Laura, it sounds as if by including photos, you have added a "modicum of creativity" to your "mere facts" -- meaning that the whole of what you've created has copyright protection already by common law. How about hurrying to register your copyright, as explained in the Hoffman article? Phone your library to see whether they have the necessary form(s) to photocopy and mail to the Register of Copyrights in Washington, DC. (By the same token, if he rushes to copyright first, I would think you'd have to get permission to use your own material.) On every photo and ged-com, have a copyright line: (c) Copyright 1 September 1999, Laura Koehn, all rights reserved worldwide. You might add a further statement, such as AUTHOR'S NOTICE: These pages may NOT be reproduced in any format.. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material must obtain the written consent of the owner. If you can, have the family member return all the material you've given him, and give him one with your copyright and permission notices on it.