A profile gone crazy and erasing large amounts of profiles

Who is this distant relative that you are referring to?

Can you list a few profiles or branches of the tree that has been affected?

klklklklk deleted profiles for (No Name), (No Name), (No Name), (No Name) and 8 others.
klklklklk updated profiles for Bedrich, Johann, Anton, (No Name) and 5 others.
klklklklk deleted profiles for (No Name), (No Name), (No Name) and (No Name).

Just (almost all) of the contents of the profiles erased. I have no problems with keeping her in the tree as long as she has no access to modifying any data.
Thanks for addressing my problem :)

/SW

If you were a manager on the profiles, you can restore them here:
http://www.geni.com/list/deleted

From there you can use the Revisions tab to restore the profile to a point in time before the change to wipe them out.

This user might not be aware of the impact they are doing. Sometimes users don't understand that Geni is mostly a single tree.

This user was connected as husband to Mathias Schiltberger (1620 - d.), making a huge generation loop, so it could be a try to clean up, - I have cut that connection. You should contact the user.

BTW: Instead of entering the names again just click on the Revisions-tab, click "show" on the revision where the name and other details was removed and just restore the values

Jonatthan, that doesn't work when a whole chain of profiles have been reduced to NN. I could originally restore most of the contents but then only in single boxes disconnected from the tree.

Bjorn: Thanks so much for your assistance. Now I have one more problem: Since at one time too many boxes looked the same (=NN), they got that left bottom corner "2" added for duplicate presence in the tree. How do I split them up? because right now part of the tree is totally confused with data correct one place and out of place and date in the 2nd place...

That woman created a LOT of problems, rather than being willing to work with me to remove herself and her closest alive relatives, which was not good enough for you. Going on a revenge style rampage was her preference. Sick people :( /Sten

Bjørn,

If you could help me to cut off and remove from my Geni tree everything BELOW Frantisek Schilberger (born 2. May 1891 Ivancice) ON HIS SIDE ONLY - which would unfortunately also remove some stuff at the very top due to the double entries - then I can reconstruct those pieces using manual entry from my MyHeritage tree, where I have that info already...

Best regards and thanks for your help,

/Sten

Bjørn,

I have right now disconnected my tree from the Schillberger tree. Thus you could wipe it out in total, I believe. Then I can rebuild the relevant parts of it from Wenzel Guld and his wife, both Schillberger. That's where it all started late 2013. The data I all have and fixing the current mess IMHO means more hard work than re-building it from data on hand. That ex family member of mine made her destructive point, told her to be ashamed of herself, but most likely she feels good about the effect :)

Sten - I'm so sorry you've had to experience this. We all want to help fix the damage & ensure vandalism like this is not done in the future when profiles lose their minds.

Thanks, Erica (or Isabel, right?). I just disconnected my tree from that part, and since I do have most of it on MH as well as (access to the) data on hand for the rest, that to me seems a lot easier than fixing the current mess looping around between 1700 and now. Just in order to keep the rest of my tree protected, I cut it off at Wenzel Gulda and his wife born Schillberger from the rest of that tree. Kind of interesting, however, that all those same families from 1700 still live in that part of Moravia (CZ Republic these days). Also at least up til around 1920, their Church book registers are very good with free on-line access to the scanned pages.

you mean users who Intentionally or not go off the deep end by mistake right erica?

That is why i am not exactly trusting of others.. I've been burned before...

Michael, by mistake can happen, but that is no deal and can easily be fixed with the re-delete function. In this case all 'personal' tree of the deletion artist back to 1642 was systematically erased, profile by profile. The Argument: I don't want MY relatives to be on-line.

I worked closely together with same person 2 1/2 years ago to recover our ties in Moravia and we worked very well together.

Then, like a lightning from a blue sky, just recently I got a long stream of automatic 'character deleted' report emails from Geni, told her to stop it while cutting off her private close relatives and her from Geni if so wished would be fully OK with me. To no avail, that only seemed to feed her destructive energy level even further.

Anyway, most of the data I had on MH and the rest of the relevant data could easily be retrieved from the on-line n/c Moravian church data web site http://actapublica.eu/ . But quite some work involved. To get an idea like this and just proceed requires somebody not quite by his own marbles. A case for the doctors, I would say.

SW

But, dodo happens, right?

Now, one may expect and assume, that the same person - just like my wife and younger son - really appreciate staying anonymous and thus off all social media in general and off family trees (discussions) in particular. Now, in the meantime I have to my surprise discovered, that this in no way is the case of said person, who actually is quite active in those places incl. disclosing the data, she consider family exclusive-
Quite a double standard, actually.

Anyway, issue is closed, I got the damaged data reconstructed, her closest and alive relatives are disgarded and - I hope so - everybody is thus happy.

Again, the Geni curators like Bjørn and others helped me a lot - and I, off line disconnected from my tree, now perfectly learned, how 3x cycles in a tree can be eliminated by using standard tools on Geni. Just didn't quite have the courage to try it out in a part of my tree, thus quasi off line.

Thanks to everybody,

/SW

It's hard to understand why genealogical data is construed as something different from what it is - a historic record. But it sounds like the tree is now better then ever, so for that, a cleaning in disguise.:). I'm glad for your bsck up systems also.

My back-up systems, kind of interesting: Back in the good old days, when My tree was officially 100k+ and one could download it all, a complete 100k profile Geni tree on Gedcom, I did that and joined MH as well, uploaded the 100k there and got started there as well. Later I also downloaded a more specific tree from Geni, aro 35k profiles, and also uploaded to MH.

With new profiles manually added, my main tree on MH now is aro 107k.

Now, in the meantime, my 'official' Geni tree has shrunk to less than 3k profiles :). My blood relatives tree size remains 100k+, but my personal tree shrunk - to less than 3k. No clue how the counting revisions kicked in at Geni, but for sure, kind of strange.

That said, I like keeping a solid back-up and this case really proved the value of it to me as well.

Ciao,

/Sten

You should NEVER, and I emphasize, NEVER have an online genelogical software as your only software. The reason being that, if something happen to the company running the online software you are using, all of your genealogical work may be lost. So if you are only using the online parts of Ancestry.com, Geni.com, MyHeritage.com, Familysearch.com or any other online-only genealogical software, please make it a priority to have an offline genealogical software as your primary one. Not doing this will make it possible to lose all of your genealogical information if your online software goes bellyup!

Hello Remi Trygve,

Thanks for your advice, which is sound and healthy thinking and easy to comply with, if your tree is reasonably small. Actually a couple of years ago, even with Geni that was easy, since a Gedcom file - back then up to max 100k profiles - could be downloaded at any time. That's actually what I did and that's why I have a full duplicate on MH as well. Now, in the meantime Geni has in a couple of steps reduced this possibility dramatically and thus, as far as I am aware of it, only a fraction of the tree can now be downloaded. Add to that the strange fact, that my family tree, which used to be 100k+ on Geni has now nominally been reduced by Geni to less than 3k profiles!!! How and why, who knows, since the tree incl. 100k+ blood relatives is still there and in good shape.

Now, in the meantime, MH (also in the meantime MH/Geni is the same company - God help us if MH/G bellied up! - does indeed download the complete tree to a storage at Google, where it can be accessed via a link provided. I still, however, haven't found out for sure, if I can download the full Gedcom file from there to a stick, like I used to do. On that same stick, where I actually still saved and have the Geni 100k download from aro 2 years ago or so.

Why all those Gedcom download limitations? I suspect this was a business decision to prevent subscribers to jump ship by downloading their tree, cancel the subscription and move on to competition. But, who knows, I may be wrong.

All of above said, any rer about how to handle this problem, how to back up your valuable tree jif something goes badly wrong at Geni (or MyHeritage)?

Best regards and again, thanks for your concern and recommendations,

/Sten Waldo

I've got my tree on a separate drive; it's too big to fit on the computer itself.

There's a lot of going back and forth in between the tree on my own hardware (I'm using Legacy for that, these days) and Geni -- but I work with that because Geni is the world wiki-tree, and I like being involved with it. So though my Geni tree is actually the larger tree, I think of it as my supplement.

And my own tree is safe from online glitches.

I have been following your story with great interest, Sten.

We're 21st cousins once removed, through my Norwegian grandfather. If I can help at all, please let me know.

cheers, Anne

Re gedcom limits. You have your guess on that and i have mine. I think geni wasnt the only one to do that ancestry and my hertiage have import limits as well. I think it was because when they tried it before when they started out they made the mistake of not limiting it and it got them hard. Too many people imputing the same files with the same names for example half the world is if you have ancestors of a certian country related to charlimange or the queen and at one point before they put controls in place there was like 1 mil copies going around 1 true one and 9 mil imposters and so it was too much for them to handle.

And remi makes a good point. I only use geni spareling ly as the changing of paths and clean ups and people constantly proving bad data and chalenging things dampens. My enrhusaium big time. I support the goal of a world tree however just not in a format that can be impossible. I have my own certied unscrewedup back up on usb stick tucked well away.

Michael - He was talking about export limits, not import limits. Totally different.

As to importing -- folks cannot import a Gedcom to Geni - but
for a possibly viable way to import/copy from MyHeritage (and many other places), see http://www.geni.com/projects/SmartCopy/18783
"SmartCopy is a Google Chrome browser extension that allows advanced Geni users to copy information and profiles from various sources into Geni. It provides quick access to research links and HistoryLink tools."
To use it, you probably have to convince a Curator to let you -- since it also says "Curators can grant rights on SmartCopy for Geni Pro members allowing them to perform tree-building."
Personally, I am not at all sure I like that Geni is allowing this - think it may well in a sense encourage folks to rip off the work others have done.

Right well it goes both ways exporting bad info doesn't do good either.

Lois - SmartCopy "cites.". So wherever the profile copy originates, it "will" be source cited, including the sources for the sources in the overview. In addition, source permissions apply. If Sten has a private tree on MyHeritage, I cannot copy it with SmartCopy. So not sure how use can be considered a rip off.

Erica - Only info I had came from the write-up there. It said "Smart Copy ... allows advanced Geni users to copy ... profiles from various sources into Geni" --

Am digesting the additional info you give above. Can you provide me with a link to one or more Profiles created by SmartCopy so I can see the citing you refer to -- especially one that gives me some enlightenment as to what "including the sources for the sources in the overview" looks like.

Next time I'm using SmartCopy for a celebrity tree, sure. And since I try to have multiple sources, by using SmartCopy & then merging, I have multiple citations. And then of course SmartMatches & RecordMatches "kick in" to further source the profile - but not until I've created the profile.

Will I be able to tell which citations were created by SmartCopy?

Yes, it signs itself. :)