This is something to think about. I, too, have had bad experiences in sharing data with individuals searching my surnames. I have seen my family's name on the Internet with the submitter as the ones I had sent information to. They didn't even bother to "hide" the date of birth on living individuals. The worse was when I saw my parent's name with details on the Internet. I wrote the person and was told, "well you sent it to me." Another is when you have spent a lot of time in research and you need just a name or two. Someone contacts you about sharing your information, but their idea of sharing is to receive your data but not send you any information in return. My next question to WV Morgan Co. is, "Will the information be available in your genealogy library?" "Are you planning on putting this data into a book and selling the books?" Sharing is one thing but sharing for profit is another. Roberta

Roberta asked if the information we share will be published. The answer to that is eventually someone will either find the same information or obtain it through someone else sharing it and then hopefully document for themselves and then put it in a book. Information such as can be found in a Census record or at a county courthouse is public domain - ANYbody can obtain it if they know where to look and are willing to do what it takes to get it. Thus we cannot "copyright" it. I would hope that ALL of us are compiling our family data in such a way that eventually it can be donated to the Morgan County Historical and Genealogical Society and thus be made availalbe to anyone who visits the Genealogy Room at the Morgan County Public Library. This whole rootsweb thing is about family making connections and sharing information. Now, to address the question about documentation. I have contacted the person who put me onto this idea (she heads up several "state" family group sheet projects) to see if the form used can be adapted so that should a submitter NOT name a source the source will automatically pop up as "not documented". I am still waiting for a response about this and like the rest of us who "work" on rootsweb projects, she is a volunteer with a whole 'nother life going on away from her computer. I will say that at this point the most "votes" have been cast in the "sounds like a good idea" area. Thankfully, we've had folks bring up some very good questions that should this come to be will make it better for the time and thought put into it. Charlene