WHITNEY-L Archives

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Subject: [WHITNEY-L] Reunion, MyFamily.com, and other matters.
Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2001 01:07:36 EDT

Dear WRG:

I received my invitation to join in on the MyFamily.com site, but when I went
there I realized that it was operated by ANCESTRY, Inc., owners of
Ancestry.com. For a number of years I have heard very mixed reports about
being involved with this entity whose purpose is making money from
genealogists. There is currently a thread running on NORTHEAST-Roots about
this company, with the bad reports outnumbering the good defenses by about 5
to 1. I have saved a number of these messages, and if asked, will put
together a collection and send it to anyone who wants to see it.

That said, I'm sure that you have noted that I do subscribe to their daily
newsletter. Since they now put live web links into it, I have been checking
the various free databases that they offer as samples to interest people in
subscribing to see if there are any Whitney materials that I can pick up and
pass on.

My concern here is that a lot of our work that has been created by a lot of
effort will end up in their commercial products, when our intent has been to
make it available to anyone at no cost. Others have found that the material
that represents to be their research is intermingled with other material that
is erroneous, and that they had not given any permission for its use. In the
latter case, someone got it from a free site, incorporated it with their own
stuff, and then sent it in to this corporate entity without asking the
originator for his permission.

All of this speaks to the sometimes antithetical matter of freedom of
information, copyright issues, and ethics. I certainly don't have all the
answers, but you will have noted, I hope, that when I glean data from
Ancestry.com's free databases, I always give them credit as the source.
That's my understanding of fair use and responsible scholarship. If I copied
an entire free database, or even a substantial portion of it, and handed it
out for free, I would, I believe, be in violation of their copyright in the
organization and presentation of the material, and I know I would be
unethical.

So, to the committee on the reunion -- perhaps you could work through the
Whitney-L maillist as well as through the medium of the MyFamily site? That
would let those of us who are uncomfortable with the other keep up with our
plans. As to the reunion, I'll be there with bells on, whenever and wherever
you put it. Having said that, I do heartily approve of the Watertown area
for the first one. We might look at Norwalk, CT for a succeeding one, for
the benefit of our Henry descendants, and if we can get a bit more organized
with the Southern branch, maybe we could have one in Virginia as well.

I've run out of thoughts for the night.

Happy Hunting!

Allan E. Green

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