break the parentage relationship?

Hi, Erica. I'm a Pro User, but I think we should defer to Ben Miller who added him initially.

That's a great suggestion. Should you or I write him a private message?

Erica Howton
I have started putting messages in the "display name" or maiden name or nickname fields, asking people to read the source notes before merging or stating that someone IS NOT RELATED TO, and explaining in my notes. Doesn't stop all the problems, but some people do actually read the notes.

As for the Deacon, I like the idea of contacting the original creator and asking for their sources, explaining what my sources say. I have done it a few times with nice results, and a few times with little or no response.

Good luck!

I wrote a note to Ben Miller (Private User) and directed him to this discussion.

In one extreme case, I've added two persons called UNKNOWN FATHER and UNKNOWN MOTHER, and merge any erroneous (that is, undocumented) record for those people into those. Luckily, nobody's fantasized more than one more generation on that particular branch of the tree.

This case is harder, since multiple people have added this person with specific parents; 50 admins usually means that there are 50 people who all "added him initially".

Good luck, sorry I can't help more.

The "unknown father" and "unknown mother" profile solutions are a great idea, I'm glad you brought it up. But with 50 managers merging into those new profiles would be painful:) So I think the best idea is to break off with PRO tools first, then add those new "unknown" profiles second.

I've also dropped a note to the "primary manager" for feedback:

Private User

OK, there is some documentation about Edmund Rice's parentage:

" Deacon Edmund Rice was born in England about 1594, probably in Stanstead, Suffolk. He was either the YOUNGER BROTHER or the SON of HENRY RICE who married Elizabeth Frost, SISTER of Thomasine Frost. "

This was a recorded on the REGISTER of ST. MARY's in Burg, Sufflok, Oct. 15,1618 and quoted in " Descendants of Thomas Farr of Harpswell, Maine and ninety allied families [database on-line]. Provo, UT: The Generations Network, Inc., 2004. Original data: Sumner, Edith Bartlett."

So how should parentage be indicated? Oye.

While we're at it, Edmund's second wife, Mercy Hurd, is attached to incorrect parents.

Mercy Hunt

This seem to be one of the sources:

http://www.ancestors-genealogy.com/vross/1743.html

It is difficult to cut connections if 50 others means that they should be there, - they might have better sources than you, but I agree that several other pages states that the parents are unknown, varies or are unproven.

Sometimes you just have to accept what the majority of the users wants as a connection.

http://familypedia.wikia.com/wiki/Deacon_Edmund_Rice_%281594-1663%29
http://www.gamblinfamily.org/fay/park_files/edmund_rice.html
http://www.werelate.org/wiki/Person:Edmund_Rice_%281%29
http://www.rawlins.org/Pedigree/AerialRawlins/i8719.html
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Rice&...;

Many surname lines are now being traced genetically to verify or disprove lineages. You might want to check and see if "Rice" is one of them.

There is an active DNA project for descendants of Edmund Rice. No "leap across the pond" to ancestral England (probably) has been made as yet.

Interesting little story, by the way:

In 1704, four Rice boys descended from Edmund were captured by Mohawks at Marlborough (later Westborough), Massachusetts, and carried off to Canada. One was ransomed, but the other three remained and were adopted into the Mohawk tribe. Many years later, one returned to visit Westborough, but he no longer spoke English and had to talk to his relatives through an interpreter. The contact was not maintained, and so there is no collected record of the descendants of these expatriates. Nonetheless, Rice remains a relatively common surname among the Mohawks to this day, and both of these participants are Mohawk Rices. The two match each other 25/25 and match 24/25 with Group 1. 24143 traces back in the male line to one of the Rice captives and thus in turn to Edmund.

http://www.edmund-rice.org/haplotype.htm

Bjorn,

When I connected myself (working backwards in time) to Edmund Rice, I didn't seek verification of his parentage. I would just mutter "well, if geni says so" every time a more illustrious ancestor popped into view. Isn't that the case for most of us?

It was high fashion in the early 1880s to 1920s to try to connect an American family's ancestry to British nobility. My father remembers hearing about ancestors going so far as to hire a genealogist to connect the Howtons of Kentucky with the Houghtons of Houghton Castle, England -- and a share of the (theoretical) inheritance.

Not only did that project fail, but 1828, 1869, 1912 and current DNA projects trying to connect American Houghtons (as in Houghton-Mifflin Publishing) with the British noble Hoghton family of Preston's Hoghton Tower (and the latter's connection to William the Conqueror) have all failed, too.

It would be nice to see geni.com as the place where myths are disproved. The truth is always more interesting anyway.

I also need Richard Rice (1608-1709) to be detached from NOT his father, Edmund Rice. Error messages that "choosing Richard Rice Sr." would split the tree.

Many thanks.

Richard Rice of Concord

"Split the tree" is what you WANT to do if the wrong ancestry is connected.

Right! But it won't let me ... <sob>

Ohhhh. I just looked him up, and it turns out he's in my tree.
"Richard Rice is your 7th cousin 11 times removed."

I'll see if it'll let me do something. I've had NO luck getting anyone to fix the Mary Bliss - Nathaniel Holcombe errors, so I probably won't be able to do anything here either. It may be that you'd have to contact each of the "managers" to have them do it.

Sue,

Isn't it terrible when it turns out it's an actual ancestor:)

Give it a go and see. I think both parental sets listed for Richard Rice are incorrect and his parents are not known.

I submitted a help request and I did get a response. I included a link to this discussion, and added the following:

Thank you for your response!

The discussion is on the Collaboration Pool here: http://www.geni.com/discussions/6000000009608932862

There are MANY OTHER such errors in my GENI tree.

Here is another example of a hotspot in my tree that has many erroneous merges that have resulted in numerous parental conflicts. Note that there are DOZENS of Managers of this ONE profile, and there is no way for any one of the managers to even know who has attempted a merge with the profile that they manage. Each of the spouses, siblings and children have similar numbers of errors and managers. All of the mis-matched merges need to be UNDONE and this tree split into however many branches that are correct:

Elizabeth Gull

Elizabeth Foote (Smith) (1617 - 1679)

This profile has been linked to other profiles pending a merge.
View her other profiles.
Birth: 1617 - Hadleigh, Suffolk, England
Death: October 7, 1679 (62) - Simsbury,Hartford,Connecticut,USA
Immediate Family:

Daughter of Lt. Samuel Smith, Thomas Holcomb and Elizabeth Chileab

Wife of Thomas Holcombe, Nathaniel Foote, Nathaniel Foote, Jr., Thomas Holcomb, Nathaniel Foote and 16 others Thomas Holcombe, Nathaniel Foote, Nathaniel Foote, Jr., Thomas Holcomb, Nathaniel Foote, Nathaniel Jacques Foote, II, Thomas Gull, Nathaniel Foote, William Gull, William Gull, William Gull, Thomas Holcomb, William GULL, William Gull, Nathaniel Foote, Nathaniel Foote, James Eno, Nathaniel Foote, Thomas GULL, James Eno (wrong spouse) and Richard Townley

Mother of Joshua Holcombe, Elizabeth Holcombe, Mary Holcombe, Sarah HOLCOMB, Joshua Holcombe, Sr. and 34 others Joshua Holcombe, Elizabeth Holcombe, Mary Holcombe, Sarah HOLCOMB, Joshua Holcombe, Sr., Abigail Holcombe, Deborah HOLCOMB, Nathaniel (Lt) Holcombe, Sr., Ebenezer Holcombe, Benajah Thomas Holcombe, Jonathan Holcombe, Samuel Foote, Elizabeth Foote, Nathaniel Foote, Daniel Foote, Elizabeth Foote, Anna (Gull) Gull, Mary Gull, Mercy GULL, Ann (Gull) HULL, Marcy GULL, Esther GULL, Mary Gull, Anna Gull, Esther Gull, Mercy Gull, Joshua Holcomb, Sr., Mary GULL, Anna Gull, Esther Gull, Mercy Gull, Nathaniel FOOTE (9), Nathaniel Foote, Samuel Foote, Daniel Foote, Nathaniel Foote, Samuel Foote, Charles Townley and Effingham Townley

Sister of Joseph Smith, Samuel Smith, Chileab Smith, Philip Smith, Thomas Smith and 28 others Joseph Smith, Samuel Smith, Chileab Smith, Philip Smith, Thomas Smith, Chileab Smith, John Smith, Samuel Smith, Mary Smith, Philip Smith, Chileab Smith, Samuel Smith, Mary Smith, Phillip Smith, John Smith, Philip Smith, Mary* Bronson Wyatt, Samuel Smith, Jr., Thomas Smith, Samuel Smith, Mary Smith, Philip Smith, Mary Smith, Phillip Smith, John Smith, John Smith, Chileab Smith, Thomas Smith, John Smith, Joseph Smith, Benjamin Smith, Phillip Smith and Benjamin Smith

Half sister of Philip Smith, Thomas Smith, Samuel Smith, Chileab Smith, Mary* Bronson Wyatt and 3 othersPhilip Smith, Thomas Smith, Samuel Smith, Chileab Smith, Mary* Bronson Wyatt, John Smith, Joseph Smith and Mary Smith

Added by: Tanya Ryle on July 3, 2007
Managed by: Sanford Wilcox Beattie, Jr., Kristi Laurel Mas, Ivor Jackson, Mary Edith Niffen and 48 others

So what, if anything, can the Help Desk do, do you think?

They programmed this, they should be able to fix the programming to allow us to break the tree.

Meanwhile, Most of the "matches" supplied by GENI are incorrect. They only require 2 or 3 matching data points. One spousal name plus one child's name that are the same will result in a suggested "match" even if the birth and death years and parents do not match at all.

Do NOT initiate or accept any merge requests unless all the parents and siblings, birth and death dates are EXACT matches.

I've learned that the relationships are the most important "match" point. Particularly when you get further back, different sources report different birth dates. The death dates tend to be the same, though. :)

Sue - all Pro users can break the tree, - you just don't use the merge window for that.

Secondly: When there are a lot of duplicates/managers involved it is sometimes easier to just merge the whole stack instead of starting on a puzzle to find a way to disconnect "bad" profiles and then find where to put them.
It is much easier and faster to fix errors when the pending merges are gone.

In popular lines these "bad" profiles are probably already present in correct positions.

@Ric Erik Kuhlmey
Done :
Juana (#1) Zamora

Can someone please break the relationship between Priscilla Powell and the Thomas born 1584. He should be her father in law

Done, but the remaining husband and many others still have parent conflicts.

Thomazin Post

Can someone please break the relationship from her parents? I connected her to them in error.

Thank you!

Sure?
They does not have any further connections and will be floaters, so it might be better to delete or rename them.

I ran the Anti-Zombie script in the area to remove blocking profiles.

Elizabeth Snow

Can someone please break the relationship between her and "father" Joseph?

Thank you!

Where is it, Lori?