Geni.com
reviews and complaints

As someone deeply interested in genealogy, I've had mixed experiences with Geni. While the platform offers a collaborative approach to building family trees, the execution seems to fall short for many users. Some have praised the vast community and unique features, highlighting the potential for a rich genealogical experience. However, others have expressed frustration with inaccuracies, poor customer service, and a confusing interface. It appears that Geni's vision of a shared family tree is not without its challenges, leaving users divided on its value and usability.

I thought I came from a very small family. Have no family members to ask, but since I've joined I now have a family of over 30,000 people I'm connected to. I have messaged with distant cousins from all over the world.

I was impressed with the amount of information that you can obtain and share with others on geni. The interface is adequate and the overall website rivals other leading genealogy sites. Customer service is EXTREMELY great.

Very well done website! Cleaner look and better price than any of the other genealogy websites. My only concern is MyHeritage bought the website for the data, but then did not add more servers to keep up with the processing.

If you want to build a tree and keep it to yourself, Geni is not a good fit. If you want to create records and are open to corrections from others - or correcting what others have recorded - Geni is great. Different paradigm. Like lego kits vs freestyle.

From my DNA test, it showed I had a lot of Scandinavian with some Iberian decent. Through using Geni search, it has taken me back to those connections though centuries ago. When I googled closer family ties, I received validation to part of my family tree; going from the American Revolution to Colnial Virgina into England, which I know is factual.
Thus far, I cannot condemn Geni due to at least 8 generations in America to be correct.

I entered geni.com in good faith posting my children's childhood pictures, graduations to date and so on.
Since this time, I have been locked out of my free account, with a message
'You do not have permission to view this page.' when I try to reset my password.
Although I have advised GENI on many occasions now, at their email address of ***@geni.com, I am still locked.
They have allowed me to join again, but I cannot seem to link to any family unless a pay a subscription fee. Yes, it says its free, but it asks for credit card details.
Has this happened to anyone else?

I find Geni to be a fast and easy way to build and share my Family tree with my family. They have tons of privacy setting to let you manage your profile and keep profiles of living and underage family private. By default, they do share deceased profiles with the public unless you mark the profile as private. As a non=paying user I find customer service is great along with the group of curators that are always willing to help you with your own profile, merging trees, or correcting tree info. Geni is a One World Tree as in there goal to connect everyone into one tree alone but as any tree building sites, there are some errors. With the ability to collaborate with others, it is not too hard to fix these errors and create a great tree to share and collaborate with your family.

This is a copy of the private message sent to Michael. I assume he will probably not read it or respond so I am uploading it here as an update to my original review.

Michael, You say it was another user (not a curator) who is very familiar with this family - I doubt if they are more familiar with the family than I am - I have been researching the Curtis family for at least 20 years and have 50 + pages of info about him alone. I am a direct descendant of John and Ann Curtis.

The mistake concerning the marriage of John Curtis (Convict) and Jane Purrier was originally made back in the early 1980's by another researcher (not me) who did not have access to the records we have today. Earlier this year I was made aware of the problem by a researcher on Ancestry who is a direct descendant of John Curtis and Jane Purrier. I saw the Will of John Curtis made in about 1812 where it mentions 8 out of the 10 children of John and Jane. Jane is not mentioned because she died in December 1800, before the will was written. The John Curtis (accountant) who wrote the will lived in the Parish of St Phillip and Jacob whereas John Curtis (Convict) lived in the parish of St Augustine. Just because both John's had a wife and 10 children does NOT mean they are the same John. John Curtis was a VERY common name in Bristol in the 18th century and 10 or more children was not uncommon
You mention that both the Curator and the other "expert " both agree that John Curtis (Convict) and Jane Purrier were married. Why are they so sure? After all the Parramatta Historical Society believes the 2 John's are different. It would be nice if Geni and the "expert" had both communicated their ideas in the discussion.

As far as I know the only other person who contributed to the discussion on 19 Sept 2020 at 1.23pm when he made one statement shown below:

"I've reviewed the Will of John Curtis described above.
It mentions his children as:

Charlotte Curtis (unmarried);
Elizabeth Davies (nee Curtis; widow);
Sarah Bolt (nee Curtis; widow);
Frances Mary Potter (nee Curtis);
Ann Sifton (nee Curtis);
John Curtis;
Benjamin Curtis; and
Thomas Curtis ('now residing in parts beyond the Seas')

No other children are mentioned although a number of views exist that there were 10 or more. It appears unlikely, as John mentions Thomas, who was overseas, so it would be unusual to forget? Any other children

There is no mention of John's wife

Only 8 children are mentioned, not 10, as written in John Curtis' Petition to Governor Arthur in 1803.
Both John's (assuming they are different) are mentioned as accountants; one in his will, and one at his trial.
Has there been an unfortunate mis-identification on this basis? John is a very common surname, as was Curtis in Bristol.

Secondly, the will in question is that of a John Curtis that died in Bristol while still an accountant; somewhat different to the John Curtis, convict.

I suspect we are discussing two different John Curtis'

Will check for birth registrations"

All of these named children are children of John Curtis and Jane Purrier. Possibly the two that are not mentioned had died before the will was made or they were estranged. There were another 2 children (making 12 in total) but they died very young. The chance that the 2 John Curtis's (the convict and the accountant) had 10 children with the same names is virtually zero.

The most interesting part of contributor's comment was where he states
"Has there been an unfortunate mis-identification on this basis? John is a very common surname, as was Curtis in Bristol.

Secondly, the will in question is that of a John Curtis that died in Bristol while still an accountant; somewhat different to the John Curtis, convict.

I suspect we are discussing two different John Curtis''".

This does not support your comment about the other researcher who *isvery familiar with this family agreeing with the curator that John Curtis (Convict) is the husband of Jane Purrier. I am assuming of course that other researcher is the one who contributed to the discussion.
The contributor also says that John (convict) was an accountant. As far as I know this is not correct. His conviction record shows him as a Labourer. I have never found any record of him being an accountant.

I am in constant contact with several other descendants of John Curtis in Australia and we are all very concerned that wrong info is being left on the internet - there is so much already there. It is everybody's responsibility to ensure that wrong info is removed so that a true family tree can be obtained.
Surely it is safer and better to remove the marriage in case it is wrong than to leave it and provide other users with the wrong info.

It is unfair for you to say that I should have "properly discussing it with the other users involved" That's what I tried to do. I contacted the curator and she told me to start a discussion which I did. I supplied info (the will and a letter from the Parramatta Historical Society obtained by another user). The Parramatta Historical Society accepts that there are two John Curtis's, based on the Will and the different signatures on John Curtis's (accountant) marriage to Jane Purrier in Bristol and John Curtis (Convict) to Ann Moran in Australia. They have kept a record for future researchers.
I had asked the curator several times to remove the marriage but most of the time she did not respond to my comments (the last response from her was on 15 August 2020). She had a private communication with the other contributor on 6 September at 8.46am.
This is why I decided to remove the info I did. I DID NOT cut the tree apart as you say. I simply removed as many of the children of John and Jane as I could before she locked everything. We did not want to see incorrect half brothers and sisters of the children of John Curtis in Australia.

One of the comments on 11 August 2020 the curator made in the discussion was "Looking at that letter John CURTIS who arrived on Ganges left behind a wife and 10 children.
This matches to the John CURTIS who married "Jane Purrier and his 12 children (2 who died as infants)".
Why would she make such a statement?. She obviously doesn't consider the possibility that the 2 John Curtis's (who each had a wife and 10 children in Bristol) are not the same John.
I always assumed that a curator would need to be more knowledgeable and flexible to the info placed on the site, be able to accept if wrong info was present and remove it when necessary.

You say "that's bad form in a collaborative environment to remove the info". It is also (very) bad form to leave wrong info on the site so that it gives incorrect info to other users. If I had been able to contact and reason with the curator successfully I would not have removed the info. Alternatively if there was some way of contacting Geni to voice my concerns then I would not have removed the info.
It seems to me that unless you pay high prices for the Geni Pro than Geni is not interested in replying to the ordinary user or looking at their concerns. I already pay for My Heritage and Ancestry. I cannot afford to pay for GeniPro.

You may also be interested to know that I have contacted a researcher in Bristol to try and find the correct first wife of John Curtis (Convict). Hopefully she will have more records available to her that we do in Australia.

March 26, 2022

I've been a basic member for years, was in the middle of some research and suddenly all links lead to "Sign up for Pro" if you hit cancel it just loops back and repeats. Is this the end ? I've enjoyed using it but not enough to pay for Pro.

I had been matched with a historical figures profile for quite awhile with seemingly no qualms but as soon as I find more than a paternal blood match and a maternal in-law relationship, then when I had merged more profiles of some ancestors I discovered a maternal blood match and in-law relationship. I had followed this historical figures profile for atleast 2 years or 2 1/2 years.

Once I had discovered I have both a paternal and maternal match to this historical figure I immediately not long afterwards had 9 or 10 individuals send me a follow request which I accepted them all.

Then not long after finding both a maternal and paternal match to this historical figure I find that I've had 40 million historical figure matches whom I followed redacted/deleted from my account that lists how many individuals I've found a match/connection to on the world family tree.

Then not too far into the future I log in again I've lost the maternal in-law relationship. Then once again I log on a couple of weeks later I have no blood match at all to this individual on my paternal or maternal side only a paternal in-law relationship.

Ironically, I distinctly recall in one of the discussion boards an individual interestingly enough stating that if a person were to find matches to this certain historical figure like I have that the very thing I'm making a complaint about would happen?! Lol

GENI.COM IS A ROYAL PAIN! No, you're not related to Charlemagne (one of Geni.com's most popular profiles). While it's mathematically possible that you descended from one his concubines, not everyone has the pedigree to prove the relation, which is the intended purpose of genealogy and the site. Really, that's all that matters: documentation, evidence. That's the problem with Geni.com ~ they invent evidence and disregard it when applicable too. Everyone wants to be related to Charlemagne, but not everyone wants to be related to President Trump.

If you look closely at the geni.com profiles that "link" you to royalty, you will see "fantasy" people in between with impossible birth ranges spanning 150 years at a time when most people didn't live past 50 and no names! Someone's ego added the profiles so that "Voila!" now they are magically of nobility! Geni.com does this by adding parentage of N.N. (essentially meaning Not Known) to weave your family tree into the noble line. Geni.com should not allow a pedigree chart that assumes parentage if there are not the basic facts such as a name. PERIOD. It otherwise gives people the false impression that they are related. Bottomline is that you're only as strong as your weakest link.

Kumbaya. We're all related. No, not really.

THE COMPLAINT PART IS HERE: If you point out the fantasy to participants of Geni.com (you have no evidence that you're related to royalty), you will get banned. Period. Disenting ideas are not allowed. The site is run by a militant handful of indivuals who can "execute" you from the "world tree" by banning you because they don't like what you said in a discussion group. Presto: you're dead! You never existed. The collaboration on Geni.com is controlled to maintain the fantasy and to take your money and hours of time trying to ensure an accurate tree that's evidence based. Dissenting evidence is not allowed. The site is a collosal waste of time!

Also, the "curators" are perpetual students of community colleges. They are not genealogists. They live in a basement with their parents. They work for free and are too stupid to realize that it's not a job.

This is a genealogy website and I used them a few years ago. At the time they had corrupted admins who would ban people after they make a tree, then take all the tree info including living relatives information as well as any photos members would post to their tree.
I don't know if this site has changed and they got new admins but I would be careful when using this site and posting personal info as well as your children into your family tree. Its been a few years but I would suspect that they still have the same admins on their site.
I was banned with a very large tree for no real reason, my parents info all living relatives information was collected by one admin who then passed it onto others doing trees, including my childrens names and birthday, this is very scarey. I haven't even know how to go about stopping them.

I had cancelled my Geni.com free trial period and was somehow STILL charged $190.60 from my bank account. I submitted an online help ticket online to request a refund (because they don't list a contact phone number ANYWHERE on their website) and have yet to hear back from anyone yet. After looking at other complaints on this board, all of the Geni employees that respond here are insisting that they try to get back to people right away--I'm not seeing that at all.

I would not sure this company if I were you--at least you can CALL Ancestry.com.

The main reason for my complaint, is that I orginally signed up for geni.com on a two week free trial. As an oversight on my part, I did not realise that immediately after the two weeks $190 was taken from my account. I have not used the website in the past two weeks so had completely forgotten. Because of this $190 being taken from my account, other direct debits have failed and I will be subject to default fees.

This isn't even my complaint with them, I have cancelled my account and emailed then 4 times over the past 3 days with regards to a refund and have still not received a response. There is no way to contact them by telephone, and they don't respond to email so could someone please let me know what I should do to get this money back?

Geni.COM is totally selfish. It exploits user inputs and doesn't allow proper user privacy options (or at least it's incredibly unclear how to find the privacy switches). If you want to protect yourself by deleting information from Geni.com --BEWARE!-- because Geni continues to hold that information and use it (although it appears absent from your account).

I just joined Geni and found a potential merge with the so-called Master-File for my ancestry line. It's a joke. The correct parts look plagiarized, and from there back -- as much as I looked at -- it's junk. It's wrong. And it's so bad that I doubt it ever can or ever will be corrected. Luckily I found this out before investing any money. Geni is the garbage heap of misinformation on your genealogy. Avoid it like the plague.

I tried the site for a month only and now am being charged $120 from my bank account, which is now overdrawn. I never signed up for a 2-yr. subscription. In fact, my account is closed. I cannot get help from anyone. I am disabled and on a fixed income each month and now this has devastated me to where I cannot get my medication I need to live. I need this charge credited back to my bank, but no one answers and there is no phone number to call. I need help, please!

I was trying to get information on my family tree, I sign up for a membership of 6.95 a month what I received was a charge to my bank card for $190.85. There was no phone numbers to contact anyone. When I called my bank they gave me the phone number the charge came from. I called it and it just went to voice mail, no one returned my call. Beware of this site scam alert.

Geni.com, an online geneological ompany, allow 2 weeks (14 days) to unsubscribe. But when I try to close the account before the 14 days, the site says I have not given proper security details. There is no place to give such details on the page for closing the account, though I have filled out my user name and password correctly on other pages on the site, and they require my Visa number to access by account page. No 'Help' putton available that I can see..