Angie said: I have written to her and asked her to list me as the researcher
of my own work and to remove all living persons from the net.
Unfortunately, Angie this request isn't possible. When a file has been
posted on Ancestry or World Family Tree or....it is there for good. We can't
change it or do anything other than bemoan our errors. There is no method
for retractions for errors in anyway. One of the World Family Trees (and now
several places) has my deceased husband married to my father-in-law's
half-brother's wife. My husband has been dead for 20 years and his "half
aunt" is still alive and well in Michigan. This error has been duplicated
over and over. Another of my favorite errors was illustrated when I was
giving a lecture on German Genealogy -- one of the people who is listed as
deceased on one of these "garbage cans of genealogy" was sitting -- alive and
well -- in my class lecture.
I believe that this subject is a serious one for serious researchers. Most
of us are preparing a book which we hope to publish and naturally copyright.
You are correct that all public knowledge cannot be protected; but the manner
of presentation can be protected and it makes it much more difficult for the
lazy ones to use the information for their own use. Of course, we
genealogists publish our work for others to see and to learn. We hope that
our work will be of help to others. Our natural instincts are to share.
Unfortunately, the net (downloading, GEDCOM, etc) has made it easy for the
non-working relative gatherers to use our work as their own and to publish
it. I cannot imagine why anyone would WANT to publish another's work unless
they wanted the accolades that comes with our successes.
We all use the work of others. However, unless the copyright has expired, we
should make every attempt to obtain the permission of the original author.
Often someone will send me their line. If I wish to use it in my book
without doing the actual research myself, I ask them if I may use it and I
then say "this has been researched and included in this work with the kind
permission of .................." I also list the address of some other
method of contact for the original researcher -- if they so wish. Some do
not want their addresses available to others.
I visit Salt Lake City often. I find family files there where people have
obviously worked for years on their lines. They have deposited their work in
the archive for us to use; BUT there is a copyright law in the front of each
book. I also do a lot of work in Germany -- German research is my first love
-- and their restrictions are much more stringent than ours. I always
wondered why. I am beginning to see that ours will need to firm up.
All of us have spent years accumulating these facts. Personally, I have used
many, many years of vacation time coming to the area of Ripley, Ohio,
Dearborn and Switzerland Counties to find my ancestors and to prove lines.
My sister and I have proven 20 Patriots in the DAR -- almost all came from
these 4 counties. The archivists there have been wonderful. It is one of my
favorite vacation spots (I live in California). Everyone there has been very
kind and helpful to me. I guess there has to be a few bad apples in the
barrel.
I will get off of my soapbox now.
Marilyn Abigt
Fallbrook, CA