Genealogy Online

by Elizabeth Crowe

  A virus is a program hidden on a disk or within a file that can damage your data or computer in some way. Some viruses simply display a message or a joke, while others can wipe out all the information you saved to the hard drive. Some simply reside and track your online activity; others hijack your computers’ memory to be used by someone elsewhere. Both will really slow your computer down. Therefore, I strongly recommend that you inoculate your computer before using any mode of electronic travel.

  AVG Anti-Virus FREE and Ad-Aware Free Antivirus+ shared PC Magazine’s Editors’ Choice honors for the best free protection you can get.

  Note

  Even if you have virus-protection software, you need to take precautions. Make a backup of everything that is important to you—data, letters, or e-mails—and resave it no less than once a month. The virus-protection software may offer the ability to make a recovery disk; do so. This can save you much time and trouble later on down the line if your system needs to be restored.

  Virus protection is good, but if you opt for a high-speed, continuous connection, such as digital subscriber line (DSL) or cable Internet, you also need a firewall to help protect you from hackers, Trojan horses, and worms. A firewall is a piece of software, hardware, or combination of both that forms an electronic boundary, preventing unauthorized access to a computer or network. It can also be a computer whose sole purpose is to act as a buffer between your main computer and the Internet. A firewall controls what goes out and what comes in according to how the user has it set up.

  Examples of firewall programs are ZoneAlarm by Zone Labs, BlackICE Defender from NetworkICE, and Internet Security 2000 by Symantec Corp. A detailed description of how firewalls work can be found on Shields Up, a website devoted to broadband security created by programmer Steve Gibson, head of Gibson Research Corp. (www.grc.com) of Laguna Hills, California. Run the tests. You’ll be surprised.

  Wrapping Up

  • You will probably wind up using both a desktop computer and some smaller device such as a laptop, tablet, or smart phone to run your computer software.

  • You will need a good, reliable ISP and Wi-Fi capabilities.

  • You will need a browser that can play podcasts, video files, and sound files and display most graphics files.

  • A genealogy program that can run on all the devices you have is a good thing.

  • Helper programs such as Evernote and Clooz can make research easier.

  • Get a reliable, free virus and malware protection program.

  • Ninite.com can help you download many of the programs you need with no malware, adware, or other software attached.

  • Back. Up. Your. Data.

  Chapter 3

  Ethics, Privacy, and Law in Genealogy

  Genealogy has a long history of legal and ethical concerns: the settling of estates, the eligibility of soccer players for national teams, even who rules a nation. The validation of genealogical information and the publishing of that information, online and otherwise, will also have legal and ethical ramifications. Therefore, ethics, privacy, and copyright are important to consider when you practice your genealogy.

  Note

  Disclaimer: I am not an attorney, and this chapter is not meant to be legal advice, but merely information.

  Say, for example, you find an illegitimate birth, an ethnic surprise, or a convicted criminal in your family history. If the information is only one or two generations back, you perhaps would deal with these facts differently than if the events happened over 100 years ago.

  You will have three basic issues to confront in genealogy: accuracy, privacy, and copyright. These issues are just as important in the “real world” as they are online. Happily, it isn’t hard to be on the right side of all of these issues!

  Note

  Keep these three principles in mind:

  1. Do not publish vital statistics about living persons because the data can be used in identity theft.

  2. Do not use anything you find in a book, a magazine, GEDCOM, or online without proper attribution and permission. Facts are not copyrightable. The presentation and formatting of facts are copyrightable.

  3. Be aware that not everyone in the family will be thrilled to see family skeletons published. In fact, you may find that some relatives have emotional reactions to what you find; be prepared.

  Privacy

  Many professional genealogists agree that simply publishing everything you find is not a good idea. What you find might not be accurate; it may be accurate but damaging; it may be accurate and not damaging, but surprising. Discretion, consideration, and tact can go a long way to avoiding trouble.

  Judy G. Russell, JD, CG, CGL

  Author of the blog, The Legal Genealogist (www.legalgenealogist.com/blog), Judy G. Russell is a genealogist and attorney. I asked her several questions about the legal and ethical aspects of genealogy.

  When you find the family skeleton, what should you do?

  “[That] depends on how far back it is in the branches of the family tree,” Judy said. “While we are enjoined as ethical genealogists to be ‘sensitive to the hurt that revelations of criminal, immoral, bizarre or irresponsible behavior may bring to family members’ [quoting from National Genealogical Society, Genealogical Standards], we are also required as family historians to be faithful to the truth.”

  Judy said that her rule of thumb is that a skeleton in the closet of a living person must remain there, and a skeleton in the closet of a living person’s parent(s) may remain there if disclosure will be humiliating or hurtful to the living person.

  When someone begins genealogy, what are the privacy concerns?

  “The biggest, most compelling concerns are the rights and interests of living people,” Judy said. “We all have aspects of our lives that are within our personal zones of privacy, that we don’t want spread around on the Internet, shared indiscriminately, or shared at all. A terrible illness, the tragic loss of a child, a misstep with the law—these private struggles are ours alone, to share or keep to ourselves as we choose. Genealogy is not an excuse to invade the privacy of others.”

  Judy cited the famous “The Right to Privacy” article in the Dec. 15, 1890 Harvard Law Review by Samuel Warren and Louis Brandeis, which said in part a right to privacy “implies the right not merely to prevent inaccurate portrayal of private life, but to prevent its being depicted at all.” She also cited the Board for Certification of Genealogists, Code of Ethics and Conduct section that says, “I will keep confidential any personal or genealogical information given to me, unless I receive written consent to the contrary.”

  “Genealogical codes of ethics require us to respect the privacy of other living people at all times in all media, including what we may have thought was a private e-mail to a single individual,” she added.

  Given that, how much should you share of what you find?

  Again referring to the National Genealogical Society, Genealogical Standards: Guidelines for Publishing Web Pages on the Internet, Judy pointed out that publishing your findings on the Web should be done carefully.

  “Genealogists must also be careful not to copy or reproduce copyrighted materials and ‘share’ them on the Internet or elsewhere (even in e-mail). Some small copying may be allowed under the fair use principle, but wholesale copying is a violation of the author’s copyright,” Judy said. “Beyond those major concerns, I see no reason not to share my research with others, both family members and others. I may choose to delay sharing until an article I’m working on is published, or until after a particular lecture or presentation. But my purpose in doing genealogical research is to further my family history—and I can accomplish that best by working collaboratively with others.”

  What are some good sites to help a beginner understand copyright, ethics, and privacy in relation to genealogy?

  “Hmmm… there’s this blog called The Legal Genealogist that deals with a lot of these issues on a regular basis.” Judy said. “And I do recommend readi
ng her blog regularly. It is always insightful and interesting.”

  Judy also made the following recommendations:

  • All of the National Genealogical Society standards and guidelines at its website are good resources (http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/cs/ngs_standards_and_guidelines).

  • Cyndi’s List has a category “Ethics & Etiquette: General Resources” at http://www.cyndislist.com/etiquette/general/.

  • Cyndi’s List, in the category “Copyright Issues”, has a good overview of copyright law for genealogists, with many links to sites around the Web (http://www.cyndislist.com/copyrite.htm/).

  • Elizabeth Shown Mills’ discussion of the privacy issue at “§2.8. Privacy,” in Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace (2nd rev. ed.) (Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2012).

  • International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies, “Ethics for Jewish Genealogists,” at http://www.iajgs.org/ethics.html.

  • Kimberly Powell’s “Dos and Don’ts of Online Genealogy” at http://www.netplaces.com/onlinegenealogy/putting-it-all-together/dosand-donts-of-online-genealogy.htm.

  • The Board for Certification of Genealogists (BCG) Code of Ethics is subscribed to by all credentialed genealogists—CGs and AGs alike—and can be found online at http://www.bcgcertification.org/aboutbcg/code.html.

  • U.S. Copyright Office website Circular 1: Copyright Basics can be found at http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ01.pdf.

  What are some legal issues to consider besides copyright?

  “Website terms of use and plagiarism are major issues for genealogists above and beyond copyright,” Judy said.

  For terms of use, Judy said everyone should read Ed Bayley’s “The Clicks That Bind: Ways Users ‘Agree’ to Online Terms of Service” at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The PDF link is www.eff.org/files/eff-terms-of-service-whitepaper.pdf.

  Judy said the best resource on plagiarism ever is Elizabeth Shown Mills’ “QuickLesson 15: Plagiarism—Five ‘Copywrongs’ of Historical Writing,” posted at Evidence Explained: Historical Analysis, Citation & Source Usage (http://tinyurl.com/atojr6w).

  Can you be sued for finding an illegitimate birth, for example?

  “You can’t ever be sued for finding a fact in an historical record or through an interview or other investigative methods. Disclosing a fact not publicly known where it is certain to be humiliating to a living person may get you sued for invasion of privacy, but merely finding out that, for example, a birth was out of wedlock isn’t actionable,” she said.

  Do you have an anecdote or success story to tell?

  “You mean like the time I accidentally updated my personal website and didn’t strip out the private notes section of my database program… and ended up with information on the Web that should never have been there?” Judy said. “It had a happy ending, since one piece of information that made it online ended up bringing a grandfather together with a granddaughter he had never met… but I am much, much more careful now when I update my website.”

  Gormley’s View

  “Genealogists are sharing, caring people, and most of us think nothing of handing over all of our genealogical data to distant cousins, even strangers,” says Myra Vanderpool Gormley, Certified Genealogist (CG), editor of RootsWeb Review and author of the Ancestry Insider blog. “However, we should start thinking about the ramifications of our actions. The idea of sharing genealogical information is good, and technology has made it easy. However, technology is not exclusively a tool for honest people. If detailed personal information about you and your living relatives is on the Internet, crooks can and do find it, and some scam artist might use it to hoodwink your grandmother into giving out the secrets that will open her bank account. It has happened. If your bank or financial institution still uses your mother’s maiden name for a password, change it,” Gormley said.

  Remember that your living relatives have the same rights to privacy that you do, and among these rights are:

  • The right to be free of unreasonable and highly offensive intrusions into one’s seclusion, including the right to be free of highly objectionable disclosure of private information in which the public has no legitimate interest

  • Use of one’s name or likeness by another only by consent

  • Not being in false light in the public eye—the right to avoid false attributions of authorship or association

  Publishing private genealogical information—and the important word here is private—about a living person without consent might involve any or all three aspects of their right to privacy. Publishing is more than just printed material or a traditional book. Publication includes websites, GEDCOMs, message boards, mailing lists, and even family group sheets or material that you might share with others via e-mail or traditional mail. They might be able to seek legal relief through a civil lawsuit. It is okay to collect genealogical information about your living relatives, but do not publish it in any form without written permission, Gormley said.

  “We should exercise good manners and respect the privacy of our families—those generous relatives who have shared personal information with us or who shared with a cousin of a cousin,” Gormley added. “Additionally, there is another and growing problem—identity theft. Why make it easy for cyberthieves to steal your or a loved one’s identity? But, identify theft involves much more than just your name, address, or phone number. This idea that one’s name, address, phone number, and vitals fall into the area of privacy laws is a common misconception by many people. In reality, the facts of your existence are a matter of public record in most instances. However, personal information, such as health issues, a child born out of wedlock, spouse abuse, how much money you have in the bank, etc.—those are things that are not general public knowledge, and these are personal things that if you publish them about your living relatives, there could be an invasion of privacy involved (but I’m not a lawyer),” Gormley says.

  DearMYRTLE’s View

  DearMYRTLE (Pat Richley-Erickson) the daily genealogy columnist, says, “Fortunately, I know of only one person who has stated she is unwilling to share her compiled genealogy data and documentation with others because she plans to print a book. I suspect, though, that the individual in question most certainly benefited from previously compiled research in books, websites, and CD databases. It would be impossible to avoid the use of these items as clues leading to the discovery of original documents. For example, one would even have to consider a clerk of the court’s marriage indexes as previously compiled research. Such an index is indeed one step removed from the original creation of marriage licenses and marriage returns.”

  In other words, all the data has been used before, or you would not be able to collect it in the first place. Still, Richley-Erickson said, one must always be sensitive to the feelings of others who might be affected by the data you publish.

  Eastman’s View

  “The concept is simple, although it is far more complicated in execution. In short, ask yourself repeatedly: ‘Is there anyone who will mind if I publish this information?’ There are legal issues as well with living individuals and with publishing info about people within the past 72 years in the United States, 100 years in Canada and the UK,” says Dick Eastman, editor and publisher of one of the most popular genealogy columns online. Eastman’s genealogy tips have helped thousands of online genealogists over the last 15 years. His blog, Eastman’s Genealogy Newsletter, has been a treasure trove of news and tips for years.

  “Protecting the privacy of living individuals and the issue of whether or not to publish sensitive family information (such as a great-great-aunt’s child born out of wedlock) are big concerns,” Eastman says. “Those can become legal issues if a distant (or not-so-distant) relative takes exception to your publishing such information. Lawsuits have been launched because of these things.”

  Note

  “When you post public messages (on message boards and mailing lists, fo
r example) about your research, it is sufficient to say you are researching a Jones or a Cynthia Jones line. You don’t have to reveal relationship by saying she is your mother or maternal grandmother. In the pursuit of our ancestors, let’s not inadvertently hurt our living family members or ourselves. Think twice before you post or share any data about the living.”

  —Myra Vanderpool Gormley, CG

  Copyright

  A sad fact of Internet life is that some have come to believe that the entire Internet is “public domain”—that is, free for the taking. It just isn’t so. Copyright applies equally to online material and offline material. The fact that any material is online changes nothing about its copyright or lack thereof. Copyright laws are not, however, the same all around the world, and that’s where online copyright becomes complicated.

  As a genealogist, you should educate yourself about copyright laws (not just U.S. copyright laws) and understand what “fair use” of another’s work is and what is copyrightable in the first place. A good start is the publication “Copyright Basics” from the Library of Congress, available online at www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.pdf and in hard copy.

  Be aware that if you take copyrightable material without permission, you may be plagiarizing. In most instances, however, genealogists will share some or all of their material with you, if you ask first.