Geni Reviews

(based on 29 reviews)

156 of 284 people found this review helpful

Beware of this business. It is very hard to cancel an account in a manner that saves your annual fee. Geni sends an email in the middle of the night that your credit card will be charged early in the morning. Very bad outfit.

In summary, I would not recommend Geni to a friend.

158 of 302 people found this review helpful

I have had Geni for years and not able to take the time to update and work with it. We just discovered that someone in Hungry - not related at all to the family - now is the "owner" of several immediate family member profiles. Sorry Geni but giving people around the world the ability to become owners of my family records doesn't sit with me. I am deleting all records I can - don't know since the "curator" has taken over them if we will be able to get all of them deleted but I will be trying.

In summary, I would not recommend Geni to a friend.

179 of 358 people found this review helpful

I joined GENi a year ago at the behest of a distant cousin in Europe. Sadly, like the proverbial lamb to the slaughter, I blindly submitted my payment before discovering that that would be the last shared exchange I would ever have with them. On more than 10 different occasions I attempted to log in the purported account I was charged for...and after countless hours of failing, with absolutely no venue for recourse, I realized (as apparently many others have discovered) that I had just thrown away a hundred-plus dollars. It's quite a neat little SCAM they seem are running, and I will now take every opportunity to shout it from the rooftops. Obviously, some people are using the service successfully, but since I have NEVER been able to get ANY RESPONSE back from the black hole that calls its self GENi, I have no idea how many winners compare those of us who are the "very sore" losers. My only advice is to stay as far away from whoever these people are, or at the least, see if your membership can be claimed as a tax deduction. Very angry and very disgruntled, D.A. Normann - Seattle, WA

In summary, I would not recommend Geni to a friend.

195 of 346 people found this review helpful

When I joined Geni.com five years ago it was a platform for storing family data, finding relatives, and sharing information. The company was bought by My Heritage in November of 2012 and since that time they have assigned "curators" to merge family trees -- in violation of their policies -- with much of this information becoming public. Despite my request of one of the "curators" not to alter my tree, he continued to do so. I proceeded to delete almost the entirety of my data, much of which he restored less than a week later. Following my deletions I received notification from two other "curators" that they were "following" me. I now maintain my account (which carries a monthly fee) to monitor activities with respect to my information, however, Geni has blocked my access to information relevant to my extended family. I intend to pursue a legal action against Geni. Should you care to join me as a co-plaintiff, please contact me.

In summary, I would not recommend Geni to a friend.

219 of 417 people found this review helpful

I could find out more information by googling than on Geni. I cancelled my subscription and they charged me $89. Scam is right. I am trying to fight it through my cc company as there is no phone number to call and my emails have gone unanswered.

In summary, I would not recommend Geni to a friend.

230 of 443 people found this review helpful

Only free for very basic data entry, as far as I can see. To do any research and link to others costs money. Fair enough if that's what was advertised.

At one point I found some unknown person had some correct but very incomplete information about my grandparents, which I could access if I paid up. A few minutes later, doing a search under the names of those same grandparents it said there were no matches. Needless to say, they're not getting my money.

Not easy to delete your information if you don't want to continue, either, so, given the privacy warnings in other reviews - if you don't want information out there, be warned that entering it may place it at risk, even if you try to remove it.

On the other hand, it was easy to change the birth order of siblings, unlike some sites.

In summary, I would not recommend Geni to a friend.

236 of 474 people found this review helpful

If you're into genealogy and if you're thinking about putting your tree on Geni.com---don't. I speak from experience as a long-time FORMER participant. Bad mergers with other managers can cause you to lose control of your tree, making it open to theft. Also, privacy issues. If you want to use Geni, most of the privacy issues can be addressed, but I wouldn't rely on any of it for accuracy. I found that my oldest known ancestor, whose parents are not known, had suddenly acquired an entire ancestral tree of his own, added by another manager. Total fantasy, of course, with no sources, but I was unable to change it. After my tree was taken over, I was blocked from changing it, and at that point unable even to contact management, much less get help from them. Avoid it!

In summary, I would not recommend Geni to a friend.

269 of 514 people found this review helpful

I clicked the "try Pro for free" and since they require inserting credit card number (though without security code), they succeeded to charge 190$ (year membership) from my bank account! This site should be closed down!!

In summary, I would not recommend Geni to a friend.

233 of 473 people found this review helpful

Against my wishes, a GENI Pro member has put my personal information and that of my daughters on his website (including full birthdates.) I have discovered that people are downloading huge numbers of names from GENI and transferring them to Ancestry and other websites. From this one webpage alone on GENI four people have downloaded around 100,000 names. 12 other people have transferred smaller amounts from the same webpage. (A real boon for Ancestry and the other websites!!) I know this because all the trees contain the same 'marker' name and so were easy to trace. The person has refused my request to remove my personal family information and GENI allows transfer of information so it is appearing on other websites. I am very conscious of identity theft because of a bad experience. Fortunately Ancestry and Friends Reunited have ethical standards regarding information about living people and removed my information at my request but I now have to be vigilant.

In summary, I would not recommend Geni to a friend.

232 of 482 people found this review helpful

i gleefully joined Geni thinking i could input, research, get assistance from a great support staff. What the fire was i thinking.. i joined as a PRO. (still confused about that) every question i asked staff support was meet with " what platform are you working on ( Geni, of course), well, give us a step by step description, ( well i did) Then i find i am talking with a "CURATOR" that is someone who has used GENI for a long time ( long enough to learn system) SUPPORT just flew out the window. you can only input a certain number, then Geni shows only the basic part of your tree. When i asked about seeing my entire tree, i was told to "go to a list, ???" now i am confused, lists dont relate to a TREE.

dont use GENI- no research sites, you can only research within GENI.. hahahaahahaa, dont make me laugh.. i have over 3000 distant relatives, 4/5/6 generations,, i want to leave Geni, just trying to find a good research, input, support site.. hints anyone!/>?

In summary, I would not recommend Geni to a friend.