Have Any Of You Played Around With The Relationship Path Feature On Geni?

nc native

First Sergeant
Joined
Aug 30, 2011
Location
NC Piedmont
I was taking a break at work looking at my family tree on Ancestry and Geni and found something I'd never noticed before. Geni traces relationship paths based on your DNA and family tree. For curiosity sake I typed in the names of Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. Jackson to see if I was related to them. Geni said there was a connection so I let the computer trace those connections for me. Lo and behold, I am the eleventh cousin twice removed of Robert E. Lee and the thirteenth cousin of Stonewall Jackson once removed. I never realized I was related to such famous Southern leaders:wink:. This feature might be something some of you amateur genealogists like me might play around with for amusement on a rainy day or to alleviate boredom if you are shut in like some of us are now.
 
Last edited:
Yes I did starting with my ancestor how we was related to George Washington. And other political leaders back then. My moms family Gaines go way back before Revolutionary War. So I'm like oh that's how they do it on there with the relationship status. At least they have that for Geni because if your a guest member on ancestory you can't do that. A lot of Confederate families are related to Jackson and Lee and named children after their leaders after the war because they looked up to them. My 3 x great grandmothers family had a lot of ancestory lineage names like that related to many yankee families in Missouri that married into their family after the war as well. You have so many family members trees from your grandparents from both sides it's so interesting how your related to them by blood and not by the names. Very cool if you like that stuff. Some people in my family don't care but I do :wink: I even met a double cousin threw my ancestors 2nd cousin decedent who had direct blood lines to their great grandfather. So interesting how that all works out.
 
I have not used this on Ancestry. But I have a small tree on the public site Wikitree and it does this. Each week or so, they will highlight a person from history and one of their researchers. Then they tell you how many degrees separate you from them.
I am 18 degrees from King Henry VIII. Then again WikiTree is a public wiki database.
 
So how does this work?
I use Ancestry and would like to know where this feature is located. I know Ancestry has a large database of family trees. Does the program use these trees to find the link?
That is one problem with WikiTree—many trees are so unreliable that it is fantasy.
Ancestry also has an extensive database of DNA results. I know that when you pull up the Profile of another member, it will state if you have a DNA connection with him. So does this rely on DNA — and some trees?

So where is this located on Ancestry?
 
So how does this work?
I use Ancestry and would like to know where this feature is located. I know Ancestry has a large database of family trees. Does the program use these trees to find the link?
That is one problem with WikiTree—many trees are so unreliable that it is fantasy.
Ancestry also has an extensive database of DNA results. I know that when you pull up the Profile of another member, it will state if you have a DNA connection with him. So does this rely on DNA — and some trees?

So where is this located on Ancestry?
I have used Ancestry DNA but not seen a feature like this. And many Ancestry trees have a healthy dose of fantasy in them too - no one double checks to see if what a member claims is true before posting it.
 
Back
Top