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In finding relationship matches, GENi fails to find closest link (example)

Michael M.van Beuren ©

August 02, 2013 01:20

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The complete tracing provided by the GENi search is:

"Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the USA is your 12th cousin 6 times removed."

But that is not the shortest link. I’ve altered what GENi says below to show the shorter one.

 

 

Me :Michael M van Beuren  http://www.geni.com/people/Mike-van-Beuren/6000000019182195571

 mother → Phoebe Archbold (Wildman){van Beuren}

grandmother→ Elizabeth Lee (Bean) Wildman

(her) mother → Sarah Bean g1

mother → Mary Hunter (Albertson) g2

mother → Sarah Pim Albertson (Lee) g3

mother → Elizabeth Lee (Wright) g4

mother → Lydia Wright g5

mother → Beulah Richards g6 (after this comes the disagreement)

father → Daniel Walker …. Should be mother Lydia Walker g7

 → Lewis Walker …..Should be mother Frances Barnard (Lambe) g8

aka: http://www.geni.com/people/Frances-Barnard/5241909214130082545?through=6000000007219092120

                              now, skip everyone  (the GENi path offered) and continue with Frances Barnard (Lambe) below. As is shown, I cut out many generations.

 

→ Cecily Walker

 → Sir Michael Heneage, Chief Usher of the Exchequer

→ Bridget Woodward

                                                   → George Woodward

→ Margaret Woodward

→ George Bulstrode

→ Edward Bulstrode

→ Richard Bulstrode

→ William Bulstrode, London  (Richard’s Brother)

→ Phillipa Ludlow (Bulstrode)

→ William Windsor Ludlow, II

→ George Ludlow, High Sheriff

 → Thomas Ludlow

 → Roger Ludlow

 → Sarah Brewster

 → Sarah Brewster (rather) mother Frances Barnard (Lambe) g8 (as above)

 → Abigail Harrison (rather) daughter, Rebecca Flower (Barnard), 8^th great aunt (Lydia Walker’s sister, see above)

              → Abigail Herring (rather) daughter, Rebecca Lincoln (Flowers),

 → Bathsheba Cofer  (going backward) son, Capt. Abraham Lincoln,

 son, → Thomas Herring Lincoln, Sr. ,

 son, → Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the USA, http://www.geni.com/people/Abraham-Lincoln/6000000002686627053

 

 Why couldn’t the GENi software find the shorter path? All the profiles are there on the site. Is the search engine designed to just go for any link from Abraham Lincoln to me? Please explain.

6 comments

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  Jeff, Geni Curator August 02, 2013 13:49

  It does attempt to find the shortest path if it's a fresh query, but due to the computational cost (and time) with finding the shortest path between over 70 million profiles, Geni uses different techniques to provide a faster result using a reasonable amount of resources, such as caching.  Thus I believe it first looks for common ancestors / descendants based on the cached results of other members, which may or may not be the shortest path.  You can however refresh your path, so that it does perform a direct query (updating the cache).  I've done this for your path between Abraham Lincoln and he is now listed as your fourth cousin five times removed.

  You can find the refresh icon (two circling arrows) to the right of the description, such as "... 12th cousin 6 times removed. [refresh icon]".  If you hover of the icon, it will tell you when the last time that path was updated.  Do note that the icon will not always be there if the query was recently run (you probably won't see the refresh icon on Abraham, those within the path, or around him for a period of time).  As I mentioned, it's computationally expensive to run so they prevent you from continually clicking it if it's been run in a certain period of time (can't recall what the time period is).

  Another thing, I'm not sure what the weighting is of the relationships, if any.  Ideally, I think a direct paternal or maternal line would be most desired in a path, but I'm not sure it distinguishes.  So my last name might be Lincoln and he's my direct 8th GGF, but perhaps he's my 6th Great Uncle if we go through my mothers, fathers, mothers, ..., mothers, mothers, fathers, brother.  It may pick the crazy path if it's shorter.

  If you're interested in your direct ancestry links to some notable historical figures, you may want to look at the HistoryLink project.  The web app uses Geni to compare your ancestors to those listed on our Geni projects, hopefully identifying some interesting stories.

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  Rachel Schwartz Smithers November 19, 2013 14:57

  I am not seeing the refresh icon to get a path refreshed on a profile.  My husband's 4th great grandmother shows up as his second great aunt's husband's great grandmother (which is also true, but it isnot the most direct path.)  Can you help me to help myself?

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  Jeff, Geni Curator November 19, 2013 16:39

  Rachel, what is the name of his 4th great grandmother that's having the issue.  I visited all his 4th GGM's and they all appear to be listing correctly.  Sometimes the refresh icon is not visible if the path was refreshed recently for a close relative, but I should be able to force it to run again.

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  Rachel Schwartz Smithers November 19, 2013 16:43

  Lavina Havice (Crissman)

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  Jeff, Geni Curator November 19, 2013 16:50

  Ya, even I don't get the refresh on that one.  Must have been done recently or too close.  However, it does tell me that she's his 4th GGM.  If you're viewing it from your account, make sure the push pin is set for his profile.  If viewing from his profile, make sure the push pin is not set someplace else. :)

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  Michael M.van Beuren © November 19, 2013 17:15

  Very interesting reading these comments. (I'm the originator of this thread)

  Sort of by the way.... I had an interesting thing happen on this topic.. this very morning in fact.

   

  I was tracing my mother's line back, following only direct ancestors to someone in the 9th century. Just for curiosity's sake I followed a prompt on the screen to recalculate my relationship with this individual : Bjorn, King of Sweden ( http://www.geni.com/people/Bj-rn-den-gamle-Eriksson-King-of-Sweden/6000000000350890684 )

  I WAS EXPECTING confirmation of direct ancestry on my mother's side... Instead, it gave me a genealogy on my father's side... also direct... 

  I wonder why the GENi.com search engine did this... ? I was following my mother's line. Wouldn't all of that been more in "the foreground" of caches? 

   

  Just sayin' ...

  •~• Mike van Beuren