Proposal
Currently, Geni.com faces a limitation in accurately representing diverse family structures, particularly concerning parental relationships and partnership statuses. This can lead to inaccuracies and frustration for users meticulously building their family trees.
More Accurate Parental Relationships
Consider a scenario like my great-grandmother's adoption: we don't know who her biological parents are, but based on family accounts, we're fairly certain she was adopted by her aunt. I've heard from multiple family members that this makes her still biologically related, signifying a connection beyond that of a typical adopted parent. Currently, there's no adequate way to represent this situation on Geni.com, despite its occurrence in many family histories.
An added benefit of improving this would be the ability to list parents as separate individuals, rather than requiring them to be a partnership. This would make it easier for individuals who were never in a partnership to still be accurately listed as a biological parent without implying a relationship that didn't exist. It also enhances clarity and accuracy, as current labels like "biological," "adoptive," or "foster" don't fully capture the nuances of such relationships. I believe this is crucial for users interested in DNA connections to their ancestors, as well as for the overall accuracy of genealogical understanding.
This is a feature that Ancestry.com has successfully implemented. They recently updated their system to allow users to designate one parent as adopted and the other as biologically related, which precisely describes the situation I outlined earlier. Furthermore, it eliminates the need to create a separate relationship entry to represent these connections. Here are the options Ancestry.com provides for any sort of relationship: Biological, Adopted, Step, Foster, Related, Guardian, Private, Unknown. Providing more discrete options, unlinked from the requirement of a partnered relationship, would create greater flexibility. This would bring Geni.com much closer to representing the complexities of real-life family structures, significantly enhancing the accuracy of its information.
Expanded Partnership Status Options
Another critical area for enhancement is the limited range of partnership status options. Currently, users can only select from: spouse (gender-specific as wife or husband), fiancé, ex-spouse (gender-specific with "(divorced)" next to it), partner, or ex-partner. This restricted set of options severely limits the accuracy of the information presented. For instance, in my personal situation, I am legally separated but not divorced. Under the current system, there is no accurate way to represent this status. This lack of granularity forces users to choose an incorrect label or omit important details, thereby compromising the integrity of the genealogical record. Providing more nuanced and diverse options for partnership statuses would significantly improve the platform's ability to reflect the true complexities of family relationships. This would include, for example, a "Separated" status.
Conclusion
Implementing these relatively minor technological enhancements would dramatically improve the accuracy and authenticity of data on Geni.com. By providing more precise options for both parental and partnership relationships, the platform would not only offer a more truthful representation of diverse family histories but also significantly enhance the comfort and user experience for everyone seeking to build their family tree with confidence and accuracy. These updates would reflect the true complexities of real-life connections, making Geni.com an even more robust and user-friendly genealogical resource.
