The records that I suggest folks place online would be those which are prior to 1900....the ones where we can't easily find in an obit or by a death or birth certificate...and the records which do not pertain to anyone of this generation but about three generations back...and don't think there would be many of those who would speak out against being mentioned online and if they did...I am running the other way as fast as I can. <smile> So I can easily see why some records could cause problems just as I was against posting recent obituaries on some mail list that I host (non USGenWeb/GAGenWeb mail list). When I post record it is about someone who is deceased and if their family have provided information that they do not mind being on the WWW then I might include that but in most cases (speaking from the view point of a former professional genealogist) the records we need to place online are the "old" records....Going to the meaning of genealogy...and using Webster's Ninth Collegiate Dictionary: Ancestor-one from whom a person is descended and who is usually more remote than in the line of descent than a grandparent...since I am sixty years old that would go back to my great grandparents...who would have been dead by the 1940s...and if it were a person in their 70s or 80s doing the research then it would go back to their great grandparents putting it back to the 1850s-1930s.....and for those who are new to genealogy and whose great grandparents were born circa 1880s turn of the century...you most likely know who they were and want to know more about who the earlier generation was so that pretty much leaves out those after say the 1950s...unless they were blessed with a very long life...also as a former professional genealogist there were times when I crossed the line into professional investigator/detective research which is a grey area and one that I did not tred on lightly...it was very risky when researching living people and also reporting any findings...but I did manage to help find one man's natural father's military folder and was also able to help him find his fathers merchant marine and US Coast Guard Folders which had actual photographs of a father whom he had never seen who was killed during the second world war...so that was a joy...and I waved all commissions and offered my time and all as a gift...as I did in many other research projects that I took on..I always gave at least 150%...to my clients...but I made some lifelong friends during the process....and in one case found a distant cousin...who was my client..you never know where you research will take you...and don't ever mistreat anyone as you might be mistreating your own cousins...just a suggestion to those of you who are too fast to label folks who have a differing view as an enemy...not the case at all.. So getting back to what you said...about the reasons we must first obtain permission to use any film or fiche we must first contact the folks at the LDS main library...The address is: Kathy Warburton Copyright Coordinator Family and Church History Department 50 East North Temple Street Floor 5 Salt Lake City, Utah 84150