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Archiver > TMG > 2005-12 > 1135781277


From: "Sue Richart" <>
Subject: RE: [TMG] Printing and Privacy [Long!]
Date: Wed, 28 Dec 2005 06:47:57 -0800
In-Reply-To: <005e01c60bb3$2a712ef0$6401a8c0@richard2kgrcz4>


Richard,
When I made this post, I was thinking of a situation that happened earlier
this year.


> You have a valid point, but by publishing information about living
> people you make it much easier for someone of ill intent to obtain
> all the information they need in one handy-dandy location. That is
> why most of us restrict the publication of information of living folks.

>This argument is often made, but there seems to be no basis in fact to
>support it.

My former neighbor's mother left the family when she was a year and a half
old. There had been a brief reconnection, but the mother's problems were
still there. My neighbor expressed interest in her heritage, so I started a
search. I found the mother's death record and got her SS application. From
there, a genealogical socity researcher got the marriage record of the
grandparents. The grandparents and maternal great-grandparents were
findable back to 1900 in the censuses. A few months ago, I finally got the
death record of the grandfather and with that was able to track down a
second cousin researching the family.

Then the problem started. The second cousin was in contact with the former
neighbor's step-brother. The step-brother that had visited the former
neighbor's home in another state back in the 1970s, when he deserted from
the Army. Not only was he a deserter, but during this time he stole from
them and lied to them about various things. The second cousin sent my email
on to the step-brother and he contacted me about contacting my neighbor.
The fact that the step-brother was trying to contact them really stressed
out the whole family. But, the step-brother didn't remember her married
surname and I NEVER used it in any of my postings, so he couldn't track them
down. The second cousin is now aware of the problem and won't pass any
information on to the step-brother.

Is there criminal intent here, I doubt it. Although based on his email to
me, it doesn't appear that he has changed. I'm not sure how the
step-brother could find her marriage with the current privacy laws, but I
concede that was able to find a lot of data just starting with the SSDI. In
the long run, I am very thankful that I didn't use my former neighbors last
name, because it saved them a lot of hassle.

Sue Richart

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