I promise we are not a huge conglomerate, just some genealogists that want free genealogy. I have had my work taken, I know what it's like to not be able to access information that you've donated unless you pay. We won't ever sell data, that's a promise. William Boswell <whboswell@verizon.net> wrote: I've complained to the makers of Family Tree Maker for years that they are selling our data for their own profit. They always come up with a lame excuse that they are providing a service to all genealogists by sharing the information for the price of a CD. Not true! In recent years, they've offered those same family trees to be downloaded from their site, but they charge a whopping fee to do so. I've tried pulling many family trees from both RootsWeb and Ancestry years ago, mainly because they had errors in them and also because I didn't want my information sold after I've spent thousands of dollars researching my family. I plan one day to publish my own stuff and either give it away to family members or sell it. You lose control of your own data when you post to these so called "free" sites. I also agree that many of these family trees contain nothing but errors, no source information to prove anything, and most of it is crap people got off the internet. I prefer the old fashion way of going to libraries, cemeteries, and other places to actually see the source material. Books and online data are also a help if it is genuine. Bill -----Original Message----- From: washingtondc-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:washingtondc-bounces@rootsweb.com]On Behalf Of Lena C. Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2007 9:17 AM To: washingtondc@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [WashDC] Free Vital Records Storage I agree, this is why I have always been anti-Family Tree Maker. I don't know if they still do it, but they used to have an option where you could "backup" your family tree- but what they were really doing was taking everyone's "backed up" trees, burning them all to CD's and selling them. Then not only are they pretty much stealing your stuff, but the CD's are passed off as being real data when they're really just someone else's research and oftentimes not very accurate. Rootsweb does offer free server space to anyone who wants to put their info online. You can get your own space with your own log-in and password and then you can still share your stuff but it's not quite so public. > Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2007 00:00:42 -0400 > From: "William Boswell" > Subject: Re: [WashDC] Free Vital Records Storage > To: > > I prefer my own DVDs. You never know what some > companies will do with your > information. ______________________________________________________________________ ______________ Shape Yahoo! in your own image. Join our Network Research Panel today! http://surveylink.yahoo.com/gmrs/yahoo_panel_invite.asp?a=7 ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to WASHINGTONDC-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to WASHINGTONDC-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message --------------------------------- Boardwalk for $500? In 2007? Ha! Play Monopoly Here and Now (it's updated for today's economy) at Yahoo! Games.