Hi Jan, It is a vexed issue allright, and what you can do legally may be different from what you might do ethically. Publishing details only of the deceased doesn't necessarily solve the dilemma. For instance, my mother-in-law is deceased, but if someone was to publish details, such as her maiden name, it could create problems of confidentiality for her four living children, who are asked for "Mother's Maiden name" when filling in passport applications and banking details. It really isn't highly desirable to share that information with a few million Australians. Because you are being responsible with the information, and only printing a small number of copies doesn't mean that some other gung ho member of the family won't enter all the details available in your book onto a genie program and publish it on the net. Once it is out there it is out there forever and you can't call it back. So for myself, I think I would be drawing a line under the family history at a far distant point, say 100 or 75 years, and publish nothing later. You keep all the other stuff in a file and leave it to your desendants. I too collected may many details of a extended family tree years ago, but the informaion was given to me in complete ignorance of the coming armageddon of internet. Giving me the information under those circumstances I wouldn't consider covering present day circumstances. I won't be publishing it. I am also not passing on information to other people that I wouldn't publish myself, or about myself. Best wishes, Lenore >Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2006 18:05:27 +1100 >From: Jan <janealogy@westnet.com.au> >I am on the verge of publishing my family history and over the years (as >have all of us) collected the birth, marriage, death, Will, education, >employment, divorce and adoption information, not to mention one or two >"secrets", of all my relatives. I am aware of the "etiquette" of not >publishing the personal information about living people, even if they >have given me their permission to do so. However, what I want to ask is >this: > >Is it against the law to publish this information and, if so, what if I >have permission to publish by virtue of the fact I have been told the >information? >Do I have to get permission from every individual, or would a parent's >permission be acceptable for their children? >If I can't publish personal information, can I then publish photos of >these living people? > >I will be printing about a dozen copies only, half of which will go to >the U.K. and the other half to various States in Australia. > >I have seen some websites that just give the word "Living" when >referring to a family member but my personal opinion is that it is >hardly worthwhile including them if you can't at least give their first >name, or sex. In fact, what I had thought of doing to overcome the >privacy thing, was just to include first name and the year of an event >that related to them, but have decided just to put their first name >only. Before doing so, however, I thought I should check to see if >someone has a definitive answer. > >Seems to me that after seven years of collecting, it's a real >anti-climax if I can't include the names of the hundreds of family >members living. What sort of boring family history is it that the first >half is fully detailed and interesting, and the second half just repeats >the word "Living"!