Introducing the Curator Team

Thanks for this, Pam, sound like all good choices. Especially since I've been collaborating with most of them for some time.

Thanks Pam! I just need to mention additionally that I am Brazilian and therefore my primary language is Portuguese.

Hello. Thank you! I've had the pleasure of corresponding with several of our collaborators, so it's doubly nice to know a bit more about them. Geni is indeed addictive, and I'm still fascinated with the history of the early Brits and French peoples. Plus, Big Thank Yous to the many collaborators who help me with my merging efforts!
Kitty Milloy
San Diego, CA

Excellent choices for the first curators. Thanks to Geni for moving this forward!

The curatorial team coming together is an example of just how well collaborating works, which is a core concept behind Geni. Welcome to all of you and thank you, Geni, for taking this fascinating platform to the next level.

Yes, I agree, excellent choices. I've done some good collaborating with almost all of them.

You all make us look good! Thanks for your excellent work (curators and other diligent users as well).

Thank You Pam,

I already posted the other stuff about me on here, however I have also published introduction to geni videos on my technology magazine on www.techistan.com/geni/

Thanks

Rehan

I am a new Curator.

I will work almost anywhere in the Big Tree.

I am Jewish and born and raised in the Toronto, Canada area.

I can read English, a little French, some Yiddish and of course, Hebrew.

I work for myself and enjoy it.

Kevin

Thank you to Noah, Bjorn, Pam and the other curators who have nominated me to this group.

I live in Colorado, and have lived in Kansas, Pennsylvania, Michigan, New York, Maryland and Texas. My family ancestors are Quakers, settling in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylania in the late 1600s. I am also interested in the Plantagenets and Tudors of England. My only language is English.

I was trained as a computer engineer, worked for IBM and Bell Northern Research (Bell Canada's Bell Labs). I have been teaching middle school math at the Denver Waldorf School for the last 10 years, and am currently between jobs.

Martin Severin Eriksen as a curator,i`ll do the best i can to help ya all.
my main personal prosject,has been my swedish lines on my mothers side.
since they are just to hard to find,and nothing before 1810.
also a huge intrest of the long line of swedish Black smiths ( http://www.genealogi.se/smed/english.html ),and Vallons ( http://www.vallon.se/ ) .
born in Gothenborg,Sweden.
and raised in Krokstadelva,Norway.
working as a sales man at a hardware store,after 20 so years as a truck driver.
handle Swedish,Norwegian and English.
easyer to use english,since thats what most of us understand :-)

mvh
Martin

I'm another one.

Flemming Funch is Danish and lives in France. He's a self-employed software developer, and an early Geni enthusiast. He speaks English, French and Danish/Scandinavian. His genealogical interests include: Scandinavian mythological kings before 1000, French nobility in Southern France and the Holy Land, Pharaos, and descent from antiquity in general.

I'm another one of the new curators. I'm a Network Engineer for Cisco Systems in North Carolina and have a degree in computer engineering from NC State University.

Two years ago I couldn't even name my great-grandparents and then I read about geni on a blog. I logged in to geni and started filling in names/facts and got hooked on genealogy in a hurry. Most of my lines have been in the US (mostly in the southeast) for a while but prior to that I can trace back primarily to England, France, and Germany. The exception is one great-grandfather who was born in Pecs, Hungary and moved to the US in the early 1900s.

As for the big tree I mainly work on US Presidents and Civil War generals but I'm interested in helping out wherever it is needed.

English is my only language.

Erica Howton?

I'm very honored to join the curatorial team and continue to learn from everyone.

I'm a native New Yorker so you can guess the variety of the English language that comes most naturally to my tongue.:) I retain some high school French and unfortunately no Hebrew at all. I did university in Boston (English and American literature) and summered on Cape Cod, which is coming in geographically handy as I uncover my Puritan lines. But more of my family origins are from Tennessee and Kentucky (places I've never been), and there's a fair amount of Scots there, which may explain the Frost Giants in my tree. I think?

I worked in technology for an international bank and have a life long interest in world culture and mythologies. I've currently set myself the geni-challenges of the Anglo Norman knights c. 1100 and first immigrants to America, including the ones we call "native." But feel free to steer me where I can be most helpful.

Erica Howton :-) "I speak Manhattan, Bronx, and Lawng Iysland."

Another new curator. I live in Denver, Colorado, where I am an attorney and bookstore owner. My immediate roots are in the American West among the earliest pioneers. My ancestry is mostly colonial American, with bits of American Indian and a chunk of Swedish. I have an undergraduate degree in Medieval History, and will be going back to school to finish my graduate degree in Historical Preservation in 2011. My research interests encompass the royal and noble families of Europe and the diversity of colonial and western North America. My particular specialties are the Gallo-Romans, early Norse and medieval Scots. As a curator I will be working on the Etichonids and early Habsburgs. My primary language is English, but I have some college Latin, French, German and Swedish when the need arises.

Thank you curators. Glad to get to know you all. I wish that i remembered (four years of it!) at least a little French. I only remember how to ask how to open a window. The school-room must have been stuffy. Heh. The year I was born (I believe) they stopped teaching Latin in high schools where I grew up (Urbana, Illinois). I wish that they still did. It would make everything so much easier. My mom knew it and she also learned how to cook in Latin.

Kim, I can only remember to say "I have broken my leg" in French. I know a little Spanish but can really only read and write in English. Bummer.

I'm a new curator and incredibly flattered. I found Geni when researching my husband's family. Unfortunately, I've been able to debunk most of the family legends. I've hit a brickwall but hope to knock it down soon.

I was born in Chicago but my dad joined the air force three months later so I've lived in Mississippi, Turkey (can still tell my brother he's been bad in Turkish but that's all), Virginia, California, England (family favorite), Massachusetts, Nebraska, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Texas. I'm actually using my English degree as a technical writer for a medical device manufacturer. I minored in History just because I love it. It's amazing how much history you learn researching family!

I want to research my own family but I can only go as far back as my great-grandparents. Since I don't speak Lithuanian, Russian, Romanian, Yiddish, or Hebrew, I can't figure out how to research any farther back without spending money on professional genealogists. Jewishgen is cool but none of my family seems to be on there.

Anyway, I absolutely love untangling messes on the Human Family Tree. It's slow going as I still have to work but I pick away at the knots and every once in a while feel great satisfaction when a small branch is cleared of yellow and blue warnings! I don't particularly enjoy celebrities or royalty or well-known people. I like the average Joes and their families who tie into other average Joes' families. But I'll help wherever I can.

I've met so many nice people here on Geni - staff, curators, professional genealogists, amateur genealogists - I'm honored to 'work' with all of you!

I have been working on my family tree for about 15 years now - always a work in progress. I live in California but my extended family is all in Iowa and Minnesota, thus my research began there. My maternal grandmother's family ties into the old New England families. My maternal grandfather's family is very extensive and is mainly focused in Marion & Warren Counties of Iowa, Franklin County, Indiana, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and then originally from Baden. The information I have on my paternal side is somewhat limited and is focused in Blue Earth (city), Minnesota and originally from Germany.

I may run into some days where I will be a little slow in getting onto this site to browse, but I should be able to respond to specific requests or messages within 24 hours. I just started a new job last week so it is still a little crazy as I settle into the new routine.

Marsha,

I was also stuck on my mother's maternal side for the longest time. I could never find out her mother's father's maternal aunt's maiden name. One day, I get an email, via JewishGen, from someone in Israel asking about this aunt's maiden name.

From that I went to the daughter of this aunt's sister and asked her what was your mother's maiden name. I also asked her how are you related to my mother's maternal grandfather. She told me that the aunt is the aunt of your mother's maternal grandfather.

I told the JewishGen emailer, that we are not related as this aunt only married your relative. He comes back with another email, that states yes we are related. I said to him, prove it. He did that in his next email and then I was able to find a missing branch in his tree. I was also able to give him the maiden name of the person in his original question to me. I gained a very large family that goes back to Poland around 1795.

Kevin

Kevin, that is awesome! I hope someone contacts me! I've been on JewishGen for ages and no one has contacted me, yet. Every once in awhile I do a search or five and get all excited when I get a hit until it turns out to be me. LOL! But I'm only 53 - with any luck I have time to find someone or them to find me. Your story gives me hope!

Marsha,

I am going to be 36 on Monday. I do have some connections to the Canadian Jewish Comedy duo of Wayne & Shuster.

These connections are both blood and cousin by marriage going to school with Frank Shuster.

The blood relative is my mother's maternal grandfather's first cousin and the orchestra director for Wayne & Shuster, when they first came onto live television on the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation). This cousin was also a music prodigy. He played the violin at Toronto's Massey Hall at the age of 11. This is around 1919. His mother was the youngest sister of my mother's maternal grandfather.

Kevin

Good idea but I hope that Geni picks people who know what they are doing and are above the level of "gee whiz" genealogy.

For example, the French Canadian tree should have as curators those who at least are conservative in French, have access to Drouin, the PRDH and the National Library of Quebec. They should know how to spell French (accents are important). My vote is for someone like Paul Doré,
Honestly, I am tired of correcting the mess.

D'accord, Je sais francais comme-ci comme-ca, mais pas des accents sur l'ordinateur!

J'ai grandi dans le New Hampshire, pres de la frontiere du Quebec. J'ai ancetres Francais-Canadien ainsi.

I'm afraid I'm pretty 'gee whiz' about everything I do. If that isn't acceptable to all, don't hesitate to 'demote' me. I was having fun and doing my best before; I'll have fun and do my best in the future, regardless! (And yes, I speak in exclamations so I use a lot of exclamation points!)

Anne Marit, is there a favorite place you use where you can find all the accents needed for 'English-speaking' keyboards? Thanks!

I like you as you are Marsha. :)

DLD - A Geni user from Quebec refused to collaborate with me once; one of the reasons he gave was that I used accents on the names of French-Canadian ancestors. He told me that was "wrong" because some GEDCOM files don't recognize accents (or something like that) and thus it's less confusing when accents aren't used.

I didn't agree with him; I'll still use accents on Geni when I can. But it seems to indicate that people have different opinions on the matter, and you can't just dismiss the non-use of accents as ignorance.

Anne - It's easy to create accents and such on a Mac keyboard. It was near impossible on a Linux keyboard, as far as I could tell.