Hi Dana, I'm so sorry that you had an unpleasant experience, that kind of stuff "just gets all over me". I have to say that I have used other mailing lists but have not contacted a professional genealogist. There has usually been someone in the PRA that has helped me so I've never looked elsewhere (call me spoiled). I will say that checking some of the websites that were set up for the purpose of sharing family history - I don't get it - I thought the purpose of creating such a website was to share and find other possible relations. When you find one that has similar info and possibly could be a cousin - you email them from their site, ask the question and they either don't know where they found the info - don't answer you back - or in one case that I remember - they replied "for me to know and you to find out". Well, that did it for me. I don't use other family website unless it is a PRA site or something like rootsweb, cyndi's list. Dana, hopefully the PRA can help you and I am sure that if we can't help, we can point you in the right direction to get answers. Thanks for posting the story - a hard lesson for all of us but an important one. Rene'e Davis ARD, Family Groups PRA - Group 9 Pennington Research Association, Inc. www.penningtonresearch.org ----- Original Message ----- From: <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, July 07, 2004 1:02 PM Subject: disturbing emails > To all PRA members and professional researchers, > I have recently had the most disturbing email exchange with someone who > claims to be a professional genealogist/researcher. I had posted an inquiry on a > genealogy site and got a response that I thought would help me in my own search > for ancestors and was asked to respond via email, so I gave out this person > the email address that I use for posts. About the second email, the writing > began to sound bitter and this person informed me that I would not get any info if > I planned to give it away to be plagiarized. I was taken aback, to say the > least, as I have no plans to do any such thing. I made the very serious mistake > of trying to reason with this person and keep a cordial correspondence--I > know, I know, I should never have responded! Lesson one to staying safe on the > net! > > Needless to say, the emails became increasing bitter and even hostile--my > husband agreed--so I severed contact, deleted the emails and blocked this person > from sending more, but I must admit that I'm a bit shaken by the > unprofessional behavior and feeling somewhat violated and discouraged. > > Has anyone else ever run across this problem? If so, did ignoring the > situation make the problem go away? I plan to pull my email address from the post > sites and just correspond in public where others can witness what transpires. I > don't have a lot of experience with genealogists other than a few responses I > get on posts and PRA is the first genealogy group that I've ever joined. I do > know that there are certificates or degrees or something one gets to qualify as > a professional, but I've not looked into that because that's not my interest. > I appreciate any advice you can give. Thanks. > Dana > > > ==== PRA Mailing List ==== > ==== PENNINGTON RESEARCH ASSOCIATION List ==== > For more information about the PRA visit our Web Site at > http://www.penningtonresearch.org > >

I've also been a victim of some "disturbing emails!" The one that was the worst occurred about a year ago. I had found a bunch of info on the Montanye's through a Rockwell site. I had documented the location of the info like I normally do. I started corresponding with someone who did some work with the Rockwells and she accused me of stealing the information from her book. Which, I certainly did not do! Plus, a lot of the info was info that I had researched myself. I replied to her that was certainly her choice to not correspond, but I did not steal her information. That is abhorrent to me as both a historian and a researcher. Nevertheless, it did make me more careful of documenting my information. Carmen [email protected]bleone.net Home Page: http://carmenj.my100megs.com Genealogy Page: http://gheirlooms1.topcities.com Gallup Home: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~gallupfam/ PRA Group 7: http://carmenj.my100megs.com/PenningtonPage/PRAGroup7.htm -----Original Message----- From: Rene'e Davis [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Wednesday, July 07, 2004 4:50 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: disturbing emails Hi Dana, I'm so sorry that you had an unpleasant experience, that kind of stuff "just gets all over me". I have to say that I have used other mailing lists but have not contacted a professional genealogist. There has usually been someone in the PRA that has helped me so I've never looked elsewhere (call me spoiled). I will say that checking some of the websites that were set up for the purpose of sharing family history - I don't get it - I thought the purpose of creating such a website was to share and find other possible relations. When you find one that has similar info and possibly could be a cousin - you email them from their site, ask the question and they either don't know where they found the info - don't answer you back - or in one case that I remember - they replied "for me to know and you to find out". Well, that did it for me. I don't use other family website unless it is a PRA site or something like rootsweb, cyndi's list. Dana, hopefully the PRA can help you and I am sure that if we can't help, we can point you in the right direction to get answers. Thanks for posting the story - a hard lesson for all of us but an important one. Rene'e Davis ARD, Family Groups PRA - Group 9 Pennington Research Association, Inc. www.penningtonresearch.org ----- Original Message ----- From: <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, July 07, 2004 1:02 PM Subject: disturbing emails > To all PRA members and professional researchers, > I have recently had the most disturbing email exchange with someone who > claims to be a professional genealogist/researcher. I had posted an inquiry on a > genealogy site and got a response that I thought would help me in my own search > for ancestors and was asked to respond via email, so I gave out this person > the email address that I use for posts. About the second email, the writing > began to sound bitter and this person informed me that I would not get any info if > I planned to give it away to be plagiarized. I was taken aback, to say the > least, as I have no plans to do any such thing. I made the very serious mistake > of trying to reason with this person and keep a cordial correspondence--I > know, I know, I should never have responded! Lesson one to staying safe on the > net! > > Needless to say, the emails became increasing bitter and even hostile--my > husband agreed--so I severed contact, deleted the emails and blocked this person > from sending more, but I must admit that I'm a bit shaken by the > unprofessional behavior and feeling somewhat violated and discouraged. > > Has anyone else ever run across this problem? If so, did ignoring the > situation make the problem go away? I plan to pull my email address from the post > sites and just correspond in public where others can witness what transpires. I > don't have a lot of experience with genealogists other than a few responses I > get on posts and PRA is the first genealogy group that I've ever joined. I do > know that there are certificates or degrees or something one gets to qualify as > a professional, but I've not looked into that because that's not my interest. > I appreciate any advice you can give. Thanks. > Dana > > > ==== PRA Mailing List ==== > ==== PENNINGTON RESEARCH ASSOCIATION List ==== > For more information about the PRA visit our Web Site at > http://www.penningtonresearch.org > > ==== PRA Mailing List ==== ==== PENNINGTON RESEARCH ASSOCIATION ==== For help with your research, go to http://www.penningtonresearch.org and click on Research Tips.