Lifestyle

Data sharing helpful if reciprocated
Heritage Hunting: You can benefit from others' work as they would yours, Beverly Smith Vorpahl says.

Beverly Smith Vorpahl
The Spokesman-Review

Sharing is a nice thing to do, we're told as youngsters. But it's possible, genealogically speaking, to go too far.

A while back, someone contacted me about shared ancestors, and asked if I'd GEDCOM him what I had. That meant he'd have my entire genealogy computer bag of hard-found information. I don't know why, but I did it, and now he not only has information on our shared ancestors, but everything else I'd collected.

Still, sharing information is a "great way to make contact and potentially obtain even more information," wrote Michael John Neill in an Ancestry.com column.

One ought not to ask for "everything," and one ought not to freely share everything, Neill said.

"They might not realize the true scope of their request," Neill wrote. "Of course, there are those that are hoping to get as much as they can with as little work as possible."

To handle such an outlandish request of "everything," ask the person to narrow his request; ask her to reimburse you for copies; and to share what information they have.

Neill tells the requester that he's been collecting information on the Smith family for 20 years and has four filing cabinets of material and could not possibly copy everything. "If you provide me with some specifics on your family, I'll take a look and see what I can find," he'll tell them, and that he wants recompense for copy expenses.

"Of course, if you have information to share on our common lines I would be happy to exchange with you," Neill writes to those seeking help.

Consider sharing your information in chunks and determine if the requesting genealogist is seriously interested.

Tell the person that they are not to provide any data you give him without crediting you as the "source." It's shocking to open an online file and find your data there for the entire world to see and know you didn't submit it.

"The ethics of this type of action are questionable," Neill said.

The date of someone's birth, marriage or death cannot be copyrighted. However, if you provide commentary on why you arrived at a specific date for an event, that is material that can be copyrighted.

Most of us research our family to learn more about them and our past. "To do that effectively requires us to share a certain amount of information, especially if we are unable to go to every location that contains a record on our family," Neill said. "Another family member may be able to pass along a clue or a document that opens a whole new area of research."

And one last piece of advice: Only provide information on those who are no longer living.

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