I will second the comments of those who have had positive experiences with posting family trees to World Connect. I posted my tree online on New Year's Eve in 2003 as a third line of defense when I was afraid my computer was about to crash. Since that time I have added thousands of individuals to my tree through my own research and that contributed by others who found their ancestors out on the tip of one of my branches and offered information about descendants. Rarely is there a day when I don't have contact with one or more persons based on my online tree. Think about that: two contacts per day for 18 months--that's 1,080 people contacting me! I've had exactly one of them say, "Send me all you have." The others are usually offering help in filling in gaps. I have at times been overwhelmed by the offerings. Why add them? Because otherwise information that might help yet another researcher get their tree growing would possibly not be available. Maybe, just maybe, that second researcher might have been the one who would break down one of my brick walls. AND, because the more I know about the extended family, the more I really understand my own direct ancestors. I long ago lost track of the times I have found family trails crossing and re-crossing lines. Besides that, you never know when one of those really distant cousins is going to have the old family Bible that has the missing piece of information that's not recorded anywhere else in the known world. Several years ago we made contact with a descendant of my 2nd great grandfather's brother. This family had preserved a family Bible dating back to the Rev. War that included my 3rd great grandmother's maiden name AND both her parents' names (for which our line of researchers had been searching for over 50 years). In another instance of cooperative effort, I had three different researchers on related lines contact me in a two month period. One had letters from the 1880's that had clues, that worki! ng together, allowed us all to add significantly to our total knowledge. Two others had numerous family photos to share. None of us had enough to have accomplished so much alone. I could give dozens of examples where having my tree online has lead others to me and allowed us to create a mutually beneficial correspondence. The growth has been exponential. The more information I have out there, the more people there are finding what they need in my web, and it just keeps growing. I note in the heading of my WorldConnect tree that: "This information is the work of many researchers and should be considered tentative until you've documented it to your own satisfaction." I also note that sources and notes are available upon request. I do not post my notes or sources online. As I stated, I've been doing genealogy research for many years and have been entering information in PAF for more than half that time...long before I ever thought of putting it online. Therefore, I know there are things in my notes and sources that I would prefer to not have posted online for a variety of reasons. I also have entered actual text on many, many of my sources, in some cases 15-20 of them on an individual. I'm not sure how WorldConnect or any other site would handled such a posting for 25,000 individuals (+ sources & text), or what the copyright issues might be. I really do not want anyone wholesale downloading my information, but I am very willing, when contacted, to do ! whatever I can to assist other researchers with the information I have in my files, selecting appropriate records that I think will help them and often doing additional research myself when I have little to report. At the same time I refer them to others who have contacted me about common interests and who are actively researching the line in question. All I ask is the opportunity to SHARE information. Do I use WorldConnect myself? You bet. How do I select the entries out of many to contact? I look for the ones that have the most complete information on the individuals I need. If they have only a name with no supporting dates or places, marriages, children, both parents, etc...I'll probably look at another entry where someone has to all appearances spent a little, or a lot, more time and effort locating information. Something missing? Want more? See an error? Have a suggestion? Email makes it easy to write and inquire. I've been doing genealogy for half my lifetime and would have been delighted had I had resources for all those 25 years that have become available only in the last few years. Where would I be today in my research had I had such access all along? How many people can I equip with information hammers to help work on breaking down our common brick walls? Sherry Johnson ______________________________Date: Thu, 28 Jul 2005 18:55:01 -0400 From: wadavis@vt.edu To: PAF-5-USERS-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [PAF-5] Gedcom sharing/worldconnect I too have concerns about GEDCOMs and generally do not download them or make mine available. If I talk to some one on mail for a bit, I might send part. WorldConnect is good about the living filter that is good. That way I don't accidentally forget when I make my GEDCOM and then upload living folks. I have had to revise some notes that referred to living. The advantage to me has been the contact with other family members who found me this way. One is the daughter of my Dad's cousin that I was named after. She was letting me know some additional info on the murder of our great grandmother that came from her Grandmother (the kid that did the crime apparently lived his whole life in regret and confessed on his death bed. If now we could only identify him! You might find some great contacts this way. Bill --------------------------------- Start your day with Yahoo! - make it your home page