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Got a Geni message when I woke up this morning. The person linked to my dads mother, said that I had them and their family in my tree under my grandmother and that they're living and they didn't give me permission to list them in my tree. They said if it is not removed within 5 days, they will report it to the website owner, to have it "forcibly" removed.
I went to my tree which consists of my dad, his parents and brother, my mother and me. That's it. I don't even have my kids listed. I don't know what she's looking at because when I go to my grandmothers profile, I'm not seeing anyone else.
I don't really use Geni. I added my info there from my DNA test at FTDNA. I don't know if it's like family search or wiki tree where there is one profile per person? Can someone tell me if I'm sharing relatives?
It's from my "sibling" that likes to harass me online. I don't have her in any of my trees for this very reason. She's been banned from Find A Grave 3 times due to harassing me.
Anyway, does she even have a leg to stand on? Would I have one if I found myself in someone else's tree? As far as I know it's tough luck. People list people in family trees.
I believe Geni is a crowd sourced tree like FamilySearch and Wikitree - I don't use it, so I don't know exactly how it works but I'm sure that living people (as long as they are marked living) are private. Maybe it works like Ancestry where you can see a living person exists and how they relate to their immediate family but you can't see their name or any other details. If you know the family, you'll know who those private people are based on their relationships.
But even so, there is nothing wrong with listing living people in a tree, as long as they are marked as living and therefore their details aren't public. If the system allows for this, then you aren't breaking any rules. I doubt Geni has a policy that you can't even include living people, because then you wouldn't be allowed to list yourself or attached yourself to your own tree. However, I do think the law requires a request for removal of one's personal information to be upheld. This is why when sales people call you and you ask to be removed from their calling list, they have to comply. Or if you request a public directory remove your info, they have to comply. So she probably can complain to Geni and they may have comply with the removal (maybe - I'm not sure, maybe they don't if it's actually private), but that doesn't necessarily mean you've done anything wrong by adding her (if you even did) - like you say, people list people in trees, especially if the info you get if from a public document, it's not like you added anything that isn't public information already. Living people are in public documents too - if she's got a problem with that, she's going to be pretty upset for the rest of her life.
I believe Geni is a crowd sourced tree like FamilySearch and Wikitree - I don't use it, so I don't know exactly how it works but I'm sure that living people (as long as they are marked living) are private. Maybe it works like Ancestry where you can see a living person exists and how they relate to their immediate family but you can't see their name or any other details. If you know the family, you'll know who those private people are based on their relationships.
But even so, there is nothing wrong with listing living people in a tree, as long as they are marked as living and therefore their details aren't public. If the system allows for this, then you aren't breaking any rules. I doubt Geni has a policy that you can't even include living people, because then you wouldn't be allowed to list yourself or attached yourself to your own tree. However, I do think the law requires a request for removal of one's personal information to be upheld. This is why when sales people call you and you ask to be removed from their calling list, they have to comply. Or if you request a public directory remove your info, they have to comply. So she probably can complain to Geni and they may have comply with the removal (maybe - I'm not sure, maybe they don't if it's actually private), but that doesn't necessarily mean you've done anything wrong by adding her (if you even did) - like you say, people list people in trees, especially if the info you get if from a public document, it's not like you added anything that isn't public information already. Living people are in public documents too - if she's got a problem with that, she's going to be pretty upset for the rest of her life.
Thanks for the link. I just did it by going to my mothers profile, clicked DNA, I was listed under Autosomal DNA (close relatives only). It says "Greater confidence can be obtained by testing close relatives of my mother" then the " View a list of living people who can be tested for autosomal DNA to confirm these results" the next page says my mothers Autosomal DNA Relatives with both of us.
My sibling isn't listed anywhere. I have a feeling that she's looking at her own tree because I don't have her in mine for this very reason. I just did a search for her name and she came up, it says her profile is run by her. When I click her profile it asks me for money.
I'm going to have to investigate what type of tree site Geni is. I don't even use it and may just remove my account.
Geni is the leading collaborative genealogy platform. Geni users from around the world work together to build a single, comprehensive family tree. Users can build a private tree of their close relatives to connect to the shared public tree.
Start by building your family tree through our fun, simple interface. It's fast and free. Invite your relatives to join Geni and add other relatives. This makes it easy to grow your tree.
As your tree grows, Geni automatically looks for matches in other family trees. You'll be notified of possible matches, growing your tree even faster. Eventually your tree will merge with the world family tree, which currently contains over 100 million profiles.
Everyone in the tree has a profile which shows more about them and enables other family members to stay in touch. Families can work together to build profiles for common ancestors.
You can think of the profiles in your tree as being divided into two groups: private profiles and public profiles. Each time you add a profile to your tree, it is automatically assigned to one of the groups. Private profiles are intended for living relatives and minors. Public profiles are intended for deceased relatives and public figures. You may also choose to make recently-deceased profiles private, and Geni will sometimes make newly-added, deceased profiles private in order to help protect the privacy of nearby profiles and users.
My sibling isn't listed anywhere. I have a feeling that she's looking at her own tree because I don't have her in mine for this very reason. I just did a search for her name and she came up, it says her profile is run by her. When I click her profile it asks me for money.
One of my DNA cousins is going to join Geni tonight to see what he sees on my grandmother's profile. I'm also having him click on my dad's DNA tab to see what he will see there because all I see is myself, she's not there either, even when I click view a list of living people to be DNA tested. I'm there with his brother.
I'm curious to hear what my cousin will see or not see.
One of my DNA cousins is going to join Geni tonight to see what he sees on my grandmother's profile. I'm also having him click on my dad's DNA tab to see what he will see there because all I see is myself, she's not there either, even when I click view a list of living people to be DNA tested. I'm there with his brother.
I'm curious to hear what my cousin will see or not see.
I think the best thing to do with bullies is to encourage them to follow through. "I can assure you that I did not & would not list you on my family tree anywhere --ever. So definitely you need to contact them & ask for your info to removed."
I have never used Geni. Please post what you find out.
I think the best thing to do with bullies is to encourage them to follow through. "I can assure you that I did not & would not list you on my family tree anywhere --ever. So definitely you need to contact them & ask for your info to removed."
I have never used Geni. Please post what you find out.
I was going to message back to tell her to go ahead and contact Geni but never got to it. Gonna do that now.
I'll post back when the cousin joins. I don't think he had time after work last night.
My cousin did as much as he could this morning before work. He's able to see my grandmother with the link I gave him, he's not able to see my dad or his father or brother; they all say private last name followed by spouse, child and child. Both my dad and grandfather are deceased so I'm not sure why he's not able to see their names.
I sent him a pic of my grandmothers DNA tab, asked if he can click on that when he has time to see who's listed there and if he'll also be able to click the link for living DNA relatives because that's the last thing I'm curious about. I'm so happy to have my cousin be able to do this for me.
I did message her before telling her to go ahead and contact Geni because I'm sure it's not made by me. I'm 99.999% sure she's looking at her own profile that's been attached to the public tree I started. I wish I would have known it was like family search when I joined. I was hoping that it would help me with my DNA matches on FTDNA but I only have 4 or 5 matches that are on Geni.
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Edit He came back on messenger, he clicked the mtDNA info on my grandmother's profile. It's showing my uncle as private last name - child. It is not giving my uncles name here like the link PA2UK gave said.
My teenage nephew tried to remove himself from my Geni trip as he didn't want to be listed (due internet privacy concerns). So as a compromise he is listed with no personal details (meaning it shows he is exists but there are no further details listed).
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