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Archiver > ETHICS-IN-GENEALOGY > 2003-08 > 1061907887


From:
Subject: Re: [Ethics] Ethics
Date: Tue, 26 Aug 2003 10:24:47 EDT


In a message dated 8/26/2003 6:52:17 AM Eastern Standard Time,
writes:

> I've had a similar experience, where I had information from a GEDCOM merged
> into someone else's family tree on World Connect. When I politely asked
> them how they were related, hoping that we could exchange more information,
> I found out they were name collectors. My only recourse was to add a
> post-it note on the file offering corrected information. This is one reason
> why I'm leery of sharing GEDCOM files.

There is no law that someone be related to a family to include them in their
GEDCOM. Personally, I don't care if someone wants to include my research in
their GEDCOM as long I know my own information is also "out there" for
researchers to find. That said, I'd rather they have to do a bit of work in the
process and I don't permit downloading of my GEDCOMs on WorldConnect. Usually, the
people who contact me for more info or who go to the trouble to copy my file
are people with some interest in the family or who are researching related
families in the same geographic area. It really isn't doing any harm as long as
my information is out there also. We don't own our ancestors and the
information is all publicly available anyway.

Joan

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