I sent the below to entire list and never saw it go thru. I sure understand
all the conflict over Ancestry.com using OUR research to make a buck. And about
2/3 of what they put out is not accurate. Of course those that use it have to
bear the brunt of inacurate info which is sad but by the same token, they
need to get a life, exchange things by going on name and state lists and ask help
rather than using this stuff.  But I do think we have about worn out the
entire subject.
                    ******************

I have noted with interest how what you, as a genealogist, were generous to
share with some distant cousin, only to later find that your generosity has
been violated and some other person is now claiming authorship. I found a family
Bible record mentioned  within a web site once and ONLY I have possession of
such Bible and have had for 50 years.  The man posted on his web claiming kin
and there was absolutely no kinship what so ever. My family Bible was put into
an entriely different family. No connection or relation except  last name.
That hurts others looking for that particular family and misleads them down the
wrong path. Some people have no morals whatsoever.

In the Dec 2004 issue of Family Tree Magazine there is an article called
"Hard Copy" and goes into this issue and copyright being legal or illegal and what
justifies such. It goes into rights and possessions, even about photos of
people dead over 100 years and that photographers should be contacted to see if
they give permission. I can tell you that of all the old photos I have, and
some were made well before the Civil War, those photographers are long dead as
well. But I do not share photos with any except those really closely kin.

There are lots of unscrupulous people out there and Ancestry took records
from when we all contributed to each other thru lists and they now charge for
what you and I worked hard to look up. I spent hundreds of hours, in days before
census indexes, going thru every microfilm of every state I was looking for,
as those who have transposed those originals into indexes don't always, and
even rarely , get  the name right as they can't read the spelling or the writing
and don't know children's names, dates, or parents names. Therefore they can't
put 2 and 2 together. BEWARE is all I can say.
Sarah B

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