Anyone know of a connection between someone name "Ash", who would have a connection to a Steele family? I responded to a post from someone, who apparently has connections to my Steele family, and it turns out the posting was done by a third party, hired by this person, to find his Steele family connections. The "client" has paid a tremendous amount of money to this firm to do his genealogy ($60/hour--10 hour minimum), all of which he could do himself IF he had a computer (which he doesn't)! I would gladly share my information directly with this person, but I am more than a little reluctant for him to have to pay so much money to have someone else get it for him. I am also not comfortable with the idea of this third party having my "stuff". I'm not willing for my "relative" to pay so much money for the information, and the third party get it for free from me! My work has a value, too, especially for independent third party "professionals", who in turn sell it to my family! Please let me know if you know of this "Ash Family" researcher, and also I would appreciate some feedback from those of you on this list--am I justified in feeling this way? Thanks! Sherry (Seattle)

Sherry of Seattle raised interesting questions. One question deals with sharing which may involve a third person and commercial use. Whenever one puts a gedcom up on a site or makes it available through a commerical genealogy website, that is what could happen. Yes, there are supposed to be rules, but it is very hard to monitor. One just has to counter balance the pros and the cons of sharing and make ones own decision. The other question deals with paying for information. Until all info is available free via computer, we are still going to have to have people search local records at locations that we can not travel to. It is appropriate to pay them. I have had wonderful help from local history and genealogy society members in the U.S. and Canada. Often they only ask for a donation to their society to help them increase their local resources. I have also employed professionals and semi-professionals and gotten help well worth the cost. I had a great professional helping me trace my great-great Steele uncles' families across Canada and have had good help from professionals in Northern Ireland and some that knew early New England and North Carolina sources very well. To me, that is the other advantage of hiring a searcher in addition to the fact that they can access local ifnormation that you can't. Good searchers are very efficient in knowing local and regional sources. In addition I access various data sources and get as much as I can on my own. I have easy access to the Wisconsin State Historical Library which has one of the top collections of geneaologies and local history books in the country as well as census from all states and many newspapers . However, when I needed material not available in the library I often found that I did not know the sources and my searcher did, saving a good deal of time. The other advantage of hiring professionals as opposed to only accepting shared information is that the professional usually documents sources. Some, amateurs like me, do not. I like the hunt rather than the taxidermy--ie, being exact on volume and page. Data that I share usually is sound but I am not guaranteeing it. However, I think that the amount you quoted is exorbitant. A minimum number of hours is typical but the total of about $600 is not usual unless prices have gone up a lot. One other comment. Digging for information is a kind of activity that some of us who like puzzles and detail enjoy and others do not. A high powered business man, for example, is used to paying other people to do the digging. He or she doesn't have time or interest to deal with the bits and pieces but wants the end result. Sara At 12:49 AM 12/28/01 EST, you wrote: >Anyone know of a connection between someone name "Ash", who would have a >connection to a Steele family? I responded to a post from someone, who >apparently has connections to my Steele family, and it turns out the posting >was done by a third party, hired by this person, to find his Steele family >connections. The "client" has paid a tremendous amount of money to this firm >to do his genealogy ($60/hour--10 hour minimum), all of which he could do >himself IF he had a computer (which he doesn't)! I would gladly share my >information directly with this person, but I am more than a little reluctant >for him to have to pay so much money to have someone else get it for him. I >am also not comfortable with the idea of this third party having my "stuff". >I'm not willing for my "relative" to pay so much money for the information, >and the third party get it for free from me! My work has a value, too, >especially for independent third party "professionals", who in turn sell it >to my family! Please let me know if you know of this "Ash Family" researcher, >and also I would appreciate some feedback from those of you on this list--am >I justified in feeling this way? Thanks! Sherry (Seattle) > > >==== STEELE Mailing List ==== >Search, Subscribe & Unsubscribe STEELE-L >http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/surname/s/steele.html >List Manager's address STEELE-admin@rootsweb.com > >============================== >To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: >http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 > >