EDGINGTON-L Archives

From: "Kate Taggart" <>
Subject: Is it Legal???
Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2003 02:30:31 -0400

Hello All

I'm mailing this to all the lists I'm on because I know there are some very experienced genealogy people that read these lists and some are professional researchers. The situation is this: all though I did not go to a family reunion on my mothers' side (it was about a year ago), there was a lady there who had traced the tree back to Scotland and had put it up on the wall for everyone to read. The only problem is, if you wanted a copy of the information, she was charging a fee.
I do not know if this lady was a pro and someone had hired her to do this, if she herself was a pro and had done this out of curiosity, if she'd hired someone and was passing on the cost or had done this (like most of us) because she wanted to and was curious to piece the puzzle of family history together.
I know it isn't ethical but is it legal (provided she's not a pro researcher) for her to charge a fee for a copy of the info? I know there isn't a "genealogy police" but if this woman is using the information for "commercial purposes" when it wasn't meant for that, Is there someone I can alert as to her behavior? If she is a pro, is there some sort of governing body she should be reported to?
She claims it has cost her hundreds upon hundreds of dollars to get the documents, spend the time researching it, etc, etc, etc. I chose to and I've been doing this jigsaw called my family tree for well over two years now and (I don't know about everyone else out there), but it's cost me less than $100 for documents (so far) not that much in time, effort or overseas phone calls and I consider myself very fortunate. How did this woman arrive at such a large monetary figure, I ask you? Has anyone else run into huge $ amounts? This is one of those things that makes me cock an eyebrow and go "Mmmmhmmmm?!" (but given what I know about my maternal grandfathers family, It really shouldn't surprise me!)
I would love to hear what everyone thinks.
Thanks,
Kate

This thread:

• Is it Legal??? by "Kate Taggart" <>