On Fri, Sep 23, 2011 Janean wrote: >Ancesty I've heard then OWNS your information and people have tried to remove it or make corrections and can't... I don't know the details ----- Janean is right. Back at the dawn of the World Wide Web, before graphic interfaces and web browsers existed,, I participated in several genealogical bulletin boards. I made the huge mistake of emailing a large part of my database to a fellow researcher; he uploaded it to Ancestry *without* most of my notes and sources, and without asking my permission. For years thereafter I kept seeing big chunks of my database on the Internet without attribution. I could recognize it because of the glaring--and unique-- errors that I had by then corrected. I contacted Ancestry, told them of the errors and how they had got onto the website, and asked to be cited as the source and allowed to correct the errors. Ancestry turned me down flat. They arrogantly told me that I could buy MY OWN MATERIAL from them on a CD at some outrageously inflated price, and then *maybe* they would consider letting me fix the mistakes. I declined. Ever since I have avoided giving Ancestry any of my research or my money. The old flawed, outdated material is probably still circulating. At this point I don't want any credit for it anyway. Beware of letting your research escape your control, especially if it can be appropriated without attribution and sold without your consent. Ancestry still doesn't seem to offer any protection. Kathleen Much

Kathleen, Not very long ago I would have agreed with you completely. We've all been there. The only thing worse than having your research used with no attribution is having your bad research attributed to you. But I have to agree with Jim too: if you can't beat them, join them. Go on the offensive. George Durman's GERMANNA FAMILIES idea was something I would have never expected him to do, and much less did I think would be viable. But actually, is has been a pleasant surprise to me. I think ancestry's days of selling out-dated material on CDs (which they mostly took from the Family History Library in Salt Lake City--and they too will put up anything by anybody) are over. The field has become much more sophisticated since then, and so has ancestry.com. I mean, there are very few of us here who DON'T use it, would you agree? So, if you want the data to be accurate, what I have proposed is a good way to do it. If you don't care, or don't see the need to share your research in a more permanent form, then it would be a bad idea. You could of course put it on your own web site, and many people do that, but how permanent is that? The Kilby data base (not mine, but based largely on mine originally) is on its own web page. I don't run that site, a cousin of mine does. That has pros and cons. But we DO have a fb page to direct traffic to it. It is not open-sourced. Only Herb Kilby, the web master, can make any changes to it. It is also a bit difficult to use, IMO. So........the world keeps spinning whether we like it or not. Better to spin with it than to be spun off it. Craig On Sep 23, 2011, at 8:33 PM, Kathleen Much wrote: > On Fri, Sep 23, 2011 Janean wrote: >> Ancestry I've heard then OWNS your information and people have tried to > remove it or make corrections and can't... I don't know the details > ----- > > Janean is right. Back at the dawn of the World Wide Web, before > graphic interfaces and web browsers existed,, I participated in > several genealogical bulletin boards. I made the huge mistake of > emailing a large part of my database to a fellow researcher; he > uploaded it to Ancestry *without* most of my notes and sources, and > without asking my permission. For years thereafter I kept seeing big > chunks of my database on the Internet without attribution. I could > recognize it because of the glaring--and unique-- errors that I had by > then corrected. > > I contacted Ancestry, told them of the errors and how they had got > onto the website, and asked to be cited as the source and allowed to > correct the errors. Ancestry turned me down flat. They arrogantly told > me that I could buy MY OWN MATERIAL from them on a CD at some > outrageously inflated price, and then *maybe* they would consider > letting me fix the mistakes. I declined. > > Ever since I have avoided giving Ancestry any of my research or my > money. The old flawed, outdated material is probably still > circulating. At this point I don't want any credit for it anyway. > > Beware of letting your research escape your control, especially if it > can be appropriated without attribution and sold without your consent. > Ancestry still doesn't seem to offer any protection. > > Kathleen Much