My situation is similar but with a twist.  I have been writing biographies on certain individuals in a particular line.  The first bio went OK and I am writing two more (both in progress). I completed the second one, though I contributed a very small part of the information.  What this was - was a re-write and a different format of a genealogy compiled by a woman who is now dead since the 1990s.  I was able to add a little to it.  I felt strongly to locate her only daughter to get permission to share since in my opinion, this is her mother's work and likely in copyright after the mother's death. Since I couldn't find her (totally unknown) I was able to reach two or three of her children and they gave me written permission to use her work and were thrilled I was doing this. I'm wondering though if I am skating on thin ice since the deceased compiler's only child does not know anything about it because no one, including her children, knows where she is. Hoping to cover myself I wrote the following at the end of the work:"I claim nocopyright to this work.  I give  Mrs. Ruth all the credit forthis work."This work is not for sale, but is free for the asking. "WARNING:  Do notpreserve this or post this on the Internet, Face Book, Cloud storage,Ancestry.com or any other means, mechanical or electronic, due to possible copyright violation."Permission to use and share so and so's workis granted by her grandson, 8 August 2014, her granddaughteradult middle child, and Oldest adult child, 6 October 2014."Permission to use newspaper clippings from the CorydonDemocrat granted by Jo Ann Spieth-Saylor, 8 August 2014."Did I get myself in deep water?  If I did, what would be the remedy?Cheryl ProctorSouthern Indiana