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Why does GENI not include certain information in imports?

Michelle de Bodt Rosenland

January 31, 2025 22:04

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Hello,

I have noticed that in every case of a relative in my imported GENI tree where, on my original tree, I have the death information including died "Before" or died "After" the GENI import has the date they died before/after as the exact date they died so my tree has incorrect information for literally hundreds, if not thousands, of people.  For example, Barbara Tielemans died After 2 Oct 1866 on my Ancestry tree, but her GENI profile has her death as 2 Oct 1866.  Her actual death date, I discovered, is 16 Mar 1887.

It is impossible for me to find every person that this happened to, in order to correct the before/after, so I am thinking I should just delete my tree so the errors are not carried forward to other people's trees.  But, to do that, you apparently have to delete each person in your tree and you cannot simply delete your whole tree in one go.  This is not possible when you have a large tree like I do.  How come GENI does not import the "Before" and "After" information when it is an option on the person's information page?

I am trying to correct one person at a time, as I come across them in my Ancestry tree but I cannot always find the person on GENI because I do not have a "Pro" account so I have no means to search my own family tree.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

25 comments

• 0
  
  Job Waterreus January 31, 2025 23:21

  I'l leave to others to answer your other questions.

  As long as your GEDCOM file still is on Geni, you can revert your import. The process will remove the imported profiles that where not merged and it will reverse merges on the other profiles and delete your imported copy. Reverting a merge is however error prone when there have been mutations after the merge.

  You could do a search on your GEDCOM to find profiles with dates that have an after or before date and you could download your activity (see https://www.geni.com/account_settings/download_activity) to find a link to the profiles you imported.

   

• 0
  
  Job Waterreus January 31, 2025 23:24

  If the date format for before and after dates in your GEDCOM is correct, you could make a bug report, see https://help.geni.com/hc/en-us/community/topics/201174707-Getting-Help-Bug-Reports or if you are a Pro user you could file a ticket (see https://www.geni.com/help/newticket).

• 0
  
  Michelle de Bodt Rosenland February 01, 2025 01:05

  I consistently used day/month/year in my Ancestry tree and this is consistent with the date format in GENI as well.  Thank you for the reply.

• 0
  
  Michelle de Bodt Rosenland February 01, 2025 01:19

  "You could do a search on your GEDCOM to find profiles with dates that have an after or before date and you could download your activity"
  
  Where do I find this on my profile?  When I look at the progress of my GEDCOM import it is not complete yet because there are people that might be duplicates of existing people.  Is that what you mean?  If so, how do I search my GEDCOM file?
  
  Also, what does it mean to "revert" my import?  I also discovered that below my avatar it says "GENI Pro."  Does this mean I have a Pro account?

  Edited by Michelle de Bodt Rosenland February 01, 2025 01:21
• 0
  
  Michelle de Bodt Rosenland February 01, 2025 01:49

  I started a ticket in hopes that this is just a bug.  Otherwise my entire tree is a mess.  I imported probably 40,000 people.  I can guarantee that almost everyone from Belgium and Denmark, where I only knew if they died before or after a certain date, are wrong.

• 0
  
  Job Waterreus February 01, 2025 07:17

  You can search a local copy of your GEDCOM for those dates and use your downloaded activity to find them on Geni.

  Reverting an import is undoing it. You can do that from your GEDCOM page (when your GEDCOM is still on Geni).

• 0
  
  Michelle de Bodt Rosenland February 10, 2025 20:10

  I have downloaded the GEDCOM file but when I search for "Before" or "After" I am not seeing it there at all.  The only thing I see is the name of my relative and a link to their GENI page.  So, I am still not clear on how I search for "Before" or "After".
  
  

• 0
  
  Job Waterreus February 10, 2025 23:56

  You must search the GEDCOM you uploaded to Geni, not one you downloaded from Geni. When you find a person with a before or after date and then search Geni for the person.

  If the date on Geni is wrong (no before or after) paste the relevant parts (the start lines  before the first person) and the lines for the person with the before and/or after date(s))  of your uploaded GEDCOM here so it is clear where Geni has a problem with the GEDCOM

• 0
  
  Michelle de Bodt Rosenland February 11, 2025 01:11

  Do you mean this page?
  

• 0
  
  Job Waterreus February 11, 2025 08:27

  No, I mean that you should post what is in your GEDCOM for a profile that has a before and/or after date.

• 0
  
  Michelle de Bodt Rosenland February 12, 2025 20:09

  Ah, so you mean the file I downloaded from Ancestry?  That is the file I need to search?  So, I still need to correct each person one by one?

• 0
  
  Job Waterreus February 12, 2025 21:28

  Yes, that is the file. If you post the relevant parts that may possibly help to diagnose the problem.

  If it is possible to correct that file or the import process. it may not be necessary to correct the Geni profiles by hand.

  Edited by Job Waterreus February 12, 2025 21:29
• 0
  
  Michelle de Bodt Rosenland February 13, 2025 19:11

  That file already has the "Before" and "After" in the file so it never transferred to GENI when I imported it.  But, at least that file will help me correct the people on GENI (one at a time).  No word from GENI at all since I posted my ticket.

• 0
  
  Job Waterreus February 13, 2025 20:53

  I imported a GEDCOM with before and after some time ago without having that problem. So it could be a problem with your GEDCOM. If so it may help to post the relevant parts.

• 0
  
  Michelle de Bodt Rosenland February 13, 2025 23:02

  Post the code from the GEDCOM file?  I do not understand what you mean by, "If so it may help to post the relevant parts."

• 0
  
  Michelle de Bodt Rosenland February 14, 2025 03:15

  I think what I am going to do, since I literally have hundreds, if not thousands, of relatives with the "Before" and "After" death dates is leave it to GENI to resolve.  I have heard nothing from them for 2 weeks.  They claim to want a "World" family tree but, if they do not even respond to concerns about the import on their site, then this is their problem.  I will do my best with my own family tree but I will not spend hours of time correcting their glitch..

   

• 0
  
  Job Waterreus February 18, 2025 22:22

  Just post here the top lines (the lines before those of the first person) and the lines for one person who has a before and/or after date from the GEDCOM

• 0
  
  Michelle de Bodt Rosenland February 18, 2025 22:31

  The challenge I have is that I do not understand what you mean?  Are you able to post screenshots so I can understand better?

• 0
  
  Job Waterreus February 18, 2025 22:43

  That is difficult because I cannot see your GEDCOM.

  Starting lines should look more or less like this:

  0 HEAD
  1 GEDC
  2 VERS 5.5.1
  2 FORM LINEAGE-LINKED
  1 CHAR UTF-8
  1 DEST MyFamilyTree
  1 SOUR MyFamilyTree
  2 VERS 14.0.4.0
  2 NAME My Family Tree
  2 CORP Chronoplex Software
  1 SUBM @U0@
  1 DATE 11 MAR 2024
  2 TIME 11:14:16.171
  1 LANG English
  1 FILE test.ged
  ...

  (all lines that start with a number greater than 0)

  Lines for a person should look like this:

  0 @.... INDI
  1 NAME ...

  .... (all lines that start with a number greater than 0)

  (for the lines of a person choose a person that has an after and/or before date)

   

   

   

  Edited by Job Waterreus February 18, 2025 22:50
• 0
  
  Michelle de Bodt Rosenland February 22, 2025 04:14

  Mine starts like this:
  
  0 HEAD
  1 SUBM @SUBM1@
  1 SOUR Ancestry.com Family Trees
  2 NAME Ancestry.com Member Trees
  2 VERS 2022.08
  2 _TREE de Bodt Rosenland Family Tree
  3 RIN 36400989
  3 _ENV prd
  2 CORP Ancestry.com
  3 PHON 801-705-7000
  3 WWW www.ancestry.com
  3 ADDR 1300 West Traverse Parkway
  4 CONT Lehi, UT  84043
  4 CONT USA
  1 DATE 8 Nov 2023
  2 TIME 10:38:18
  
  My line starts like this:
  
  0 @I18930338288@ INDI
  1 NAME Linda Michelle Thérèse /de Bodt Rosenland/
  2 GIVN Linda Michelle Thérèse
  2 SURN de Bodt Rosenland
  2 SOUR @S558853677@
  
  Then, a grandparent:
  
  0 @I19378378579@ INDI
  1 NAME Mary Elizabeth /Penrose/
  2 GIVN Mary Elizabeth
  2 SURN Penrose
  2 SOUR @S_1379767453@
  ......
  5 CONT Death date:  After 1881
  5 CONT Death place:
  
  

  So, now that I have found this, then what?  Manually correct each one on GENI?

• 0
  
  Job Waterreus February 26, 2025 21:13

  This does not look like a GEDCOM in a most common GEDCOM standards.

  Normally in the lines before the data of the first person it will specify the GEDCOM version and some extra information.

  An example:

  1 GEDC
  2 VERS 5.5
  2 FORM LINEAGE-LINKED
  1 CHAR ANSEL

  And for dates (example death date for 5.5 version):

  1 DEAT
  2 DATE AFT 1766

  Probably your GEDCOM version is in is not fully supported by Geni. from What is a GEDCOM? it seems Geni will support version 5.5

  If Ancestry supports more GEDCOM versions you could try to export to version 5.5 or 5.5.1. If that is possible you could try to undo your previous import and import a new version (Do NOT import a new GEDCOM before first undoing a previous import, otherwise you will create a duplicate for each already imported record)

   

• 0
  
  Michelle de Bodt Rosenland February 28, 2025 23:28

  Now I just need to figure out how to "undo" the import.  Will that even work if I have already merged duplicates?

• 0
  
  Job Waterreus February 28, 2025 23:49

  If your GEDCOM is still on Geni you can undo it from your GEDCOM page (https://www.geni.com/gedcom). It will unmerge any merges with profiles from your GEDCOM and remove your GEDCOM profiles. Undoing merges is however error prone if there have been actions on the profile after merging. So it could mean a lot of work (depending on how many profiles where merged and how many actions there where after the merges) to restore the original profiles to a correct state.

  If you removed the GEDCOM from Geni you cannot undo the import. If you import a new GEDCOM without being able to undo the previous import it will create a duplicate for each common profile for your GEDCOM that was imported from the original GEDCOM, so in that case it may be better to not to do that and correct the profiles by hand.

   

• 0
  
  Michelle de Bodt Rosenland March 06, 2025 22:19

  When I follow the link you provided I see the screen below.  Do you mean that I should "undo" the profiles that I have already merged and then "skip" the rest?
  
  
  
  
  

• 0
  
  Job Waterreus March 06, 2025 23:25

  It depends on what you want to do or are able to do. The current import does not recognize before and after, meaning someone (probably you) would have to correct those profiles by hand.

  If you can create a GEDCOM that does not have this problem you could try to undo and skip all and import a new GEDCOM that does not have the problem. (Be sure to undo a previous import before doing a new import, otherwise it will create a duplicate for all previous imported profiles)