Dear Brownie and list, Thanks for the kind words. I do what I can to provide information to those who browse our "West-of-the-Catawba" pages. The opportunities for researchers to find free genealogical information is fast disappearing. As long as I maintain the pages that are of help to my fellow researchers, I will endeavor to make all web postings free and available. Many Lincoln and Gaston cemetery pages have been restored by the efforts of those who share my philosophy of FREE GENEALOGY. I will soon be posting the records of the Cleveland County WPA Cemetery records on the web. Many folks are aware that Ann Propst and I created a CD with these records that were originally made available to the public for a fee. Hundreds of hours were spent in making this information available to researchers. The only reason that a price was put on the CD was to recoup the time and expenses incurred in creating it. Since we have been able to break even (just barely), we are going to make the information public, in spite of the fact that we still have a bunch of CD's in inventory. I continue to solicit any and all cemetery surveys from folks who believe as I do, that freely gathered information should be shared with those who freely seek it. If readers of this post have material relating to cemeteries in Catawba, Lincoln, Burke, Gaston and Cleveland Counties that they would be willing to post on the NCGenWeb pages, I will be happy to credit the contributors and will offer the assurance that their material will be copyrighted in their name and be freely available to the public, in perpetuity, with any subscription fees. Thanks to all, Derick S. Hartshorn former NC State Coordinator, NCGenWeb Project current USGenWeb Project-County Coordinator Catawba/Burke/Lincoln/Gaston/Cleveland, NC http://www.rootsweb.com/~nccatawb/ http://www.rootsweb.com/~ncburke/ http://www.rootsweb.com/~nclincol/ http://www.rootsweb.com/~ncgaston/ http://www.rootsweb.com/~ncclevel/ At 03:50 PM 3/9/2008, you wrote: > Dear All: > >*Derick Hartshorne said: Regarding Find-a-Grave, I have contributed a good >deal of information >from my own research to them and I appreciate the efforts they have >made to make information available. * > >Find-a-Grave is a wonderful source; I have contributed as well, because I >have found long lost ancestors' burial places there; however, I recently >was perusing FOOTNOTES.COM as a "free" member to try it out. I ran across a >statement where Footnotes.com will be acquiring Find-a-Grave. I decided to >go into deep denial, because Footnotes is initially free for limited >research but is charging for full membership. Footnotes.com is based in >Utah. All the good free sites are diminishing rapidly, and they're all going >to Utah. Must be the climate. ? I think we've all been "had." I stay >totally confused regarding copyright laws for material that should be in the >public domain and available for everyone's perusal regardless of who has >it. And I become totally irritated when I go to a "free" site, search, and >the answer to my query is embedded in a paid site, where I'm denied access >unless I join and pay for a years' membership. Happened just this morning. >It's a total waste of my time and energy. I don't mind paying for postage >and copying ever...nor paying for someone's time spent on help, but having >to pay to get into a site to simply view information that is over a hundred >years old is ludicrous. > > >Brownie MacKie >Total Skeptic and proud of it