Dear WRG: I received my invitation to join in on the MyFamily.com site, but when I went there I realized that it was operated by ANCESTRY, Inc., owners of Ancestry.com. For a number of years I have heard very mixed reports about being involved with this entity whose purpose is making money from genealogists. There is currently a thread running on NORTHEAST-Roots about this company, with the bad reports outnumbering the good defenses by about 5 to 1. I have saved a number of these messages, and if asked, will put together a collection and send it to anyone who wants to see it. That said, I'm sure that you have noted that I do subscribe to their daily newsletter. Since they now put live web links into it, I have been checking the various free databases that they offer as samples to interest people in subscribing to see if there are any Whitney materials that I can pick up and pass on. My concern here is that a lot of our work that has been created by a lot of effort will end up in their commercial products, when our intent has been to make it available to anyone at no cost. Others have found that the material that represents to be their research is intermingled with other material that is erroneous, and that they had not given any permission for its use. In the latter case, someone got it from a free site, incorporated it with their own stuff, and then sent it in to this corporate entity without asking the originator for his permission. All of this speaks to the sometimes antithetical matter of freedom of information, copyright issues, and ethics. I certainly don't have all the answers, but you will have noted, I hope, that when I glean data from Ancestry.com's free databases, I always give them credit as the source. That's my understanding of fair use and responsible scholarship. If I copied an entire free database, or even a substantial portion of it, and handed it out for free, I would, I believe, be in violation of their copyright in the organization and presentation of the material, and I know I would be unethical. So, to the committee on the reunion -- perhaps you could work through the Whitney-L maillist as well as through the medium of the MyFamily site? That would let those of us who are uncomfortable with the other keep up with our plans. As to the reunion, I'll be there with bells on, whenever and wherever you put it. Having said that, I do heartily approve of the Watertown area for the first one. We might look at Norwalk, CT for a succeeding one, for the benefit of our Henry descendants, and if we can get a bit more organized with the Southern branch, maybe we could have one in Virginia as well. I've run out of thoughts for the night. Happy Hunting! Allan E. Green