This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --part0_909289606_boundary Content-ID: <[email protected]_out.mail.aol.com.1> Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII In a message dated 10/24/98 10:32:25 AM EST, [email protected] writes: << I know that I don't want my own letters posted on the internet after I'm gone, and the only people who can prevent that happening are those into whose hands they may fall. >> I certainly wouldn't want some of the letters I write posted on the list either, or published in the newspaper, or read by my mother! But when I write a genealogical letter, asking for information, or sharing what I have collected, I expect it to be passed around. Anyone with any experience researching should know that it will be passed on to other researchers, and expects it to be and hopes it will be. It is all well and good to go blind reading microfilm and bankrupt buying books, but when that old ox gets in the ditch, our way out is usually from another researcher who remembered old unk so-and so saying that when he and grandma were kids they lived in Podunk with cousin juniebell while ma and pa got on their feet after the house burned in Hicksville, so here we go, notebook in hand, looking for kin still in Podunk and Hicksville and sometimes we hit the mother lode, which we would never have done without family gossip, old letters, diaries, whatever someone will share. Don't want to bore you good folks to death but will tell you a true story just to show you how chancey all of this can be. I was in the local Family History Center ( which where I live is the only game in town). As I passed by the computer, I remarked to the lady looking at the ancestral file, " Oh, you are researching the Duty family, I have a Duty also". We chatted a minute, she asked about my Duty and I told her that my brick wall gr grandmother had two sisters, one named Emma and one named Marietta, one married a Nash and one married a Duty but I didn't know which was which. She told me to wait a minute, went to her briefcase and returned, handed me Marietta Saxon Duty's bible records. Because of this chance encounter I have located two more living descendents of this same ole Sanford Saxon I told you about a few days ago. We still don't know anything about him, but that is another sad tale. Anyway, there is a point to this, believe it or not, and that is that if we want to be successful researchers, we should always be willing to share our findings. You never know when some little note on a scrap of waste paper is the information someone else has been looking for for years. And we have to remember that some of us are not as lucky as others. We don't live near a good genealogical library, we don't have the funds to join a lot of societies and subscribe to publications. Some of us are impaired, or physically handicapped which makes it difficult, and some of us are just starting out and haven't learned the ropes yet. For those of you who got your panties in a knot over the letter Kelly posted, get your flame throwers gassed up, I am going to post another one. These were given me by my (real) cousin Emma Jon Ratliff Chandler of Ponca City, Okla. She was a carefull and dedicated researcher and helped every one she could. Emma Jon died from cancer last year. I know it would please her to know she is still helping people. And by the way, if any of you doubt my little story about the bible pages, the lady who gave it to me was AOL's very own HudsonK, the gal who is always traipsing off to Arkansas to inventory cemeteries, and I am very grateful to her.. Billie Ratliff Staggs . --part0_909289606_boundary Content-ID: <[email protected]_out.mail.webtv.net.2> Content-type: message/rfc822 Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Content-disposition: inline Return-Path: <[email protected]> Received: from rly-zb04.mx.aol.com (rly-zb04.mail.aol.com [172.31.41.4]) by air-zb04.mail.aol.com (v50.22) with SMTP; Sat, 24 Oct 1998 11:32:25 -0400 Received: from bl-14.rootsweb.com (bl-14.rootsweb.com [204.212.38.30]) by rly-zb04.mx.aol.com (8.8.8/8.8.5/AOL-4.0.0) with ESMTP id LAA11584; Sat, 24 Oct 1998 11:32:16 -0400 (EDT) Received: (from [email protected]) by bl-14.rootsweb.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) id IAA15345; Sat, 24 Oct 1998 08:18:54 -0700 (PDT) Resent-Date: Sat, 24 Oct 1998 08:18:54 -0700 (PDT) From: [email protected] X-WebTV-Signature: 1 ETAtAhUAmpG/VyKYOol+ldAsZf9/tGw6dMgCFF1Ks4O6s8oi6qXoX/15lXvWi3Lt Date: Sat, 24 Oct 1998 10:20:22 -0500 (CDT) Old-To: [email protected] Message-ID: <[email protected]> Subject: [RATLIFF-L] "the letter" Resent-Message-ID: <"kwQl0C.A.gvD.d_eM2"@bl-14.rootsweb.com> To: [email protected] Resent-From: [email protected] Reply-To: [email protected] X-Mailing-List: <[email protected]> archive/latest/415 X-Loop: [email protected] Precedence: list Resent-Sender: [email protected] Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit While I am absolutely sure that no harm was meant by the person who posted the letter in question, and that it was done in a spirit of helpfulness, I am not sure that it is appropriate for us to post personal letters, regardless of whether the principals are dead or how long ago they may have died. I know that I don't want my own letters posted on the internet after I'm gone, and the only people who can prevent that happening are those into whose hands they may fall. Maybe, in the case of personal letters, it would be better to first post a query, asking whether anyone might know of the addressee or of the author. If there is an interested response, then maybe the communication about such a letter could be more private. On the other hand, posting general queries, items which are of public record, or citing sources where information may be obtained is just fine, in my opinion. Pip ==== RATLIFF Mailing List ==== Send NO attachments of any kind to the list. If your email program automatically generates attachments for coding, please be sure it is turned off. If you have a document or other file of interest, please send it to individual addresses rather than to the list. The guideline also includes the "vcards" attachments. --part0_909289606_boundary--