relative and the next day no such path exists.
I was in a true quandry, however, whilst researching HM King David, of Israel's, path.
He is my Mother's relative up until Shaltiel (Great Grandfather), and then Geni switches over to my Father's path and he becomes a COUSIN?
I don't understand this glitch in Geni.
Anyway, I was "satisfied" to know that HM King David is my 94x Great Grandfather on my Mother's side and my 95x Great Grandfather on my Father's side.
My magnifying glass icon rarely works.
I don't understand why that is either.
It makes it difficult to research relatives (I keep an ongoing birthday list of all of my ancestors and/or relatives that have known birthdates) without using that particular tool.

I would like to show you something

Here is a GEni path beetwen me and my stepmother's niece's husband's mother
XY is your stepmother's niece's husband's mother. or http://www.geni.com/path/Jadra+C+is+related+to+Anđelka+Žganjer+Mija...

Here is iSeeTrees visualisation of our relationship ('s as there over 30 different ones)
http://media.geni.com/p13/74/96/dc/3e/5344483a6d4a53da/me_xy_origin...
where light blue marks every ancestor common to both of us

Reposted it here where you can find a description of the graph http://www.geni.com/discussions/112213?msg=850468

*see also PATH notes on - Need to be added to project
http://www.geni.com/discussions/119355?msg=857314 -- where Bjørn P. Brox - explains a TRICK - to get around Private profiles in the Path:

" The trick is the ?through=nnnn parameter you see in the URL for a profile. That parameter tells Geni that the path to this profile should go through profile nnnn. When you "walk the path" you go from profile to profile at profile level where ?through=nnnn tells where you have walked.

Just jump to the next public profile in the path you want to show Geni and re-open that profile with a ?through=nnnn parameter where nnnn is previous public profile skipping the private profiles in between, but since the shortest path between the current and the nnnn profile goes through the private profiles Geni will take that path. "

My 6x great grandparents no longer show as my grandparents....

http://www.geni.com/path/Wendi+Newman+is+related+to+Beeltje+Arents?...

http://www.geni.com/family-tree#6000000016347530177

I also have cousins who no longer show as cousins....

Private User - your Above path link looks ok, as does the tree.

Is there a Question you have - or something to Fix ?

Peter Rohel (c) oh how strange! Yesterday it was showing her as a non-blood relative with a long string of families in between.

I've just noticed that Geni doesn't always show the blood relationship even when there is one. I guess when there are cousin who married way back and both partners were technically blood relatives it confuses the relationship engine. Does that make sense?

Does it automatically choose the shortest path and not necessarily the blood relative path?

I guess it straightens itself out eventually....

Private User - Yes, it automatically choose the shortest path - and perhaps someone did a merge somewhere - and You path went back to the Bloodline.

Hopefully in the Near future - geni will give us - 1-3 options as to the path we want :)

Peter Rohel (c) Yes, that would be great. It's very frustrating to not see a blood relative as such. Geni clearly recognizes them in our personal statistics, but the relationship path engine is quite moody!

Mike Stangel Any thoughts, comments or suggestions here?

Thanks!

Peter Rohel (c)

So if you look at this path to my 6x great grandfather, you will see it doesn't show him as my grandfather at all...

http://www.geni.com/path/Wendi+Newman+is+related+to+Izaak+Abrahams?...

but it does not show the proper path to my 6x great grandmother... the wife of the above:

http://www.geni.com/path/Wendi+Newman+is+related+to+Beeltje+Arents?...

In actuality, I am related to Philippus van Dam by blood also because he and his wife were technically cousins, but because there is a marriage, Geni is showing it as a non-blood relation.

Make sense?

Private User - makes sense !

As long as - the shortest path is taken - you have No control over it.
Also, it can only go One way - starting with Blood - going to Non-bloods.

It does NOT know - that the 1st Spouse after the Blood line - "may" also be Your Blood cousin:

http://www.geni.com/path/Izaak+Abrahams+is+related+to+Beeltje+Arent...
http://www.geni.com/path/Izaak+Abrahams+is+related+to+Wendi+Rachel+...

http://www.geni.com/path/Izaak+Abrahams+is+related+to+Wendi+Rachel+...

We just have to wait - for the future Path upgrade :)

Peter Rohel (c)

It's strange though... I have one 7th cousin for whom Geni now chooses a route via my great grandmother, which shows her as a non-blood relative whereas previously it went via my great grandfather, which shows her as a 7th cousin. she still shows according to the blood line for my mother and cousins.

I would show you here, but the other people are living and private, so I don't want to over step what they themselves would be comfortable with.

It's just frustrating... you can't really rely on the relationship path :/

Private User - just have to be patient until they work on the Path program - hopefully in 2013 :)

thanks! Hopefully soon.

see also GENI help - Able to recalculate the Relationship Path - for Walking the Path -AND- ?through=nnnn parameter:

http://help.geni.com/entries/22296642-Able-to-recalculate-the-Relat...

I LOVE that it now shows that people are blood relatives regardless or marriages!!!

The way Geni produces relationship paths keeps surprising me. Today I was very happy to discover a connection with Dutch chess grandmaster Donner.
From my great-grandfather to Donner takes only six steps, but if I try to do it from my grandmother's profile it produces a very long path via een common ancestor 15 generations or so in the past.
I've reproduced this a few times so it is not a caching issue