Intros

<3
Honored
Humbled
Flattered
for the tag

I am here because I took a DNA test!
I have been "doing" genealogy since I was a teenager and attended my first family reunion.
That was in 1977.
I was nervous about DNA but since my uncle was "brave" enough to do so and to SHARE his results with me, I decided to test too and it has made all the difference in HOW I "do" genealogy.
I put my DNA everywhere I could think of and especially anywhere I could work on the tree! And THAT meant GENI!
It was not easy figuring out how to do ANYTHING here lol but later it became a requirement in a DNA group I joined on Facebook so I revisited my profile and DNA matches here and dug in and am SOOO happy I did.
I am no longer working on genealogy in Facebook groups but have discovered that GENI is indeed THE Gold Standard for collaborative genealogy.
I call Geni "the place where trees come to be proven" and I cannot express how grateful I am for it.

In nursing school, I was my RN class Vice President and called "Research" because I always cited my source ;)

but since genetic genealogy, I have been working with "dirty/working trees" and I so appreciate that Geni is a place where traditional AND genetic genealogy is valued and respected and I am in awe of the skills and dedication and passion of others I have met here.
I am fortunate to be able to search often but I remember coming home from work and logging into Geni to see what happened while I was "away" lol.
I used to say that I did genealogy for my parents. Sadly they are gone now and so I do this for ME but with the hopes that my "work" helps others and that one day my children and grandchildren will pick up where I must leave off.
As an ARMY brat, child of divorce (my mother left and 8 years later my parents reunited) I always say I had wings but genealogy is my search for ROOTS.
I hope this wasn't too self indulgent a response! Ha! Genealogy really IS my passion.

Since I did not sign your guestbook, Private User I do not recall when or why I started following your profile but I see we are 9th cousins on my mother's side: https://www.geni.com/path/Cynthia-Curtis-A183502-US7875087+is+relat... and an in-law relationship via my dad's Roberts https://www.geni.com/path/Cynthia-Curtis-A183502-US7875087+is+relat...
Thank you for all you do to make Geni such a great place :)

What I like doing:
1) completing FAMILY GROUPS!!!!
2) confirming lines using DNA
3) Helping folks fix their branches

Good afternoon, I do think having a GENI profile standard would be really helpful.

For myself, I like to include for Notable Individuals

Notable Individuals:

Full Name & Title
Link to their Wikipedia Page
Find A Grave Memorial

Example: Roger Sherman Hoar - Roger Sherman Hoar

This provides easy access to actual source documentation, and helps ensure cross platform consistency; especially when there's significant source documentation (within the profile and the GENI sources section.

NOTE: Find A Grave now presents source documentation from Ancestry on the right hand side of the memorial ... which also feeds into Archives.com

Aaron

Strike the second Notable Individuals

Nice to e-meet you Private User

Erica Howton, thanks for the shout-out.

At the moment I'm grappling with reconciling several Australian DNA matches, who seem to all be Finlays and Finlay descendants. An older match I had presumed was due to another family turns out to be descended from a Finlay as well, and has overlapping DNA, tying them all together. And when I tie them together it paints a picture of a family tragedy that nobody really grasped as a whole before. I believe I've figured out how they are plugged into the County Monaghan tree, but now I'm trying make sure there are no other DNA matches that would contradict what I've got. I've been in contact with the Finlay descendant who manages a dozen such kits and he's been very helpful but has fallen off the radar now for a week. Hope to close this off soon.

In the background, I've been looking for evidence that my DNA relative James Armstrong of Orange County SC is really the same James Armstrong that was mentioned in the will of his brother William Armstrong, who died in Chester County, PA, in 1753. The James he mentioned was added as an executor in 1745, but needed to be notified by post when the will was executed in 1753, because he'd moved (to SC, is my guess). The other executor had died so they were desperate to find SOMEBODY who could manage the estate. The dates all line up beautifully (James is thought to have gone south in 1752) as do the names, but I guess we still need more. ;-)

Hi Cynthia! I didn’t think your post was self-indulgent at all. On the contrary, I believe that the more we know about each other’s working preferences, skillsets, and experience, the better we can collaborate.

I love completing family groups, too. Collateral relatives are just as important as direct line ancestors! Aaaaaand that was probably totally preaching to the choir, seeing as Geni is all about the World Tree. I’ve just never understood the stance of those genealogists who ignore collaterals. If nothing else, the larger family picture and patterns can help unlock so much information that might otherwise be passed over.

I did my DNA when I was diagnosed with breast cancer, as we needed to find out if BRECCA was an issue. I haven’t even begun studying the whole DNA genealogy thing, as it seems pretty overwhelming…wish I could download all that information and enthusiasm directly from your brain to mine!

Cynthia Curtis, A183502, US7875087, I don’t even know how to note my DNA in my Geni profile. Is there a help page on that?

Aaron Furtado Baldwin, UE9006698, nice to meet you, too. That’s a beautiful profile! It totally deserves MP status. Surely there’s a curator around here who would be proud to take that one under their curatorial umbrella? ;-)

Does it seem like it would be useful to compile a short list of exemplary profiles that can serve as how-to guides?

Erica mentioned people who each do something very well:

Private User

Suzan Martin

Private User

Karl David Wright

Aaron Furtado Baldwin, UE9006698

Private User

Would any of you be willing to post one or two profiles that best demonstrate your interests and strengths? As I read her comments I kept wishing I could look at samples from each of you so I can improve my skills!

I used to work on a lot of profiles from the About Cleanup Project, it made me feel useful. I had just begun learning to incorporate images into About Me bios before I too my extended leave from Geni. If you could post a couple of your profiles, David, I’d love to see how you do it.

I'm interested in every aspect of genealogy, research in particular as Erica mentioned. I focus mainly on filling in my own family branches, but agree that adding 'collateral' families and individuals who lived in the same localities can be quite advantageous.

I view even the most humble of my ancestors as valued and dearly beloved members of families which in turn were members of communities and ultimately participants in American history.

I try to visualize their lives, both the joys and struggles at every level. It isn't enough just to know my ancestors' names and siblings; I seek to learn precisely where and how they lived, travelled, went to church and were buried, went to school, who their neighbors and friends were, what they wore, their civic involvements, where they worked, what crops they grew or livestock they kept, etc. (Without stereotypes.)

Profiles I'm most proud of?
Why, the ones I last worked on of course! ;-)

But here are some examples, both fairly recent.

Henry Martin
Matthew Armstrong, of Mecklenburg County

Erica Howton, such kind words! I'm not worthy of all that, but I do thank you, and I cannot express enough how much we're all in debt to you.

Private User I think start by adding to your About where you tested and if you have uploaded to Gedmatch, share those kit numbers.
If you have confirmed your parents and grandparents, you can make a note about that.
Many people unfortunately discover theirs is NOT a biological relationship.
It is important to use the non biological parent drop down option available because of the obvious reasons but I have found that many people will refuse to remove an adoptive parent or grandparent simply out of sentimentality or maybe they just don't want to be the bearer of such information in a public way.
Back to the DNA-- if you have been able to triangulate with others on a specific SNP, you can note that on your profile. I am hoping to do that soon-- chromosome mapping can be extremely helpful and is actually how I KNOW my tree is correct even before I find the name of the ancestor!
example-- I had a FULL match with someone and shared the details with her. She said, "that's McDowell". I had NO McDowells in my known tree at the time but I was working on Geni one day and BLOOP! There she was! DNA is a beautiful thing.

One thing I like to do is provide a list of 'verified' statuses, like relationships. I started doing it on Ancestry with tags, and I've tried to add a similar thing here on profiles, listing documentation showing the spouse, children and parents are sourced. That way I can quickly look at a person and know how reliable their relationships are.