Can a merger lose me access to a profile I added in my tree?

L Karp, the person that manages the profile you linked, is the niece/nephew of that profile. This means it's within the family group of L Karp, and since it's a living profile it defaults to private.

You are right that you are not closely related to the profile linked. The profile is just outside your family group circle.

Geni does give users the ability to remove managers within their family group circle. You have this same ability.

On Geni, once you have another user on your tree, it's no longer "your" tree. The family group privacy settings is what protects your close relatives from the rest of the users on Geni.

I get that it's not "my" tree, in terms of ownership, but why on earth would I ever merge if it means I lose visibility to the work that I've done? It's a losing proposition! In the past, merging meant I was connected to a larger tree, but now it makes my tree horizon that much smaller.

All I'm saying is, if I knew enough about the person to have added them independently, I shouldn't *automatically* lose visibility. However if the profile owner *chooses* to remove me for privacy reasons, that seems like a fair tradeoff.

Geni does also give users the ability to add and request co-management of a profile.
You can also request to become an extended familygroup member to get access to private profiles. I have as many as 816 extended family group members and 2364 collaborators without having any problems.

As a curator I does not need any since I have access to private profiles anyhow, but it is a question about trusting each others, and while taking care of areas that need curator help I trust my extended family and collaborators to take care of my profiles.

http://www.geni.com/blog/how-to-managed-34871.html

at the bottom of this link you can read.

Keep in mind that when someone claims a profile you have added, they take over control of that profile and you are no longer the manager.

Internally you are still a manager, and you get the profile back if the user close the account again, but you are right:You loose control by default if that matters. I said "by default" because that user can change his/hers privacy setting to allow the family to edit the profile.
http://www.geni.com/account_settings/permissions

Scott - I totally agree that folks should be aware of this possibility.

More than one instance where folks with no family connection to the Profiles talked Curators into forcibly doing merges to ones I managed - and I then took the profiles Private and removed them as a Manager from those in my Max Extended Family. Couldn't help wondering if they had been more clearly aware of that possibility, would they have insisted on the Merge. Am hoping as more become aware of the possibility, they will stop trying to force such merges.

On the other hand - assuming this is an unclaimed profile -- there is a possibility that, if you sent a Geni-Message to the Manager of the Profile, explaining why you have a special interest in that profile, how responsible you are, etc., that you might possibly be able to sweet talk the manager into adding you (back) as a co-manager on the Profile. No guarantees, but possible.

Private User please check your private messages. The profile you reference here is not yours; this manager has not logged on since Aug 2014. There was no merge, you just maybe lost track of yours; the link to it is in the mail I sent. Hope this helps.