No starter, normal or Special Collection, can hide a Genesis fur of any kind. Most likely, you're remembering a starter which passed the visible trait, or you put to starters together and the offspring was genesis and hid genesis. So, you're probably correct, you're remembering an offspring.
Remember, Genesis furs ARE trait values! It's just, by convention, we don't "count" them as such.
And, technically, the trait is "fur" and the values are things like "Genesis - Smokey IV"; all cats have nine breedable traits and two non-breedable traits (gender and size). For each breedable trait, all cats have exactly two values: the dominant and the recessive. There is also a visible trait value; for most cats, it's the same as the dominant .. but for Special Collaction cats, it's a special value specific to the collection.
Here's an article I wrote which may explain it better.
http://kittycatsaddicts.com/wiki/Breeding_Basics
