Geni keeps bringing up great grandfathers as uncles (which they are also, but this is not the closest relationship). It also sometimes says there is no blood relationship when I know there is. It also frequently gives me cousin degrees that aren't the closest--there's often another cousin relationship that's one or two generations closer. Geni's programmers need to recognize that in some populations, when going far back, there are lines of multiple descent from the same ancestors; for instance, there are great grandparents from the middle ages that I am descended from as many as six times. It would be very helpful if we could chose which line to follow. Unfortunately Geni also flips the lines frequently; I'll be following one and when I go back a generation, because of multiple descent, suddenly I find myself with a different line leading up to that individual.
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Geni Support Team Hi Amy, can you please provide the link to a specific example?
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Amy Anderson Certainly. I just came across this one, and I have others in my files if you'd like to see more:
The issue here is that I am descended from both Joan Beaufort, Countess of Westmorland and her brother John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset, so John is the closer relationship, not Joan. That means James II, king of Scots is both my first and second cousin.
If I click on John's hyperlink from this line acknowledging Joan as my direct ancestor, what comes up is that John is my uncle, which he is, but he is also my great grandfather (via his son Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset).
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Geni Support Team We do understand that people can be related in multiple ways. Geni will calculate the closest blood and in-law path to you/focus person, if either can be found. Otherwise, you may be seeing the one which was cached or calculated first.
You mentioned that sometimes no blood relationship is found. This can happen if the profiles that would connect you via the blood path have not yet been added to the tree.
Also, please keep in mind that pending merges and recent merges can also prevent the closest relationship from calculating. If recent changes are made to the tree, paths can be refreshed one week after the initial path is found.
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Amy Anderson Re: "You mentioned that sometimes no blood relationship is found. This can happen if the profiles that would connect you via the blood path have not yet been added to the tree." This happened a few times more recently in lines that were already well established, so it must have been a glitch. It was over the holidays when many more people were using Geni at the same time, so it may have something to do with the excessive demands on the system?
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Geni Support Team It's difficult to say without a specific example. It's also possible the path connecting you was disconnected, which can happen when corrections are made in the tree.
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Amy Anderson I am aware of this, but at least some were long-established lines of master profiles. I didn't hang on to any of them, but if it happens again I'll be sure to bring them to your attention.
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