First - to Carol Middleton (our host), I would like to say 'THANKS!' for mentioning my new book entitled CLARKE CO. (ATHENS), GA, NEWSPAPER ABSTRACTS, 1808-1820! Secondly, I've been quite impressed with the Clarke Co. GenWeb page, and the information shown thereon, and know you're dong a wonderful job! The next item, was regarding an E-mail posted here by a Tory Braden of St. Simons, as follows: > > I belong to a great list for No CA called NORCAL. It has about 500 > members and innumerable resources and people doing all kinds of look > ups. Pray you have kin who ended up there because you will get really > knowledgeable help there. With the expense of the above mentioned book, > I am wondering if anyone would be willing to do lookups for this list in > it? I would be willing to help with any help needed in Glynn Co for > trade. > > Cheers, > Tory Braden > St. Simons > James and Dianna Ann Maddox MCGEE and children, James, John and Peter > in Clarke County @1800. > > Tory - my book came back from the printers on Dec. 14, 1998 - one month today. In abstracting these old newspapers, I poured over microfilm of newspapers that were almost 200 years old, that had been torn, some too dark, some too light, some blurred and frankly, none of it was easy to read. The abstracting, proofing, funding from the R. J. Taylor Foundation, and gettng the book back from the printers took one year and three weeks to accomplish. Costs for microfilm, my personal travel expenses, printing costs for the book were far from cheap! The book is 8-1/2 x 11 (which means there is almost twice as much as contained in a 6 x 9" book), counting the front matter, it has 400 pages. It is hardback, acid-free paper, which means the book will last indefinitely (and this paper is far more expensive than regular paper), and my price is $36.00. That's 9 cents per page, and that's a bargain! It weighs 3 lbs., and as of today, the Post Office still requires postage -so I have to charge for postage, plus tax for GA residents. Sorry, but that's the way it is. So, considering the above, and all my hard work and effort put into the book, I RESENT your post which basically says you want "something for nothing". The book has only been distributed to a few people and libraries to date - and you already want to share my work, through the medium of the Internet, with the group you call NORCAL, with no payment by yourself or others for that information. This is ethically and morally wrong! There's also the issue of COPYRIGHT. If you don't want to step on the toes of various authors, I would suggest you and your group study up on copyrighting. It sounds as if they need educating. There's an excellent article by Penny Bonnar in the IIGS Newsletter for Oct., 1998 (this is the International Internet Genealogy Society located at www.iigs.org) which includes information about copyrights. And this paragraph is from a member of the IIGS: The IIGS newsletter is having a special issue in April - all about plagiarism, copyrights, replication of ill-researched and flawed ancestries, etc. etc. The USIGS newsletter will also be issuing a special edition - ( a first, I believe in "co-operative genealogical journalism"!) - because this lack of honorable conduct is - to put the best face on it - arising from a serious lack of education. BTW, your group is also known by the name BGIFS (but genealogy is for sharing). I believe genealogy is for sharing also. The way I share is by spending my time and efforts in abstracting records. I even respond to a good many queries on various sites - many times the information I send is not yet published. As for the money part, I have yet to meet an author that gets rich on abstracting records and selling books - and I know a number of them who would definitely agree! One little hint about your query below, Clarke Co. was formed Dec. 5, 1801 out of Jackson Co. I just happen to have written three books on Jackson Co. records. They're found in the majority of the good genealogy libraries (or if anyone else, who is interested in paying for books, wants a listing, just send me an E-mail.) > James and Dianna Ann Maddox MCGEE and children, James, John and Peter > in Clarke County @1800. Sincerely, Faye Stone Poss