Ed, you as the author of the work, own the copyright, regardless of the claim made by the apparently anonymous claimant on the site you listed. You do not need to file it with The Library of Congress or anyone other office to make the claim; you just need to be able to prove you originated the material. However, to prove copyright, if proving and claiming were to be needed, you would have to provide evidence of authorship, which presumably you can do with your original manuscript, dated computer files, correspondence, and copies you gave to the various institutions. But, since you never sought financial compensation, and apparently don't seek it now, your damages are intangible. Despite the seeming callousness of that statement, I can readily imagine the hurt is real and the your perception of being violated as real as if you had been held up at gun point. Let's hope the folks at Rootsweb see it the same way and either pull your Evergreen Cemetery History and Index, or whatever you've entitled it, or compel the false claimant to relinquish his or her claim, request your permission, and, if granted, post full credit where appropriate, if that is a resolution that you can accept. I've had my copyrights violated more than once, and have never sued for the simple reason that claiming damages can be very daunting if large sums of money are not at stake. But I have dressed down the thieves in ways that brought them notoriety, which was rewarding in and of itself. Perhaps, Marc Nozell's bringing this to the attention of Rootsweb will bring about a similar result. Good luck. Best regards, Kelvin Kean Elverson, Pennsylvania