That's the problem I've had with Ancestry.com searches. They'd turn up not only old information I posted to Rootsweb ten years ago, but my same people connected erroneously to their families when I knew they were not.
I know many people have good intentions posting their information to internet sites, but there are others who don't. I've had people ask me to correct my data when I had it publicly posted on Rootsweb's FreePages and I said I would if they could validate their data with sources. They would not so I didn't change it because I had accurate sources and/or I knew the people they were connecting to. Others I had given my information with sources to so I could prove their data was wrong and they didn't change it even though I knew for a fact they were not related to my direct line. Now I only work with my distant cousins who had contacted me through my former FreePages website because I had researched their distant lines when nobody else would. It's odd that for all these years there was no information available on these people until I posted it all for free. Now I'm finding it everywhere--information that did not come from the internet but from diaries, bibles, and unpublished records that I found in private collections that aren't available anywhere else. So how did these other people get this information? By the way, since Ancestry.com took over Rootsweb a few years ago they also purchased all of Rootsweb's old trees even ones that were supposed to have been deleted. I found that out about a year ago when I did a search and found an old tree that I specifically had Rootsweb delete and they did, but Ancestry.com must have gotten from old backups and restored. I would only remember this because I had mistakenly entered a comment about an ancestor being a drunk (which he was) and knew I had it deleted because his daughter was still alive and I never intended for that information to go public. So, I wouldn't put a lot of trust in what stays free at Rootsweb. Rootsweb's been around a lot longer than Ancestry.com and it's a shame they bought it out. Ancestry.com has a profit motive while Rootsweb never did. -----Original Message----- From: k...@legacyfamilytree.com [mailto:k...@legacyfamilytree.com]on Behalf Of Mary Horner Sent: Tuesday, November 03, 2009 5:03 PM To: LegacyUserGroup@legacyfamilytree.com Subject: [LegacyUG] Genealogy Pirates Jenny said 'I really don't care if people want to "pirate" any data I put on line. ' The problem is Jenny; I was trying to find the connection between Canada and Ireland. There is one person who is very active on the message boards when I do searches for my direct line surname. I have discovered that he pirates others' information and plugs it into his imaginary tree. I worry that he is going to have the data so compromised that if I ever actually get over there to search, the truth will have been lost in the fiction. I see red ever time I find his name on a message board. I know I can't trust his info but what about all the poor people who don't know better? Mary Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup@legacyfamilytree.com/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup@legacyfamilytree.com/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp