Before I get into the topic of this message, if you don't read the Sunday Morning Coffee then you'll need to know that this year's reunion has been cancelled. On to the subject at hand ~~ PROTECT YOURSELVES An incident occurred this week on one of my other lists that caused some very active (though not heated) discussion. I think you should know about it to be able to protect yourselves. With permission of the author, I'm copying her message here: "I am so upset right now!!! I want to let you all know that it isn't safe to trust the data on Ancestry.com! I was looking around there and found out that someone had uploaded MY direct line! I haven't done it because I never submit my line to any service for pay...I give my data away.. anyhow... The person that submitted MY line has my mother married to my grandfather and other errors..I did contact the submitter, I don't really know who they are or how they got my data as I didn't get that answer from them. I was told it would be corrected...months later, I rechecked...it's still totally in error! So, I contacted Ancestry.com, I told them that this was my direct line. (Since it's my mother, father and grandfather, I don't know how much more direct it could be!) My answer came today from ancestry.com ...they refuse to take any responsibility for the errors and tell me to contact the submitter which I had already done...they will NOT fix it, remove it nor do anything else to it. I am not too sure just what I plan to do at this point but I am upset and angry! I just want you to know that you can't take the data seriously there and that you MUST PROVE any data off their site.." Several messages back and forth, and persistent insistence on the part of this woman, here is Ancestry's reply: "You have the option to download the file as a gedcom upload it to the Online Family Tree section on the site, make the necessary corrections and then transfer it back to the World tree. We are willing to assist you with this process. This will allow the information that you feel is incorrect to be corrected and posted to the our public forum." Now family, this may not seem like any big flap to you, but it really is. Let's think on this: 1.) The most apalling thing here is her private data is now up for sale and the people are still alive! This is due to a stranger having access to her data and uploading it in a GEDCom. 2.) Ancestry.com cannot and will not make corrections to anyone's submitted data. Therefore, this woman's CURRENT (within the last 50 years) lineage is being displayed (and indirectly sold, because of memberships) incorrectly. 3.) Although Ancestry.com knows the material may be wrong and knows the people are living, they won't take steps themselves to remove it from online. Thus, they are jeopardizing the safety of the woman and her family. Two more members of the same list wrote in with basically the same problems. Cousins, don't get me wrong - Ancestry.com is providing a fantastically wonderful service (albeit for a price) to the genealogical community. I, myself, am a member. However, the unnerving at my end comes from the fact that we are talking about living family members. In another related instance from that list - a woman's brother-in-law gave information about his own family to one of his cousins. The cousin published it on his Web site but not until after making some changes which he (the cousin) felt corrected mistakes made by the brother-in-law. One of those corrections happened to be the first name of this woman's sister and her husband! The cousin was asked about the corrections. His reply to the brother-in-law, when asked about the change in his OWN SON'S name, was that he (the cousin) "had found documentation that contradicited" the original info given him by my brother in law! Two things from this event should immediately impact on all of you ~~ 1.) Never take any genealogical data you find online as THE final word! Fall back to the Cardinal Rule of genealogy - "Believe NONE of what you hear, only HALF of what you read. PROVE EVERYTHING!" Do your own research and use what you find on the Web as a guide. Newbies, especially, should remember this one. 2.) As genealogists and Web researchers, it is our responsibility to protect the data on those relatives who are still living. Though the brother-in-law felt he could trust his cousin, it's patently obvious he (the brother-in-law) shouldn't have. However, the bigger error is on the part of the cousin: We should NEVER, but NEVER publicize vital data about our living relatives on the Web - even in our online-family discussions. Why? Before the days of computering, identity thieves would walk through cemeteries to get information about people. Now, all they have to do is go online to get it. However, now they're handed full histories through unwary family historians. What is the most common password your creditors ask for? ...isn't it your mother's maiden name? With that alone, a good identity thief can compromise your entire credit history. With your name and birthdate an identity thief can get a social security card, a driver's license and ... well, you get my drift here. Online family histories never need to include living relatives because we don't research the living. When we publicize personal data about those still living, we inadvertenly compromise their security and THAT isn't what we're all doing research for. Do I sound paranoid? I hope you don't think so. Does this stuff REALLY happen? You bet it does! If you'll do a little Web surfing you'll find warnings are out regarding this. To read more on the subject of identity theft, you might want to start here <http://www.nevans.freeserve.co.uk/rules.htm> with two messages from one of our own, genealogist Myra Vanderpool Gormley. Also, you might want to read this one as well <http://www.consumerinfo.com/n/su98_d.htm>. Afterwards, do a Web search for "identity theft" +genealogy. I think you're going to be quite surprised if you're not already up on the subject. Family ... it's what we're all about. However, let's not be careless with what we know about those still with us. Colleen