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Geni has a rating of 1.53 stars from 78 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Reviewers complaining about Geni most frequently mention family tree, free trial, and customer service problems. Geni ranks 22nd among Genealogy sites.
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I appreciate Mike, from Geni customer support who helped me correct the mistake on site, quickly. In his communications with me, he was clear, concise, professional, kind and courteous. I appreciate people who make it happen and do it right and have a positive attitude, like Mike from Geni support team. Way to go Mike. Keep up the good work. Sam
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.
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.
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.
Mistakes happen. Merges can be undone, our detailed revision history system can be used to undo bad edits. The solution is to fix the problem and upload sources so it can't happen again, not to run away from it.
We have belonged to Geni for several years. And not had a problem till we tried working with a collaborator. The woman lied to us add people that aren't real. Didn't say anything till she got the idea we knew more than she expected. She took over management of my husbands profile. And made sure I couldn't delete things on my tree. We had to write an email to customer service and haven't answered my husband. And wouldn't allow me to report my problem. I would not recommend this genealogy site.
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.
These fools contacted me using my dead mother, but saying that she was about to be 85 years old! They don't even know that she's gone! Wow! Idiots. Would NEVER USE. THIS IS PROBABLY THE EXTREMISTS.
The family trees on Geni are built and maintained by our users; we do not automatically mark profiles deceased, that would be up to the person who built and maintains the tree. Our condolences on the passing of your mother; if you would like to email us at privacy@geni.com we can mark the profile deceased and/or remove any information about you and your family that you no longer want on Geni.
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.
Hi Henry,
The family trees on Geni are constructed by our users, and of course there can be mistakes. Geni tries to surface these with our inconsistency checker, which will point out mistakes such as the ones you mentioned. Most public profiles are going to be editable by you, and you are welcome to do so -- especially if you can upload a source that provides evidence for your change. Failing that, curators can help and you can enlist their help with the public discussion thread "Attention Curators, Please Assist" (always pinned to the top of public discussions).
I like the ideas of collaboration and merging: everyone's unique: one person has only one profile. I'm using it since 2011 and for me it offers more then the more expensive alternatives.
After being on board with them and thinking everything was going great for six years they end up taking away the privacy of my accounts, lock up my photo editor, and start re-writing the bios of my 3rd and 4th great grandparents essentially locking me out as a pro Geni customer. Things get worse after I attempt to get help, and end with violations of my family privacy, not allowing me to post family photos or depictions, or licenced photos, ugly accusations and interrogation sessions about my family and locking up my family line from me. Interrogation is not collaboration and Geni allows curators to walk all over the customers while also being their customer service, also they all side together on issues and leave your family out in the cold once they take over your families line. Be wary, the customer and family do not come first there once they do their "take over," it is essentially best overall to keep your own family tree in case you come into contact with one of their Nazi collaborators who essentially can do whatever they want without good reason to your once private profiles, and they could care less if you are a paying customer or not, going against their own rules by locking up profiles and family photo editor functions. One of the managers is very controlling and he lies out the roof of his mouth, I believe his name is Michael, especially be wary of him, he doesn't know how to tell the whole truth and doesn't mind his own business as far as your family is concerned. In Geni's rules it states that as a paying customer you can use any family photo that you want and you have can post unlimited ones for your family lineage, they took down my family photos although they were licensed art and then after taking away my paid for functions and freedoms, proceeded to harass me. No self-respecting person would or could put up with that level of contempt or control that should be called "forced collaboration because if you do not answer all their interrogations, they then have the power to destroy your families profile" (this all coming from people who are amateurs and can't even source their own trees have zero business regulating mine) Why would I want to be part of such a mockery when my line is already fully sourced by certified geneologists? In my case, the definition of Nazi fits the bill to my experience. They did things to me without notifying me, and in the end, they enjoy antagonizing the customer by saying "geni is not for you, whoever treats their paying customers like that? The customer should be given the benefit of the doubt at all times and family should be respected but I did not see that happening at all. Michael is a piece of work and has no clue how to be a manager in the real world.
Tip for consumers:
Don't bother putting up your hard work for they will surely take it over and leave you and your hard work out in the cold with no say over once held private profiles.
Products used:
Pro Geni Membership
After a year I came back to Geni to start a new profile and uploaded my tree hopeing to make amends after being away for so long, I worked on putting most of my tree back and worked peacefully for six months on it. Things were going good until I found a discrepancy in the world tree and started to fix the line using a mirror lineage from wikitree sources. But, a curator named Ann Brennan wrote to me and warned me not to "vandalize" and that she wanted to warn me about adding to the family tree master profiles, and if i needed to change something I should ask for permission. She told me if it happened again it would be considered valdalism. I told her no problem, sounds good to me and apologized for making a human mistake. The problem is, she took away my editing privilages, when I asked her why she decided to warn me and punish me at the same time she told me to contact customer service. The only way to contact them was to get a pro membership so I paid the price of one and asked them to please give me my editing privilege's back. The next thing I know Mike Stangel, the GM writes to me and recanted the experience I had with them a year ago and complained I called him a Nazi. I told him that was a reaction from being threatened and taking away my family tree from me. He wanted to know if I was willing to follow the rules and told me not to post "photoshopped" photos. I told him and explained I bought a image from "TURNMEROYAL" Inc, and that it was a licensed image. Anyhow i apologized and told him I followed the rules back then and I intended to follow them going forward. I came back the next day.to find my tree deleted once again. My mothers side of the tree connected into the main family tree and I had yet to really dig in and work on my fathers side. He dismantled and deleted yet again all my hard work did and cancelled my pro subscription yet I AGAIN did nothing wrong. This feels like a DISCRIMINATION Case, and I am using this to document the experience. This happened as of 10/25/23. Yet, again BE WARY of this company and Mike Stangel if you get on his curators bad side he is pretty biased to what they say and you really have no say in how you are treated there. I had a bad experience and these people are very discriminating and controlling, like a NAZI with no way for remediation.. I am certainly no criminal and never deserved to be treated like this. Also Last year, I had posted my paid for and licensed image created by "TURNMEROYAL" Company to my own family lineage in which I have very strong ties and a rare family tree (I have genuine photos of 3rd and 4th Great Grandparents) this guy, Mike, is very insulting and tries to come on here to further insult me by calling ART a "photoshop" is ridiculous and a hideous way to intervene with your "customers". This was actually a painted and licensed image. I have yet to receive an apology from him for his foul treatment of me and it appears many others. There is a lot to be said about being professional and many of these people who volunteer for Geni,com are at brink of abuse. As I said, when one gets to collaborate it should not be a threatening environment. I was targeted and my tree was targeted out of jealousy because I am related to the landed gentry so they were extra hard on my line, but I have the proof. I use many trees across the world wide net.
Melissa, you uploaded an image of your mother's face photoshopped onto a classical painting, and then set it as the profile photo of someone born in 1794. You lashed out at our curators, calling them Nazis for enforcing genealogical standards. Geni is not the place for you.
I was charged $1.26 TWICE after canceling my "free" trial. I closed my account too, wayy before the 15 days came up. So glad I use Ancestry instead. They are way better and aren't sneaky with prices for way more resources. I can't even contact anyone because you need a pro account to do so. Great logic?
I was using the free version of geni.com to see if I would want an upgrade to pro, but all of a sudden it stopped working, a major disappointment. I cleared my cookies and cache, then tried switching from Safari to Chrome. It still doesn't work! Now I see that it has failed worldwide. MyHeritage has been kept separated from geni.com. Does that mean MyHeritage is fully aware of geni.com's flaws? My condolences to MyHeritage, the lemon owner. To expect anyone to pay $119.40 for something that doesn't work is an insult to their intelligence. Your business model is astounding!
P.S. (added later): Never mind. I just read more of the reviews. It's obvious that the geni lineages are sloppy, inaccurate, poorly curated, and hard to fix. Misinformation in a genealogy renders it a useless waste of effort. Verifying data from the distant past requires dedication, careful documentation, and logical thinking. Splicing together unvetted information invites errors which then propagate. I'll stay with authoritative sources and spend my $119.40 elsewhere.
Tip for consumers:
If "this site" refers to Sitejabber, it seems OK, but If you mean geni.com, no tip is needed. The user will discover promptly that it doesn't work.
Products used:
ancestry.com
I tried the free trial to see if I wanted to join and money was taken from my account. It's been a month and the money has not been refunded. They keep closing my ticket as "solved".
Lilith, as was explained to you by our Customer Service associate, when you started a free trial on Geni your credit card was authorized (not charged) US$1.00 to verify that the card was valid. The authorization never becomes a charge and takes no money from your account. You cancelled the trial before it ended, so you were never charged anything by Geni. You can contact your bank to verify this.
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.
Hi Tom, I'm sorry you had this frustrating experience. I suspect what you saw are Record Matches from our parent company, MyHeritage, which are under a different subscription than our Geni Pro (they do different things). That said, we are very generous with our refund policy (managed out of California and Ireland, by the way) and if you would like to email us at subscriptions@geni.com we'd be happy to assist you.
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.
Hi Lisa, we're very sorry to hear that this has been your experience. We believe the collaborative approach results in the best information -- maybe not at first, but as more people bring their information to the table, the quality of the information improves for all of us. Geni is very egalitarian and you have the ability to challenge what you see, provide your own sources and in most cases, correct it yourself for everyone's benefit.
Geni does not answer communication unless you pay high fees. Since fees are high this is not an option.
Tip for consumers:
Dont use or if people use expect nothing.
Products used:
None
Hi MC, all users are able to create support tickets at help.geni.com although it's true our subscribers get first priority. We also have over 200 volunteer curators and many other power users who are happy to help you, if you want to post to the public discussion "Attention Curators, Please Assist" at https://www.geni.com/discussions/245980
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 just deleted my subscription. Unfortunately I should have done my homework prior to giving my billing info there. I'll now have to put a stop to any future billing as I'm not even able to make edits on my family tree so what leads me to believe that they won't bill me again? I had put in birth info that was incorrect but tried to change it and nothing allowed me to do so. If you are allowing misinformation to be added to a name then why do YOU only have the control to not allow the changes to be made? There are so many knots in my family tree now that anyone who chooses to use this site will be mislead and we'll have names added that have nothing to do with our family. It really shouldn't be this hard to make changes. So the cycle will continue on and on with misinformation. I honestly don't believe your curators are digging into each and every geneological background and keeping the it correct. I know your response will be that they can't do this but it's up to the person putting the information in to be correct. I tried that. I've wanted to track my lineage but with the lack of ability even with a PAID subscription it's impossible. I have read through the reviews and we all seem to have the same complaint. I'm sure i'll be given the same reply from Michael as everyone else. You're absolutely right. Geni is not for me. I've resolved that issue on my end by the cancelation. Now if you would resolve from your end and remove what i've inputted as misinformation not intended to remain on my tree that would be nice. But it'll be there forever and the worst part is that i PAID for it.
Geni, once the best place to create a family tree and collaborate with relatives, is now a place of negativity and harassment. I have been on Geni for 15 years and have been very happy. Recently, things took a drastic change. Myself and many other account managers began receiving messages claiming my family does not exist and relatives were made up. A man, who had no family tree of his own and no relation to anyone, began sending daily messages that he was going to delete these profiles. I contacted Geni, who then defended this behavior by saying that all he wants is proof that your Great Grandfather x 13 is a real person. My response is that I cannot provide a paper trail to a person alive in the year 1500. Geni said that they will delete any profile that does not have proof. We all know that proof cannot always be obtained, especially going back over 500 years. So, the messages continued from this disgruntled member saying that my profiles will be deleted. I am helpless now to really provide anything other than oral history and or collaboration with other members who are also related and then also DNA. I was told that I was in the wrong and GENI now allows profiles to be randomly deleted. I guess aggressive cancel culture is now the way things are done on something as simple as a family history site. The world is changing and being aggressively disrespectful is the now the accepted way. This is not the same genealogy it was a few decades ago. I would not recommend GENI as a site. You are always now under the threat of being deleted if GENI or any hostile member wants you or your family removed.
Tip for consumers:
Skip Geni.com
Products used:
GENI.COM membership one year
Ryan, as we've been discussing on site genealogy without evidence is indistinguishable from fantasy. The profiles in question are from the 16th century in a shared family tree - they have a huge impact on tens of thousands of other users. We're actively working to try to get some sources on these profiles, if not from the users who added them then anyone with reliable information. For you to come here and post a 1 star review is spiteful and petty. Why do you still have an account with a site you view so poorly? Adding sources is important in collaborative genealogy.
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.
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.
Tip for consumers:
Don't use this site.
Products used:
Geni Pro
Hi James, if you paid for a Gen Pro subscription your receipt will have a phone number that you can call for billing / subscription questions. All other help needs are handled at https://help.geni.com -- click Submit a Ticket. Pro users get priority support and you should hear back from someone within 48 business hours. You can also go into the public discussions and post in the discussion labeled "Attention Curators, Please Assist."
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.
Hi Bill, once a tree has multiple users contributing to it, we can't simply delete it all. If someone is vandalizing the tree by adding nonsensical profiles, email misconduct@geni.com with specific links and we'll handle it.
Been using Geni.com for months. Able to access photos no problem. Now it is telling me I have to log in. Log in and all it does is ask me to pay for geni premium site, $140 a year. Can't even access people on search results on new computer. Wants me to pay for premium. Over and over and over. All it will do is ask me to pay for premium site. FREE MY $#*!!
Went back to phone, where I have been using site for nearly a year, and now it is asking me to pay for premium to access photos. So far, I can still access ancestors' profile, but for how long? Keep getting "start free trial" "only $140 a year". Site is useless now. All they want is MONEY, MONEY, MONEY!
USED TO BE A GOOD SOURCE FOR RESEARCHING FAMILY TREE. RECOMMENDED IT TO SEVERAL PEOPLE OVER THE PAST YEAR. NO MORE!
Mike, nothing changed. Photos are still free on Geni. Search has always been a paid feature. If you can't log in, did you try resetting your password?
Adding the ancestress of the person I was trying to reach put me as her "admin" informed me that I had 2 matches and put a paywall between me and the person I was trying to reach in the first place. Wow, that was rude. I could see the info online before but now that I added it to my tree, I have to have pay for it? That is insane. What a horrible business model. You know what? I would gladly pay geni 119 bucks if they would have this member call me to compare family notes. As is, I deleted the entire tree I entered as not to put a paywall between us and anyone else who may try to connect too those families. I think I am done with Geni. My experience was very disappointing.
Tip for consumers:
Go to familysearch.org. It is 100% free and one world format tree is the best.
Products used:
Family tree. Huge mistake. Adding family tree put up pay walls. Have no way to reach a member. Says email sent. If site would guarantee in person connection I would pay their fee.
Hi Yolanda, Geni is a collaborative family tree built by stitching together our members' trees where they overlap. Merging duplicates is a free feature on Geni. What you encountered is an automatic "tree match" suggestion that is surfaced by the system; that is a paid feature on Geni that allows us to fund the expense of building and hosting the site. If you discover duplicate profiles that should be merged, you can do that for free.
We have DNA on familytreedna (paternal), ancestry.com, trees on ancestry.com and I heavily contribute to familysearch which has a one world tree format which seems to best of the two afore mentioned sites. I joined geni because I found that a person who was researching a particular family 20 years ago is still active on that site. I know how we connect. So I got a basic (free) login added the family tree up to common ancestor, emailed the member twice and got 0 responses. Even though this particular member was active since I emailed. So today I decided to add relationship down from our common ancestor to his ancestress and then geni told me they found a match and I can join 2 weeks for free to remediate this match or 119 a year today. I know exactly what the relationship is. I am not sure if with basic (free) account my emails are reaching this member in any way as I feel he holds key information about the family I am researching based on what was posted on rootsweb years ago. There is no indicator that shows me if my emails to him were received or seen? So I am leaving a neutral rating because I am not sure how geni works exactly.
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!
I decided to have a DNA test done so I went to the pull-down menu in Geni took me to the MyHeritage site to order it. Now, after I received the results, found out that Geni does not accept the results from MyHeritage. What kind of scam are they pulling? The only DNA results they use are from a different web site and not the one they direct you to. Do not use Geni.
Clark, I apologize for the confusion and understand your disappointment. Our DNA FAQs at https://www.geni.com/dna-tests/faq state that the MyHeritage test results "are made available for you to view securely on the MyHeritage website." Lower, speaking of importing DNA to Geni, it states that you can transfer Family Tree DNA test results to Geni. Of course we'd love to also bring MyHeritage test results to Geni but as of this writing, that feature is not available.
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..
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Create your family tree and invite relatives to share. Search 180 million profiles and discover new ancestors. Share photos, videos and more at Geni.com.
See https://help.geni.com/hc/en-us/articles/229704067-What-are-my-management-options- for information about how you can take over management of your family's profiles. We have hundreds of volunteer curators, plus our support staff at misconduct@geni.com, to help you.