Exactly Phebe! I too do not ever share my family file with ANYONE. Not even my own father lol. Well he could get a copy if he wanted. But yes, I rarely share more then one generation with an unknown cousin. I may give some names for them to go on, but it is a rare day when I share all the facts on a certain family. I have but 2 distant cousins who I share the family tree with, and only because they have shared with me as much as I have share with them, they are the only 2 cousins I trust at this point. So when I have many new additions to the tree, I try to send the 2 cousins updates, so they are up to date with me. They in turn do the same for me.

 My early research wasn't mine at all.  A cousin did our family tree and shared it with me.
 I told him about FTM's WTF CD's and how with his permission, I would type his tree up and submit it to FTM. He said GREAT go for it. What I didn't know is that it was a fraud tree!
 I have since busted it as a fraud, but yet that very tree is on so many web sites including Rootsweb. I even found that tree linked to a Rootsweb County web site host. They have since removed it, but I kept thinking, wow of all the people who should know not to steal from others, here I found it directly linked on Rootsweb by one of the County web page hosts!

  Rootsweb isn't the only one hosting so much bad data. It is because of "other" researchers who steal bad data and share it with others. It's a family tree virus that appears we will never find a cure for.  I personally have emailed dozens of web sites letting them know that the family tree they have on their web site, is a proven fraud tree, most all of them either ignore me, and or reply, it isn't a fraud tree because they did the research!
YEAH right ! ROFL!

 Funny? I have a copy of the original family tree sitting right next to me, and it came to me directly from that cousin who did that fraud tree. Funny how your tree matches word for word to his tree that he did tons of years ago! Only 2 people have ever listened to me and deleted that fraud tree off of the web sites. Only 2! the rest just ignore me like I am a moron.

Truth be told, thanks to the fraud tree, I am a far better researcher because of it. Had I been a believer in this man like so many others, I too would still today be using his fraud tree. But the ego in me, says I don't believe everything  I see or hear. So I went out on my own and it took 5 years of work, but I finally busted his tree as a fraud. That wasn't my goal, to bust his work as a fraud, I intended to just go back and find the evidence to back up his tree. Only later with enough proof in hand was I able to prove it as a fraud.

 Just sad to continue to see this fraud tree every where on the internet. Worse yet, some of my cousins still think that tree is fact.

 I think any of us who have shared our research with others, will sooner or later find our sharing is now considered "their" research. I once had a lady steal my entire census web site. I get most of my extended tree's from my cousins, not from the internet. But even they have to help prove that kinship with me, or I drop them from the file as unprovens.

One such internet family tree thief.
I transcribe census records for all Lock(e)'s and post it on my web site. This thief copied not only the text, but copied the whole web site "which even included my hyperlinks! and my Copy Right notice at the bottom of each page!"

 I emailed this lady and I use the term Lady lightly, and demanded my web pages be removed with in 24 hours. She said NO! Well I demanded her ISP remove my copy righted web pages and low and behold the ISP removed them for her. So yes, we do have some clout with the Internet Service Providers. So when we see our copy righted material on someone's web site, we can email them and ask them to remove it. If they do not do as you wish, send the person's ISP a email filing a complaint about copy right infringement! Make sure to send the ISP the exact URL where the copy righted material is. The ISP's would rather delete the web pages and possibly loose that customer , then have to deal with a copy rights law suit.

Ok, I can see copying "some" of my material, I can even understand you don't give me credit where credit is due, gee thanks, but to steal an entire web site?
WOW the gall of some people !
In my copy rights on the bottom of each of my web pages, I clearly state, you can copy portions of the data for your own personal use. I guess what I should have said was, steal from me and republish as your own, I will go to your ISP and have your web site deleted lol.

Say that copy righted material is on a ISP called Don.com , you normally can send an email to Abuse @don.com , at least that is how I normally am able to contact various .com's, to file a complaint.

Good luck everyone
Don
-------------- Original message --------------

> Let me join in this conversation.
>
> I spent 20 years on the MORGAN family, and tried to help and share my
> information. Much to my surprise I found my information on someone's web
> site. I asked nicely if he would remove it -- he did not.
>
> However, I had the last laugh, some of my early material was not correct --
> what is on his site is in error. When I see someone making the same
> statements I know exactly where that information came from.
>
> I love these e-mail's from strangers saying "SEND ME EVERY THING YOU
> AVE" -- my response is always, I will answer a specific question but not
> send you my file.
>
> Phebe Morgan
> Sarasota, FLA
>
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