De Villiers Numbering System

Francois. Please be aware of the problems when you use the timeline, especially for the six defined (birth, baptism, marriage, divorce, death, burial) events in Geni.

Please check who can change your data. As the requirements (manager?/collaborator?/author?) keep changing, I'm not sure of current status.

The reason for this is that there are no revisions available for this data. If it is changed/deleted you will have no idea of what it used to be. You will not be advised that it has changed or has been deleted.

In the case of a merge, your data may well be lost - no one has been able to tell me what happens in this case. Is your data retained? - or from the other profile? - or neither.

Other fields are carefully preserved by Geni in gemcos exports - this will disappear.

If you want to see this field (and the timeline) in use try
James Tregear
and have a browse around the tree.

I would suggest another solution.

Private User, Thank you for your response. You are the first person I've seen using those fields for what I think it was meant for!

Normally the information you so correctly append to the appropriate records just get dumped in the "About" section. Your system of documentation is impressive!

It will be interesting to find out how revisions are handled in the event fields. I shall enquire.

And yes, all my data entries are mirrored in MyHeritage. I also make use of their backup facility.

Private User, I found the following re. the export of data vir Gedcom:

"Exported profiles contain all of the profile information entered on Geni for those individual profiles in your Family Group, those profiles you manage and the full public profile for those in your Forest. ......." http://wiki.geni.com/index.php/GEDCOM#GEDCOM_Export

My events have the security setting that other users cannot change it.

The 'About' for non-defined events can only be changed by the original author. I'm not sure of defined events.

Non-defined events have never been included in gemcos exports, even though gemcos caters for them with the EVEN tag. For defined events (birth, death...) the 'About' has never been included in gemcos - just the date and location.

You're wasting your time trying to find documentation on events - they have never worked as per spec and the future will presumably be the same. My suggestion is never to use them, for the several reasons mentioned above.

Security settings have never applied to events, despite appearances.

I can't answer all the points but I can say this:

1. I have not seen an event lost in a merge of profiles.
2. I really like the use of the timeline tab in James Tregear , it is layered & adds complexity & depth. Inspirational.
3. I thought adding the De Villiers / Pama number in the timeline tab on birthdate quite clever. It may be too unobtrusive.

I have requested Geni to comment on the matter. Awaiting their reply. I will post it here the moment I receive it.

Yes, I agree that the use of the Timeline About Events in James Tregear is setting a good example of how these fields can be optimized.

For a merge of defined events (birth, death...) to be successful, the 'About This Event' of one profile would need to be appended to the 'About This Event' of the other - in a similar manner to the 'About Me' of a profile.

This logic does not exist.

Private User, So, if I understand you correctly, the genealogical # will be appended automatically to the selected profile.

If I want to append some information to a second profile, it will have to be appended manually. Is this correct?

Elaine is correct on this. In a merge a manually created event is added as an additional event, not merged into the same event. I'd have to check for marriages but in the "mega merge" profiles, christening / baptism were very repeated.

Marriages remain problematic for Geni, which is why there are no revisions for marriages.

You can only be born once, but can be married/divorced multiple times. A merge would have difficulty distinguishing between marriages - they would have to duplicate? Presumably the same problem with revisions - especially if no dates are provided.

From experience, a merge of defined events causes the loss of at least one 'About This Event'. The dates and location are correctly processed - therefore they are not treated as different events.

The baptisms you mention are not defined Baptism events. In the early days they were created as non-defined events that happened to contain the word 'baptism' or 'christening'.

Non-defined events merge correctly - they can duplicate.

I would be happy to help test so we're all clear on how it is working; both in a legacy environment & more importantly, going forward.

Erica Howton, your input will be welcomed. Thank you!

Here is Geni's feedback:

There is no revision history for the "About This Event" field if it is edited and/or deleted.

The editing permissions for Events in the timeline which we call "named events" are:

1. The user has full edit permission on a tagged profile (and they are editing from that profile's timeline), OR
2. Any event creator who is in the user's Family Group

User created events and the data added in any named events on profile timelines are not included in GEDCOM exports.

However, it certainly would be your choice whether you wish to use the "About This Event" to add more data regarding the specific event on profiles.

Thanks, Francois.

Can anyone explain "The user has full edit permission on a tagged profile (and they are editing from that profile's timeline)"?

If I create a "named event", who can edit it?

I'm having trouble getting my head around (2) as well - I'm not sure what it's telling me. Can anyone help?

Starting with 2)

"the family group" as defined here

http://www.geni.com/company/privacy & further refined by members in http://www.geni.com/account_settings/family &

http://www.geni.com/account_settings/permissions/363677820350011581

(the link should take you to your own settings)

Permissions
Use the checkboxes below to control permissions on your profile and events.

Let my family view my email address

Let my family edit my profile

Let my family edit my events

Let the public search for me (profile privacy settings apply)

Let users see when I've viewed a profile (Recently Viewed By profile module)

So it's telling me the event creator can edit the event they've just created.

I'm missing something, or very slow.

Here's a public profile to work with

Ann Franklin

I created a custom event "Yankee Quill Award", added a document, and an "about this event."

See if you can edit it.

Also you could create an event on the profile timeline

August 22 1762: Ann Franklin takes over as Editor of the Newport Mercury

(i have not done that as yet so need the help ....)

I've just tried to edit the 'About This Event" for a birth event entered by my husband (who is in my family group) - I can't.

The same for his user-created events.

Sorry, the reply doesn't even make sense.

Erica - no.

I've only been able to edit 'About This Event' created by myself

I added a new event - can you edit it?

I'm also noting for the test record:

- neither Francois nor Elaine are in my family group
- neither are PROs
- none of us are managers of the profile for Ann (Smith) Franklin
- we do not have the software permission of "collaboration" with each other
- I do "collaborate" with at least one of the profile managers
- as curator I can "field lock" fields on the "basic" tab and the "about"

When I go to the timeline event "Trial" I have an edit button and can do

edit delete
New Event Trial
Edit Event Details
Event:

Date:

Circa
End Date:

Circa
Location:

Edit Location Details
People:
Ann Franklin (Smith),
Add more information

===

BUT the "about this event" field is not available to me.

This is scary. Can you delete the whole event? - because you have stated that 'delete' appears.

Private User, I tried my utmost best to sabotage your trial event, but without any success! So this actually means that the data entered into the event field is quite safe if I don't grant editing permissions to family members (if I understand correctly).

The editing permissions apply to your profile only.

Erica Howton, I am a so-called Pro member (I just prefer not to flag it).

Even being a Pro member I could not access the data to make any changes.

Private User, I've just added "Francois' Test" to the profile. Elaine can you make any changes to it? Please let me know, then I will delete the event afterwards.

Francois. I can't do anything at all, but unlike Erica's test the delete option is not present. Perhaps because she is a curator? That's still scary.