Once again the infamous Ancestry.com rears its ugly head.

Years ago, when Ancestry was just getting going, I received some
information about my family from an online acquaintance. I instantly
recognized it as my own research, as it contained some errors I had
made years previously (by not verifying some information from a
distant cousin) and asked where she had got it. The answer was
Ancestry, on a CD she had bought.

When I contacted Ancestry to ask where they had obtained the erroneous
information, which I had copyrighted (the language was quite
distinctive and could not have come from any other source), they
refused to tell me. They also refused to add my copyright notice, or
even to let me look at the information they were selling unless I paid
them something like $50 for the CD.

Needless to say, I refuse to have anything to do with Ancestry, which
in my experience is dishonest, unreliable, and unscrupulous.

I have always been ready to share my research with other family
historians. If it's going to be sold, however, it certainly should
not profit plagiarists and thieves.

Kathleen Much

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