WHITNEY-L Archives

From: Barry GeneDoctor Whitney <>
Subject: The information age & all that Jazz
Date: Sat, 12 Apr 1997 12:22:34 -0400 (EDT)

> their information for this reason, as credit card companies may use mother's
> maiden name or grandmother's birthdate as a telephone identifier.

I am not sure that omitting information is a good solution. Some of us
are trying to link up with living relatives. And it would be confusing
for a message poster to leave out of his line his own mother's maiden name
AND the family names of all her father's male line, or to leave out
ourselves from our own lines (and most of us who post things to this list
are still living, of course 8^), even if our mothers aren't), it seems
unworkable to leave out enough information so that folks couldn't
determine mothers' maiden names for most of us (Krehl, for me, used to be
unbreakable secret code, eh?).

Since the mother's maiden name is already virtually necessarily
compromised, folks including genealogy buffs should <b>always</b> give as
the mother's maiden name some OTHER password, such as the maternal
grandmother's maiden name, or a first cousin's mother's maiden name, some
other favorite ancestor's maiden name (something you will remember).

Those who have been in computers since the bbs (bulletin board systems)
days know that you should always give different passwords on different
systems anyway, so unscrupulus system operators who know your password
can't pose as you on different systems. Suggestion: Keep a file on your
own computer with all your passwords, encrypt it if you want, but let's
not compromise our genealogy work by omitting relevant information. In
this day of big brother watching us and computer databases everywhere
anyhow, I doubt that leaving certain items out of genealogy mailing lists
and online databases is going to help a whole lot anyhow.

Gee that got wordy, but let me reveal that my own 27 year old daughter was
shocked to find out how much information was available online about her
(because a distant cousin through my paternal grandmother's sister's line
was into this stuff before I got hooked).

It's a new world and I think we just have to live with it realistically.

Hope you're having a wonderful weekend.

Yours, Barry

This thread:

• The information age & all that Jazz by Barry GeneDoctor Whitney <>