I come from a relatively small family…

…but I married into a far larger family (and they all stay in touch)!

(It is so large, in fact, that two of my aunt-in-laws walked into a funeral I was officiating a few hours ago.) It’s hard to keep everyone straight. Fortunately somewhere along the line someone in the family signed us up for a service called Geni. Usually I don’t sign up for things like this but I did and I am glad I did. Why? Because it pings me with important dates, reminds me when someone has a birthday and generally keeps me in the loop.

So, while I would not have forgotten it, it is nice that Geni reminded me that my brother-in-law turns 35 today! And it got me thinking, and now writing, about the service.

In a sense Geni it is like a closed Facebook system for just the extended family. It lets me know when there is a birthday or an anniversary taking place. It shows a family tree, lets people reach out to one another, let’s the family add a variety of events to a shared calendar and, in general, helps people stay connected.

One of the nicest aspects of the service is that it gives you a clean, easily to follow calendar of events. It lets you share video and pictures, send greetings and look at a family timeline.

It even gives you family statistics like… life expectancy (eek… just 61 as the average age?? Maybe there are some things you don’t want to know…).

The service offers both free and pro versions. The free one is rather full featured but the pro version removes add and adds a host of features.

If you have family Geni.com is worth checking out. (Oh, and Rob, happy 35th brother.)