Unfortunately, the fact is that more and more people are searching out other peoples genealogy work, and [like you say] are using it to fill out their own family forms, and not giving a hint of where it came from, or who really did the leg work in the first place. And what seems to be the "in thing" these days, especially in our schools and college's, is the copying of others work, just to get a good grade. Its no wonder that a good percentage of young people graduating can't read or work numbers. So it just trickles down to what we are talking about, and we have PLENTY of folks who just want YOU / US to do all their searching for them, and then credit themselve's for putting it all together. ie - all those queries that say "tell me all you have on such and such" I have myself backed away from these questions, and ask for something specific instead. Hopefully one day it will all get better...!!!! ??? Tim R. ***************************** Subject: [PaOldC] off the subject......sort of This doesn't concern Chester County, per se, but is a question on genealogical "ethics". I have been sent a bunch of data from another researcher (and, I assume this is sent to others, too, and probably 'published' on the web), and within the data is a section NOT on dates and places, but about the geography and history of the area.....something I wrote several years ago - word for word. There is, of course, no mention of where she found this, and it's inclusion into her files certainly makes it appear that it is her own 'work'. This is REALLY irksome, and I wrote her, asking that if she uses MY work and MY words, she mention MY name.....I've not heard from her, of course, but wonder how others of you might have handled similar experiences you've had in the past. Sandra To unsubscribe from this list, please send the one word message, unsubscribe, to pa-old-chester-request@rootsweb.com

> I guess I can understand Sandra's concerns about others using her > writings and not giving her credit for it. I think the way to try to > avoid that is to always add the note "this cannot be reproduced or > used without express permission from the author", and then to contact > the person and ask them why they did not get permission as Sandra did. > But I don't understand why it is so important that credit goes to > whoever did the research, although I will respect that feeling. When > I find bits and pieces about my family, of course I put down the > source, but the bits and pieces are fact - like dates of birth and > dates of death - not some person's creative, personal work. I feel > like if I find a piece of info on my family that other relatives could > use, it belongs to them also because it is their ancestor also. I > eagerly share it with whomever wants it. Kim Townsend Spangrude Tim Robinson wrote: > we have PLENTY of folks who just > want YOU / US to do all their searching for them, and then credit > themselve's for putting it all together. ie - all those queries that > say > "tell me all you have on such and such" I have myself backed away > from these questions, and ask for something specific instead.

My comments were not concerning family data....names and dates...although, in my book ANYONE who does original research deserves credit for doing so!!!! I've sure done enough to know the tremendous amount of time, thought and work involved and those who do this have earned the right to say how and where their work is used......... I've 'been there and done that' and imagine anyone who has done much research will sure agree.....however, in this case, what I was complaining about was the wholesale 'lifting' of a history I'd written about the establishment of early settlements in an Ohio county, the importance of the river that creates it's boundary, it's place in westward expansion, etc. Believe me, ANYONE who has had their original writings (their "creative, personal work") sent to them as the work of another, will sure understand how ticked off this makes you Sandra " I guess I can understand Sandra's concerns about others using her writings and not giving her credit for it. I think the way to try to avoid that is to always add the note "this cannot be reproduced or used without express permission from the author", and then to contact the person and ask them why they did not get permission as Sandra did. But I don't understand why it is so important that credit goes to whoever did the research, although I will respect that feeling. When I find bits and pieces about my family, of course I put down the source, but the bits and pieces are fact - like dates of birth and dates of death - not some person's creative, personal work. I feel like if I find a piece of info on my family that other relatives could use, it belongs to them also because it is their ancestor also. I eagerly share it with whomever wants it." -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.405 / Virus Database: 268.12.9/457 - Release Date: 9/26/2006

RE: > we have PLENTY of folks who just > want YOU / US to do all their searching for them, and then credit > themselve's for putting it all together. ie - all those queries that > say > "tell me all you have on such and such" I have myself backed away > from these questions, and ask for something specific instead. And >I will admit to having reservations about posting or publishing any of my genealogical work to >the Internet. But you have to bring something to the party. I know it's easy to be concerned enough about privacy and security of your data, and I know the feeling that people are just asking others to do their work and I don't like to encourage it. But I generally find that when I help even if I can't see the relevant connections to me I find things that are very interesting and useful. Often I don't see how it's useful until days or months later. And some of the connections I've made offered payback to those who did share enough so that I could who their ancestors were. I found a graveyard listing on a web site this month that has ancestors from early 1800s by helping someone who asked me about some indirect connections to an ancestor of mine that is cited as a witness to a will of their ancestor in 1866. I almost ignored it because I felt too busy and they already had a lot more info about the people that they were looking for than I could find. But then I sent a tree and some info I had where my family had come from a nearby county and before that. They replied with links to some bios of my ancestor and his brother and father in some online books I hadn't seen yet and that led to a few more in the Historic Pittsburgh PA collection of books online <http://digital.library.pitt.edu/fulltext/>. There's clearly some marriages between a surname in my line that marries into two generations of my family and what looks like a sibling of a GILCHRIST from my tree line married into his family. By sharing info and asking for more on what they had I was pointed to a cemetery he said some of the folks on my tree were buried in. I checked and found comments on that cemetery page from someone who was a clearly related to the same ancestor as me about 6 generations back. I asked her what she had on that person and she was able to share some info from a hard to find 6 volume book on that CALHOUN line that added very well cited and documented research to add another 5 or 6 generations of history to that branch. Through the three way exchange this started we all came away with more than we started with. This week I am returning a bible from the 1770's to the a descendant of the owner, Frederick JORDAN b. 1740. My mother found this in an attic when was a child in the 1940's, on old Jordan farm, Walnut Hill, in Highspire, PA (Dauphin County). There is no connection to my Jordan line that we can find but I was able to identify the family because of shared trees and info online. It turns out it belonged to the great grandfather of famous historian and genealogist John Wolf Jordan. Mr. Jordan worked for the Historical Society of PA and wrote many books about PA. Through research shared online I was able to identify someone who is a great granddaughter of John Wolf Jordan. The bible is going home to the family after apparently parting with it after the death of someone around 1820. Even though the last two generations were privatized I was able to tell that a certain tree had to be from someone from that line and contacted her via email and offered to return the bible to her family. She's thrilled. We can't tell if or lines are related but if they are it predates 1740 by a generation or more. I just wanted to share that to offer a good example of why publishing your family info online can help connect more than just data. I've tracked down other distant cousins to offer them photographs of mutual ancestors born in the early 1800's. My grandfather tried to throw these photos away after his wife died and my sister pulled them out of the trash. I've shared them with descendants of 3 siblings of my grandmother's great grandmother so they could see the parents of both sides of that family and the group and single portraits in an old photo album.