Geni

This site is riddled with inaccurate information & the profile managers do not seem bothered that they are leading people up the garden path. If you are looking to have an accurate family tree based on facts & reliable sources, rather than a fantasy tree that massages your ego, avoid this site like the plague.

I used Geni for about 2 years but suddenly found that someone from Hungary had attached part of their family tree to mine. It was obviously completely wrong but I was unable to remove it. I did not want to start a chain of correspondence with the interloper so I have closed my Geni account. Unfortunately, all the incorrect information is still there. It is far better to pay for and use your own stand-alone family tree program. If I could have given Geni zero stars I would have done so.

I was pulled in--I always wanted to set up my family tree. At first it was pretty cool. Then I realized to do more research I had to become a member--which I thought well why not--this is pretty awesome so I paid the $95+. As I kept building the tree I would get smart matches which automatically populate the tree--but in order to get those and be able to do more research I had to upgrade to Geni Pro--and I did, at a cost of an additional $119+. Then about two weeks later my tree was blown away--very few of my family members remained. Oh and if I want to do any Smart matches I now have to pay more money to become premium. Stay away from Geni--they bait and switch. I wish we could all pull together at go at them with a class action lawsuit!

They are misleading & lying to people to get them to add their info. They don't tell you that you're required to merge duplicates with total strangers who may or may not be family & that once you do you not only lose all control over your tree... you also can't delete it. They banned me from my own tree, deleted my account against my wishes & turned what I managed over to a person from another country nobody in our family knows. They're thieves. Do not add your info here.

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).

Irresponsible resource and tree owners.
It's alarming to find my family info and photos show up on the Web from Geni that were obviously stolen from ancestry.com, and attached wrongly to people my family is not related to-- no, my father did not have an older brother named Archie, and my grandfather was never an MD.
There is no way for me to report this, nor contact the tree owner, and I should not have to pay money to reach the tree owners who've spread all this wrong info and precious photos around the web.

This is a RIP OFF company. I bought a subscription and then was unable to view my own grandfathers' records unless I paid more money! I called to complain and the 'Customer Service' Rep told me sorry, you don't get your money back. You have to pay, we are right, too bad lady. Third world country crummy service rip off artists. Stay away. Their 'records' are inaccurate anyway. I paid with Pay Pal and Pay Pal gave me my money back. Shame on your My Heritage.

Not objective. Many Mormon "curators" who have their own version of history or have personality issues and you are stuck with them.No community commentator rules. No real curatorial staff, only volunteers who might get back with you in 5 years and then it will probably be wrong or will get changed to be wrong again.

Beware: If you are looking for genetic information or your family history, do NOT use Geni! They assign random people to "manage" our family tree and they mess it up beyond belief. You will find NO accurate or reliable information there. And there is no one to complain to who will fix the mistakes so your frustration will know no bounds. Jut let it go and move on to a more reliable platform like Ancestry, Family Search or My Heritage instead.

Geni has family trees with members that can't be a spouse or mother/son as the dates are impossible. For example, mother & daughter born the same year? When I've requested they edit/change the information, they don't. If you try to edit an error that you or someone else made, it's practically impossible & the incorrect information is locked in forever.
One person in particular who has control of several families genealogy is P. Silbernagl who doesn't know what they're doing nor are they willing to correct obvious mistakes.

Geni's new matching system reported to me that my father had died, based on a match of his birth date and first name. It wasn't him. NOT COOL! Of course, I have no way of telling them about the problem without getting a upgrade package at which point I can submit a question.

Shame on them!

I google my name periodically & found that we are deceased as per Geni.com. The only way I could contact this site was to ask for a job since there was no other way to contact them. They claim that they got the info from my cousin which is odd since she knows we are alive. My cousin told me her only genealogy search was on ancestry.com, so it appears that Geni stole info from them & didn't get it right. My brother & I have never used any genealogy sites. Now this incorrect info will probably remain on the internet even though Geni states that they will fix it. I hope family & friends don't get upset by this misinformation. Hopefully my Social Sercurity, Medicare, pension benefits are cut off because they think I'm dead.

I have NEVER had anything to do with Geni.com. My tree is PRIVATE on Ancestry.com for a reason. Yet family photos which are definitely mine (the way they have been cropped as thumbnails, or I know I have the only copy) and data have made their way to Geni.com. I discovered this by doing a google search on an ancestors name on google at a friends suggestion. I am more than furious, as all my photos have come up in images which link back to geni.com. Deceased children are listed which no other living person knew about. How did they get access to Ancestry Private trees?!

It is not accurate, found a lot of mistakes. Some people can add or leave things out. Specially if involves other families... some talk about DNA but that's all they know, 0steal information from private places, I can go on and on. I have sent countless proofs and everything else, and just got tired of it... and if your are paying, good luck..

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've been trying to contact the current manager of my family tree. I've left numerous messages with them about inaccurate information within our family tree; as well as new info to add to the existing family tree, which by the way, I am not included as being part of, despite my own valid identification and documentation. Does Geni actually care? Of course NOT!

As a paying Pro Geni member I have to say I agree with Ryan M's review. When I read the response by the site representative Michael S., I was appalled. Michael for you to accuse Ryan of being "spiteful and petty" for posting his honest review, is highly unprofessional on your part. Clearly you aren't familiar with the concept of valuing your customers. If your goal is drive people away from your site, then keep that "woke" attitude.

I created the tree and added many relatives. I finally invited a few to join me. Some thought is was a joke and lots of fun to add people they should not. I asked Geni to delete the entire tree so I could start over, but they refused. What nonsense! I started it and should be able to control it! I also cannot delete entries I did not create.

Although I do not subscribe to geni.com I noticed several errors in the data of one of my direct family members. When I contacted the volunteer curator to report the misinformation, I received a caustic, degrading reply in return. He expressed absolutely NO interest in checking into my concerns. If you are serious about obtaining accurate data about your family I would caution you to BEWARE of the information included in the trees on this site.

Hello
I was wondering if someone can provide me with the name of someone who has the authority to override the interference to my tree of one of Geni's volunteer curators. I can't find anywhere to lodge my complaint. Apologies if this is not the correct site to do this but I am getting increasingly frustrated with the lack professionalism.
I have not given her the right to manage my profiles. Unknown to me she put Stop Signs on 3 of my profiles. Without going into detail, my research shows different parents of my 2 x great grandmother, Elizabeth. Geni's volunteer curator won't release my profiles until I provide my research. Note I said research, not records or sources. I am not going that. This could have been handled differently. This has been going on for some time and I have had enough, so if someone can point me in the right direction that would be appreciated.
Thank you and regards
Jan Stefanac

I discovered that they said that I was deceased, when I contacted them to complain they denied any responsibility and indicated that all entries were entered by users. I am not a user of their website and never will be. Please check entries carefully to ensure that you are not marked as deceased.

This is the worst site I have Paid for in 25+ years of internet usage. There appears to be no way to contact them or get them to respond and I have no access to this site which I have paid for and spent hundreds of hours entering info, which appears unreachable.

Geni doesn't protect its users' privacy - it will broadcast your family on Google - I created a family tree on Geni thinking it would be neat to share with my family, but Geni published it online. Now it shows my entire family tree on Google, and there is no way to turn it off or delete it.

Geni is trying to make money off your family information and they do not respect your privacy. Don't let them do it.