Hi Everyone, I've been watching the debate (?) about the privacy issue of people born after 1920 - or before 1920 for that matter. I don't pretend to know all the answers to all of your concerns, but there are some observations that I would like to make - or suggestions - whichever you might feel comfortable with. For anyone who participates in this fascinating hobby called Genealogy, privacy is an oxymoron. For starters, how could I send this message without "anyone" knowing where or who it came from? I mean, if I wanted to ask who aunt Mary Smith married, why do people need to know who wants to know? Someone could respond with , "Aunt Mary Smith married John Bramble Bush, but I can't tell you when or where because Aunt Mary is only 75 years old and we wouldn't want to invade her privacy." No need to add that Aunt Mary had 5 children by John, 2 each by her second and third husband and is currently available for matrimonial purposes again. John Bramble Bush expired some years ago. Newspaper article says he got drunk and fell down a couple flights of stairs at a local bordello. Can't say when or where, some of his children are still living as far as we know. Last known to be in Australia or something like that. I'm sorry I can't do much more for you. I can ask Aunt Mary for more details. She surely would be more forthcoming with information having the comfort of knowing the information will not be relayed to you or anyone else until after her funeral. Yeah right!!! I received my weekly copy of the Wetzel Chronicle today. As usual there is a full compliment of Obituaries from recent deaths of people in or in some way associated with Wetzel County, WV. I noticed right off something was wrong here. For some who had expired, it gave their parents names. Some parents were still living. For some it listed their survivors - almost all of them were living! And God Forbid, for some it gave their maiden names!! That's a shame. I know some of these women fully intended to keep her family name a secret from those without a need to know. The Society Page was not much better. People were announcing their Golden Anniversaries and such and there it was in black and white - their wedding date. For shame. And it sure is not setting a good example for the younger crowd. There are some of them brazen enough to publicly announce an impending marriage. And even listing their PARENTS in detail. All eight of them!!! I noticed that some of the younger parents announcing births were being more careful though. They were both using their maiden names. Sometimes the child received the surname of the father and sometimes the surname of the mother. Good idea. Keeps the public guessing doesn't it? You'll never guess what there was in the personals. Not fit to repeat here!! You know, I'm really starting to worry about what you might find on the new web site of the Latter Day Saints. Rumor has it that they have microfilmed Wetzel County - and others - Courthouse records. Can you imagine what will happen if these records can be viewed on the computer from your home without subjecting yourself to the abuse of some County Clerks and her staff? You'll be able to tell if it happens and you just happen to be in the vicinity of the courthouse. That woman standing out on the courthouse steps - (in the rain) - pumping her fist in the air and shouting YES!! YES!! YES!! is a County Clerk. Another somewhat obscure issue is the Phone Book. Talk about an invasion of privacy. I can think of at least two solutions- and not necessarily in this order. One: just put my name and withhold my number. Anyone I want to talk to probably already knows my number. As a matter of fact, a lot of people tell me they have my number already. How often do you get calls from people you don't know anyway. Secondly, the could put my number in the book and delete my name. Now that would wreck havoc with the telemarketers wouldn't it??? I'm sure it would delete a hell of a lot of crank calls. I mean, I get plenty of wrong numbers now. What would it hurt?? A possible third option, and one that I feel would receive no consideration anyway, would be to delete the address after your name. That would save at least a third of the printing cost of the books. Ma Bell would pass the savings down to us I'm sure. :-) After all, if you are going to call, what do you care where the call is going as long as the party you desire is on the other end of the line? Doesn't it make you feel silly when you are talking to someone and see that the address in just across the street anyway? The ultimate privacy would be to just put your address in the book - no phone number and no names. A BEWARE OF DOG sign on the door completes the package. Worrying about how I would ever complete my family tree if people stop publishing information about those who are still living makes me very nervous and irritable. Just this afternoon my wife ordered me out of the house until I quit grumbling about the possibilities. So while I was cooling my heels in the yard, I came to this conclusion. I should have suspected this early on. Some of these people I've met - well not actually face to face but in cyber land- have been people who like myself are collecting whatever tid bit they could about whomever, just as long as it filled a data base. Sure some of these people had a somewhat faint connection to your family, but not close enough to break bread with every other weekend. Some exchange of information was the usual game. Sometimes I found people who appeared to have so many collateral lines that it was just mind boggling. One day I realized that those people couldn't possibly have that many relatives-no way Hose!!! What it was was data base!!!! Then I got to paying real close attention to what their own family- I mean "close family"- material consisted of. Looked kinda skimpy sometimes. A couple I noticed were asking or hinting for me to submit more of my personal information. I came to the conclusion that if they couldn't tell me their birthday they sure as hell wouldn't get mine!!! After all, I shouldn't really be expected to actually confide in my "cousins". They in me, of course. Me in them, forget it!! Just now found an obituary for a fellow who grew up in town here. Been gone from here since he got out of high school. Mention his name and most people have no idea who it might be, except for the obvious hint- the surname. Now this poor fellow was 83 when he died in Alabama. His remains were returned here for burial. From his obituary, published in the paper, every on who comes within the purview of the paper knows what his wife's name was as well as the names and city of domicile of all his children. And guess what? Not even a public viewing. All his personal family information revealed and not even an Adios Amigo from anyone. Well, I'm here to tell you that when you stop giving and receiving and printing all the information that compliments a family tree - the remains will no longer resemble a family tree. You may still have the foundation or stump, but that's not a pretty sight by itself. Without the branches it goes nowhere!!. All the good information will still be out there, but it will be in the data base of those whose foresight we now envy. They still have the missing links but they're not talking anymore. GAME OVER!! Time for a new game. While out in the yard, I had a wonderful vision - I do some of my best work under stress!! We all have so much invested in our computers and printers and publishing software that we can't quit now. So, let's keep using our equipment while slightly modifying our information. We can even keep using the same old Pedigree Charts and Family Group Sheets. We can use it all and still maintain the ultimate privacy for us all. From now on, we all record everything we have such as birth date, graduation dates, wedding dates, children's birth dates and places of birth, grandchildren's dates and places, etc, etc, etc,. What we don't do is put names in the charts. We leave the names spaces blank. God this is interesting!!! Think of the possibilities. I can send anyone a Pedigree Chart and FGS - completed - except for names - to anyone I choose and without the worry of offending anyone. How sweet it is!!! No such worry about any blank spaces - just pick a date or place at random. Who would be the wiser?? Look at the time and effort it will save by limiting my courthouse time. Not to mention the solitude at the library. With my newly found spare time I could golf or something - I am a male. Females who desired, could find time for housework again. Great Scott, the possibilities are endless!!! Now before you all become ecstatic, there probably would be some casualties in the movement. The people who publish lists on the web are probably in for a slow down in business. Hard times are in store for them. You can't exactly expect for them to be happy about this. Mark my word!!! Now before our sublime hobby changes it's posture, I want to take this final opportunity to declare to the world, once and for all to see, John Herschel Glenn Jr. and I - yeah I mean the ex-Senator and Astronaut -are 5th cousins - only he doesn't know it yet!!! And we are both still living!! Take that and smoke it!!!!! Yours truly, Ed.