Using GeneaNet.org - Post 3

I started this thread earlier this week, introducing http://www.geneanet.org/ as a social network and family tree web site with over 200 million names in their databases in the post Using GeneaNet.org - Post 1. I showed what my own database on GeneaNet looked like in Using GeneaNet.org - Post 2.

In this post, I want to check out the Report Options in GeneaNet.

On the left margin of the GeneaNet pages for a Family Tree is a list of options - Search, Explore, Access Rights and Family. The Family section has a number of links - to Family History Book, Anniversaries, and Tools.

While in my database, with Robert Seaver (1608-1683) on my screen, I clicked on the Family History Book link and got this screen:



Pretty empty. The same thing happened when I tried several other persons in my database. There is nothing on the web page that says "This feature is included in the Club Privilege..." or similar (the subscription part of the site). I expected some sort of dialogue that asked how many generations, descendants or ancestors, include notes and sources, etc. Ah, I'll check the Help feature. Frequently Asked Questions seemed to be the only place to find information, and the FAQs had a link for Family History Book. I clicked on that and there was one FAQ - "I can't modify my Family History Book even if I'm logged in as 'wizard.'" The response was "This bug will be soon fixed. To solve it immediately, please add the term ';v=0' in the link of the page." I tried that but it didn't work. I'm disappointed that there isn't more information to help me.

OK, perhaps they're still working on this feature, although being a Wizard seems to be a requirement. What's a Wizard? On the Family History Book page there is a link for Wizard Access, so I clicked on that, and used my username and password to login, and received an Update box to fill in. Apparently, I am a Wizard, but it still doesn't show me a Book.

Let's move on. Anniversaries are listed on the left margin of the screen - I clicked on Births and this screen appeared:

Hmmm. I have over 21,000 persons in my database and none had birthdays on this day, or the next two days. What are the odds of that? And there's no way to specify a date or a month, which is what I really want with a tool like this. I made the screen above the other day, so I checked it again today and it gave me two birthdays for living people, so the Births list only applies to living persons, not deceased persons. Again, there is no helpful information here to tell the befuddled user why there is no birthday information.

There is a box for the user to input a month, and the result is a list of living persons (or persons without a death date) born in that month. That is a useful list, but the link is misleading - it should say "Births of living persons."

Marriages is the next item on the left part of the screen, and the screen below appeared:

This is more like it - it took just two seconds to create this list of marriages that occurred in the past on the current day and the next two days. There is a box at the bottom of the page to select a month and obtain this list for the whole month requested. I like the list!

Deaths is the next item on the Anniversaries list, so I clicked that and received this screen:

This took just two seconds, and the list shows deaths, and births, for the current day, plus the next two days. It appears that this list is only for persons who are deceased, not living persons (since my cousin's birth wasn't on the list). There is a box at the bottom of the page to select a month and obtain this list for the whole month requested. My preference would be to separate the list into Births and Deaths also.

The next post in this series will look at the Tools on the left hand part of the screen - the Statistics and the Calendar Converter.