Requesting a Curator?

Moishe Miller - researcher of LANGSAM family at www.langsam.com Your website is eminent in the field of Jewish Genealogy, and we will certainly try and rectify any misinformation appearing on Geni.

In addition, The Bnei Yissochur, Hersh Mylech Spira (1783 - 1841), your luminary rabbinical ancestor, is a critical link to many illustrious chassidic dynasties showcased on Geni.

Furthermore, as your site is so movingly dedicated to the memory of the seven hundred and ninety-three known family members that perished during the Holocaust.
1939 - 1945, it is important that Geni preserves the integrity of the lines of those who cannot speak up for themselves.

1. http://www.ics.uci.edu/~dan/genealogy/Miller/langsam.htm
http

2. R' Pesach Langsam

3. R' Tzvi Elimelech Spira of Dynov

4. http://www.geni.com/projects/Holocaust-The-Final-Solution/10996

Please send me an email elaborating on the issues that need attention.

Malka

@Y Kowler

Dear Moishe
I put as a image by the name Itta Wahrenberg the letter she wrote after World War 2 for her kids (the oldest daughter is my grandmother) how she is related to R' Pesach Langsam, as I can't attach a file via Geni please look at her name to see it.

Thank you

Kind Regards
Y Kowler

Rabi pesach langsam was meried to the niece of rabi elimelech of liz'ensk.their son was tzvi elimelech of dinov,the father of the muncatch dynasty.ther tow brothers that are leading this chasidut today.their family name is rabinovich.I think that at least one of them is in USA

Dear Group,

I address my (unrelated to the above) question to those of the Curators that are in contact with the IT people that, with the occasion of the union with MyHeritage, made changes to the Geni System.
First of all, in my (and numerous other Geni users') the unstoppable flags directing me (us) practically by force to become paying members of MyHeritage are most un-welcomed. In the opinion of many people that did try-out this machine, there are quite a few flaws in it, concerning the way to access & change profiles, the way merges are managed - everything in flagrant opposition to Geni's rules.
Secondly (and most disturbing for me) since the "union" was applied, each and every flag pointing to a possible profile identity points EXCLUSIVELY to MyHeritage profiles - not even ONE (in ~100) profiles I built since rising a flag towards an existing Geni profile !

Please - any Curator experienced in this domain: do help!!

I agree with Gabriel

Ingrid

Dear Mr. Muller,
Are you looking for a paid curator or for a person that is willing to do the task as a volunteer?

In my tree, Pesach Langsam is connected as a direct descendent of the Magid of Ostropoli.
Pesach was married to Ita Langsam (Weisman) and as my records show, they had six sons and one daughter.
My wife, Tamara Wagner, is a descendent of this tree. One of the relatives is a direct descendent of R' Tzvi Elimelech Spira of Dinov.
The tree includes about 7000 persons.
It is almost impossible to manage it with Geni. Geni is Ok to establish contacts but merging the trees with other trees arises inconsistencies, wrong connections and duplicate branches. The way I am trying to manage the tree is doing it by an "isolated" software and picking up from Geni only the relevant and approved information.
I put a lot of efforts to build my family and my wife's family tree and I can imagine what kind of difficulties you have to overcome.

If you think my experience can be useful for you then you can write me directly to my mail: dtalpk@gmail.com

With kind regards,

Dan Tal

Dear Mr. Muller,
In my previous message I did a mistake in the maiden name of Ita Lansam. I wrote her name as Weisman. Her name was Weisblum.

Kind regards,

Dan Tal

Gabriel, I'm not sure what you're describing regarding flaws. There were no changes in "access & change profiles, the way merges are managed". They are two separate systems. MyHeritage just offers you visibility to possible matches, so that you can find new connections. They are not merged, they are not editable or connected to Geni in any way except visibility. It's a research tool, similar to searching online for trees with your relatives, except it comes to you. Identifying it as a match just adds it as a source, so other people can use it as a guide or reference. It will also improve the matching technology and additional info as the tools improve.

As far as matches not pointing to an existing Geni profile, more information may be needed or they may just not be any other matches in Geni. They're still adjusting the matching algorithms, but they do work, I merge Geni profiles all the time with matches.

Peter and Moishe,

The curators are all volunteers. We can help enter data and also can help clean up areas where someone has made a mistake. Geni is like a giant jigsaw puzzle where we all work together. It is already superior in most areas to any privately compiled trees, and it is only a matter of some time and effort before also your area of the tree is entered and cleaned up to your satisfaction as well.

Please point us to specific areas where we can assist. Geni is a powerful tool once you learn to use it.

Dear Jeff, Ingrid Else & Randy,

I was & still am making reference to the comparison between the way "our" Geni works and the liberties MyHeritage users are allowed. There is, for example, no way to overcome the opposition of a private "owner" of a tree on MyHeritage to an obvious need to match & merge it with an existing, well documented tree on Geni.
On the other hand, unless I become a paying member of MyHeritage, I have no way of contacting a person who is a total stranger to me but who just put my father on MyHeritage - even just to ask him where did he gather the info: from a deportation fellow in Auschwitz or Mauthausen / from his Securitate detention file / from the completely wrong Yad VeShem entry / from the Munkacsi book ? ...

I reiterate also the most curious fact of the "post-collaboration" period of time, in spite of Jeff's entry: however deep I manage to go back with profiles of my family, no pop-ups of possible matches have been put forward by Geni - but plenty of completely impossible ones are biting at me from MyHeritage; these are absolutely unfounded by any span of life, geograpphical or any other criteria.

Gabriel, you don't merge MyHeritage trees with Geni and matching has nothing to do with the MH owner. MH trees are a reference tool, like WikiTree or FindAGrave (which you can also confirm as a match). They're clues to possible parents or siblings that you could copy.

Yes, you need a MH data subscription to contact MH members. Communication is part of the value they bring - so that's one aspect they monetize. In addition, if they didn't do that, people could just contact members directly and circumvent the data subscription service.

As for accuracy, MH has a pretty good accuracy rate overall, but that can depend on the language or type of information. I find it less accurate for Records, particularly news papers, but they are always working to improve it. Geni tree matches are less accurate, but they're planning to update their algorithm to the more accurate one used by MH.

This should list your Geni tree matches (which you could possibley merge): http://www.geni.com/list/matches?collection=relatives&filter=tr...
This should list your MH tree matches (which are a reference): http://www.geni.com/list/matches?collection=relatives&filter=sm...
This should list any Record matches (possible sources): http://www.geni.com/list/matches?collection=relatives&filter=re...

In the end, if you're not seeing the value of it, then don't buy it and ignore the blue dots (Geni has no plans to make the indicators optional).

While it would be nice to be able to 'correct' a MH Family Tree, those are no different than finding an incorrect personal tree on Ancestry or FamilySearch. The only 'problem', if you will, is that an incorrectly 'structured' MH tree has individuals which may show up as Smart Matches on Geni.

Two things to keep in mind in addition to what Jeff has already mentioned:

1) The Smart Match is about an individual. It does NOT at all indicate that the entire set of family relationships on the MH tree are also correct. If you 'confirm' a match, what one is (should be) indicating is that "Yes, this is the same person" ... I have, on occasion, put notes into the 'About' of the Geni profile indicating that family relationships (e.g. parents) for this person are often found to be incorrect in other online genealogy site and that the correct parents are XX & YY. Or something like that.

2) If you are a manager of the Geni profile you can Confirm or Reject the MH Smart Match. HOWEVER, I would discourage choosing Reject for a matching individual just because you know of errors in the other relationships. Why? Because, as the name implies, the "SmartMatch(tm)" algorithm is adaptive; that is, it "learns from" the confirm/reject selections. So, if you "reject" a valid match, you may be doing two things: (a) teaching the algorithm to make even poorer matches, and (b) potentially missing new possible sources of information about that profile when MH adds a new data source to their suite of data sources.

Thanks Randy, I'll wait and from time to time update the data.

Kind regards,

Peter (Dan Tal)

This has all been a very fascinating thread. I appreciate the LANGSAM feedback by some of our group. Can I respcetfully request that the MH dialog not hijack my inquiry?

To be more specific (and to answer Peter's question), I would like to clean up the mess some of the collaborators have made of the tree. Merging duplicate entries, unlinking incorrect family connections (so many Hersh Mylech's and Pesach's, it is no surprise), etc.

Can I become a curator of the Pesach Langsam segment of our world tree? Or can one of the existing curators step forward?

Again, with respect,
Moishe

At the moment, Geni is not making any new curators. But you should have the ability to do almost anything a curator can do in the historical parts of the tree. If you need help in a particular area, just post a link here.

Moishe Miller - researcher of LANGSAM family at www.langsam.com - when I click on the geni-link in your very first Posting in this Discussion, I go to my own Profile.

Randy Schoenberg - reading the first comment in this thread, together with my observation above leads me thinking that perhaps
Moishe
1]wants some of the Profiles MP'd (which he cannot do himself) - since he discusses one which he says repeatedly gets messed up -- and
2 ]perhaps could use some pointers on how to post a link to the profile he is talking about.

Moishe - did you notice - in second comment from top - Malka's offer to help? Did you send her a message thru Geni (as she suggested)? Is she helping you? Do you still need help from other curators, such as Randy?

Maybe it is because of the Hebrew in his name. Let's see if this works.

R' Pesach Langsam

For instance, I would like to merge two Menachem Langsam profiles:

Menachem Mendel Langsam

and

Unknown Profile

And YES, they are both private. BUT, I do know all the people in both trees and have more descendents that they show. Also, the 2 profiles do have the same common male ancestor - Menachem, but are from 2 different wives of his (all told, he had 3 wives).

Is this the type of task a curator can perform?

Thanks for listening.
-Moishe

Done. You should ask the managers to make all their deceased profiles public, which can be done relatively easily from http://www.geni.com/list

Also invite them to join the Jewish Genealogy Portal and request collaboration so you can edit each other's public profiles. If you invite to family group, then you will also be able to see and edit the private profiles.

Randy

Thank you Randy! But can you tweak it? GENI merged Menachem's spouses as well. You can leave Gittel's mother as Ita. But can you give Menachem another wife named Sara, as the mother of Yacov Langsam?

Yes. Very easy (once you learn how). In tree view mode, just add the spouse Sara. Then "move" Yacov over to Sara as her son. Then click "edit" and "relationships" on Yacov to get to a screen where you can remove the incorrect set of parents. Once you try it out, it will make sense. I did this one for you, but try the next. If it gets messed up, I can fix it.

Hello all, I have an issue as well..
Adolfo Rybak, married to Celia Zygier., their daughtet si Karina Rybak who seems tobe duplicated. Karina has 2 daughters, Yamila and Nicole Eliaszevich. One of those girls started a tree and left incomplete. Now there is duplicates on all of them.When i try to assign parents, Geni tells me that by doing that I will split the trees. If I try to remove duplicates Geni gets in a loop and dont remove the duplicates. Is this something a curator can fix?

Sergio as a PRO you should be able to fix this.

Go ahead and split the tree. You might need to do this from edit relationships > disconnect.

Then you're out of the loop - move & drop to merge the duplicate nodes.

If this isn't clear enough I'll find an FAQ for you.

the problem is that some of those profiles show as deleted and I cant touch them.
Adolfo Rybak

Private

That is bad. Much better to merge than delete & this is why. There's a link at the bottom of the parent profile "show family" this should open up the "list view" for that family group. On the right side should be edit links including to "remove" relationships I believe. Try it through lists to send off to the ether ...