Geni World Family Tree: read-only discovery, then a single-profile and project route (gate)

Topic: using Geni's shared World Family Tree, its public profiles and its place/building projects as a discovery route for a Welsh family-history e-book. Harvested 31 Oct 2026, 18:1xZ. New ground: 'geni' and 'world family tree' had 0 hits in INDEX.md, root-skip-additions.txt and the filenames. WikiTree and FamilySearch appear in the index only as the project lead-only directory notes (heritage-genealogy-directory-listings.md); this skill covers Geni's own mechanics.

Evidence

• Scale (geni.com blog, read): the World Family Tree passed 200 million profiles (post of 10 May 2025); the home page preview now states "over 210 million". It is one shared tree: each historical person should exist once, and duplicates are merged.
• Curators (Schoenblog, written by a Geni curator, read): "almost 200 volunteer curators", experienced genealogists who usually have added 5,000+ profiles; they merge duplicates and resolve disputes. Profile managers and discussions on a profile are the route to fix errors.
• Free tier (Geni home page and Geni help answers, search previews): Basic accounts include unlimited profiles, merging duplicates, collaboration, Consistency Checker and 1 GB media; full search is a paid (Pro) feature; public profiles can be viewed free. Pro is paid: out of scope under the never-pay rule.
• Etiquette (Geni project "Working with the World Tree", preview): "Many users consider it rude to create duplicates of profiles that already exist on Geni." Check before adding.
• Projects (geni.com preview): a project groups profiles, descriptions, photos and discussions in one place. There is a "Glamorganshire - Main Page" project family including "Historic Buildings of Glamorganshire, Wales", "Historic Glamorgan" and "People Connected to Glamorganshire" — the natural home for a manorial farmhouse page.
• Search visibility (site: search, read today): Geni profiles and projects rank for place + surname searches: a site:geni.com search for Llandough Glamorgan Williams returned profiles naming Llandough (a 1959 death at Llandough; a Williams widow who "settled at Llandough", 1761). Which Llandough is meant is not checked.
• Access note: geni.com project and profile pages answered our plain fetch with a bot wall (Incapsula), so project contents were not read; the facts above are from the blog (read) and search previews.
• No traffic numbers found for referrals from Geni profiles to outside sites. Treat reach as not checked.

Why it matters

• People researching Llandough, Leckwith or Williams lines land on Geni profiles from search. A correct, sourced profile is where a stranger first meets our family; a wrong one spreads into every tree that copies it.
• A building project entry gives the house a page that genealogists browse by county.
• Merged, sourced profiles are reused by other trees: accuracy compounds.

How to do it

2. Decide per profile: (a) correct and sourced: note it, nothing to do; (b) wrong or unsourced: draft a polite discussion post with the record citation (HubSpot draft for the family member); (c) missing: propose one profile per deceased person, sourced to the record.
3. One manager account in a family member's own name (the project lead's GO only). Free Basic tier. Never Pro.
4. Add sources, not stories: each fact cites the record (census piece/folio, probate, deed) exactly as on our evidence pages. Deceased people only; living relatives private.
5. Project route: propose adding the house to "Historic Buildings of Glamorganshire, Wales" with a neutral description and the dated records. Ask the project's collaborators first in a discussion (draft only).
6. Site link rule: the site itself has no outbound links, so the site never links to Geni. Geni profiles may carry a plain-text source line naming the site, which is how readers find us.

How we apply it to Cedwyn

• Now (no GO): next bizdev run does the read-only audit (step 1) and writes geni-audit.md with conflicts flagged against our chronology.
• On the project lead's GO: a family member opens one free Basic account and posts corrections/profiles from Tab's drafts. Tab creates no account and posts nothing.
• Never: mention the court case, ownership dispute or any accusation on Geni; insignia; family holdings or addresses; name the project lead in public text; banned public words.
• Kill test: after 3 months, no profile corrected, no discussion reply and no ?src=geni-style visits (if any channel lets us track): stop and keep the audit as research.
• Proposal line for QUEUE-after-framing: "Geni: read-only audit of Williams/Great House profiles now; on GO, one free family-member account adds sourced corrections and proposes the house for Historic Buildings of Glamorganshire."

Sources

• geni.com (200M, 10 May 2025; read)
• geni.com (210M+, Basic features; preview)
• schoenblog.com (curators; read)
• help.geni.com (free viewing, paid search; preview)
• geni.com (duplicates etiquette; preview)
• geni.com (Glamorgan projects; preview, page bot-walled)

Raw Markdown: geni-world-family-tree-readonly-audit-profile-project-gate.md · version and changes: changelog · machine index: agents.json