This may be the sign that genealogy, like other collectibles, is about to get more expensive. Look at the web sites taken over by large corporations. We have become a market and someone who has something someone else wants will try to get the most for it. Maybe the predictions that genealogy will become the biggest use of the internet may bring about the actual reduction to a hobby of the wealthiest. I hope I am wrong. There is nothing you can do except pay for the letters. If you refuse, and nobody else wants them that bad, the price will come down. It is unlikely that someone will destroy something they hope to get some return for. Ed Hagan > Subject: I need advice, please! > Date: Sun, 21 Mar 1999 00:34:46 -0500 > From: "Wendy L. Miller" <wink@abts.net> > To: OHTRUMBU-L@rootsweb.com > > Hi fellow researchers, > > I have a bit of a dilemma I'm hoping some of you might help me with. I > have Civil War letters and a diary of my great-great-grandfather, Dwight H. > Cory, which I've transcribed and put on the internet. He served in the 6th > OH Cavalry out of Greene, Trumbull County, Ohio. The letters mention many > of the other citizens at the time. A museum curator in Cincinnati wrote to > me and told me of someone who has letters of a brother of Dwight's. She > isn't of the family line; she bought the letters at an estate sale. There > are 137 letters of the same time period and she's been offered, she says, > $2000 for them. The museum had asked her to lend them and I asked her to > copy them but we haven't had success. Neither the museum nor I are in the > position to purchase the letters. She says her potential buyer will sell > them individually and doesn't want them copied. What would you do? I hate > to see a potential genealogical goldmine go to waste, but I don't know any > descendants on that line to inform of the problem. I'd appreciate any > advice. > > Thanks, > > Wendy Miller > (letters are at http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~lovelace/cory.htm )