I worked very diligently for several years discovering and linking all the
descendants of an early Virginia couple.  I shared all my findings with
anyone who asked by creating a family association and publishing a detailed
newsletter/journal, as well as by giving information to well over 1000
"cousins" who asked for my help.  Some of my "cousins" were members of the
LDS church, and were a great help to me, as were the holdings of the church
made available to me via microfilm.

However, other members of the LDS church who were also in this family have
essentially destroyed much of the value of my work by placing much of it on
the Internet and also into the AF, contributing it to Ancestry, etc.  They
not only did this without my permission, but against my expressed wishes.
I've frankly wondered if the church encourages that kind of behavior in
accomplishment of its greater goals.

The net effect is that I no longer feel that it's very important for me to
actually publish my work.  I'm not nearly as interested in it as I once was.
The countless hours of work and many thousands of dollars invested in the
search were, in effect, stolen from me by the people who appropriated my
work.  For a long time I struggled against people publishing my work on the
Internet, but that resulted only in many people condemning me for "not
sharing" or telling me I couldn't keep them from information about "their
ancestors."

For a long time Rootsweb posted their terms of acceptable use at their
opening page, although I cannot find it now.  It essentially said you own
your postings but we can do anything we want with them.  That was before
Rootsweb was bought by Ancestry.  Now Ancestry has also bought out Family
Tree Maker, leaving Ancestry as virtually the only corporate entity in the
genealogy biz, owners of nearly everything we buy and use.  Ancestry's
original owners were members of the LDS church, and I suppose there is still
a personal connection between that corporation and the church which creates
a close relationship -- in other words, even the church is, to some degree,
"managed" by Ancestry, Inc.  I say this not by way of criticism, but so
people will know that when they contribute to Rootsweb or GenForum, they
should not be surprised to see their words being sold by Ancestry a year or
two hence.

People who insist it is their right to publish the work of others on the
Internet and elsewhere are generally incapable of actually doing the work
and probably don't care what the result of their plagarism is.  But others
who do care and who benefit from such work should be aware that the net
effect is that the good genealogists who do careful work either stop working
or stop sharing their findings.  And that's a loss for all of us.

If you find a large body of work on the 'net and want to use it, track down
and credit the originator.  You may be rewarded by learning even more!

Libbie Griffin

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