I have to say, when I first started my internet genealogy, I did not understand the need for all of the "Livings." But then I did a search and came up with the names of my sisters and I, with our residences, birthdates, and my marriage date and ex-husband's name. I did not recognize the name of the person who posted it, and when I contacted her to ask her to suppress some of it, she had no idea who I was-apparently she had received the information from the former in-law of a distant relation (a 10yo doing a genealogy project)! I was pretty mild about it, but she really launched back at me. Apparently, I was not the first to contact her, and she was very angry beyond proportion. So, I went back to look at the rest of her tree and found all sorts of personal information about people in the comments-i.e. bad childhoods, substance abuse problems. When I looked again a month later, I was relieved to find that she had removed everything. It occured to me at that point that, though I was only mildly disturbed about the information being there, I was very concerned about this person's judgement and glad she didn't know more about me. Also, now that there are babies in my family, I am more sensitive. The possibility of someone learning enough details about the family to convince one of my nephews to go with them may seem far-fetched, but children are stolen from their parents frequently enough that I don't want that out there. I figure that I can usually get 4-5 generations on my own- by that point I can make a link with another tree and contact that person directly to swap info-I usually get a lot more than info that way anyway. One person had my gggggrandmother's spinning wheel, which would not show up in a gedcom:) Lisa McDonald Is it possible that some programs will convert everyone without a death date to "Living?" ----- Original Message ----- From: <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, June 01, 2003 4:28 PM Subject: [VA-SOUTHSIDE-L] "Living" Persons, Privacy, ramifications > Would Paul Drake and some of you legal eagles point out the liability > involved by giving genealogical information on living descendants? I personally > don't have anything to hide and anyone is welcome to publish anything about me > personally, my ancestors or descendants. Likewise, I do not welcome any > information considered by some as "private". Most of us are trying to record > information for posterity, escpecially for our, hopefully, future interested > descendants. What difference will it make to us or them 100 years from now?? > > What really ticks me off on the internet is to find some ancestor born in the > 1700s or 1800s with all of their children listed as "Living". > > Bev Brooks Cavender > Lake Placid, FL > > > ==== VA-SOUTHSIDE Mailing List ==== > The USGenWeb Project http://www.usgenweb.org > Do Not Post Chain Letters, Virus Warnings, etc. to this list. > This list is for Genealogy, History and Related Topics. > > ============================== > 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 > >

To All: Rootsweb does not condone posting of names and personal information on living persons. While I cannot prevent it, I advise members of my lists to not post such information. Remember, the poster is responsible for what they post and any liability resulting from it. All postings are archived and can be found by anyone through a web search, so if in doubt, don't make such information public. Anyone who does not know the living members of the families they are researching haven't gotten very far up the family tree! List Administrator, G. Lee Hearl Authentic Appalachian Storyteller Abingdon, Va.