[or-roots] I need the help of all of you

Tue Apr 7 20:09:51 PDT 2009

You know Jack, I just was having an email conversation off the list with
Steph and told her that she should share this person's name with all of us.
However Steph is a "lady" and she probably won't do half the things I
suggested in "fun".  Yeh right.  

Sharon
Sharon at SharonOR.com

-----Original Message-----
From: or-roots-bounces at listsmart.osl.state.or.us
[mailto:or-roots-bounces at listsmart.osl.state.or.us] On Behalf Of
wm0g at comcast.net
Sent: Tuesday, April 07, 2009 12:05 PM
To: or-roots mail list
Subject: Re: [or-roots] I need the help of all of you

Hello listers,

Having also been the recipient of the same sort of plagarism from my
genealogy info, I certainly understand how you feel. I think the best thing
you can do at this time is to give your plagarist his/her "fifteen minutes
of shame" and let this list know who it is by name, so we may be able to
discount their work. That is the only way we will be able to fight this sort
of thing from happening to others. 

Just my .019999 cents worth.

Jack Ciaccia
Boulder, CO

----- Original Message -----
From: cklooster at aol.com
To: or-roots at listsmart.osl.state.or.us
Sent: Tuesday, April 7, 2009 1:37:14 AM GMT -07:00 US/Canada Mountain
Subject: Re: [or-roots] I need the help of all of you

Stephenie, I'm appalled that this has happened to you after all the years
that you have dedicated to researching and preserving Oregon history.  Yours
was the earliest and most comprehensive website that I found listing the
families traveling together in various wagon trains. I have used your
website many times to clarify points in my own family research and I've been
contacted a number of times by others researching my same family lines who
found my name and e-mail address on your site so I know others have used it
as well.  I wish I could say that I'm surprised by the plagarism, but I know
that it is a common occurence.  I've pulled up family trees on Ancestry.com
and similar websites and recognized my own research copied and posted.  I
gladly share research with others who need it...it's just that I find that I
mind not being asked before it is contributed to a commercial website. I've
had to develop a philosophy about the whole thing; reminding myself that I'm
researching for the sake of the history itself and when the research is
posted to any website it becomes accessible to those who might otherwise
never have access to it. 

I believe some of the cavalier attitude arises from the tendency of many
family historians in this era to just cut and paste the work of others and
never acually do the research.  It's the time of instant gratification a'la
Google.  No need to slog through the poison oak in old cemeteries.  No need
to follow a visibly annoyed c ounty clerk down into a musty basement looking
for old files.  Just slip into one of the ancestry websites and download
whole huge branches of the family tree.  I find myself wondering if the
person who appropriated your research even has a clue about the impropriety
of her actions. 

Just last week I boxed up my collecion of publications by the Portland
Genelogical Forum...I have almost all of them...Washington County Marriages;
1870 censuses; etc. I don't use them anymore and so I'm looking for a
library or genealogical society that might want them.  As I was doing this,
I could not help but think of the hours of transcribing and researching that
went into each publication and what a God-send these books were to me thirty
years ago.  With the searchable data base of census records on Ancestry.com,
I simply don't use these books any more. Now it is all so much easier to
access online. 

I have followed your suggestion and written to Find-A-Grave.  It will be
interesting to see how they respond. In the meantime I would like to thank
you for your assistance over the ears and for all the work you have done to
advance the understanding of Oregon hisory.  I also appreciate you taking
this stand to stop the willy-nilly online publishing of research without
establishing an existing copyright or obtaining permission of the author or
original researcher.  In the long run this will help assure accuracy and
will encourage people to keep compiling. 

Carla 

< br> 

-----Original Message-----
From: Stephenie Flora <slflora47 at msn.com>
To: 'or-roots mail list' <or-roots at listsmart.osl.state.or.us>
Sent: Mon, 6 Apr 2009 6:21 pm
Subject: [or-roots] I need the help of all of you 

I need your help!  Some of you know me through my Oregon Pioneer website,
some of you I have helped in the past, some of you I have never met. 
Besides being webmaster for my Oregon Pioneer website, I also am webmaster
for several cemetery sites, including Lee Mission Cemetery.  In 1996
Sherrill Hochspeir, Jean Custer and myself researched and compiled a book on
Lee Mission Cemetery that was published by the Willamette Valley
Genealogical Society. A few years ago I joined the board of Lee Mission
Cemetery and put the website online so that it could be updated and kept
updated. 

Recently it came to my attention that a local individual went onto my
website, cut and pasted all of the information including obituaries, notes,
etc to her computer, added photos that she had taken herself and donated it
to Find-A-Grave as her own work.  She also abstracted the obituary
information and donated it to the Oregon Gen Web.  It took Sherrill, Jean
and I over five years of research, typing and compiling of information to
complete the publication.  I was later to find out that this was her pattern
as she had already done the same thing with Salem Pioneer Cemetery.  Tracy
Saucy, Ferne Hellie and Addie Dyal Rickey with the help of others have been
working on that site for years. 

Many of you know Tracy Saucy and the wonderful work she does.   She does all
her own research, walks the cemeteries, photographs them and seeks out
additional information.  But the bottom line is, who is going to want to put
years of work and research into a site that someone can come along and cut
and paste, donate and claim as their own work.  The fact that there are so
many cemeteries to be done and the fact that she only chooses those that are
easily accessible online speaks volumes. 

I have contacted all of the individuals in question and quite frankly none
of them appear to be willing to correct this injustice.  I am now asking
each and every one of you who work on cemeteries or are concerned about this
type of blatant disregard for the work of others to contact Find-A-Grave,
put “Copyright” in the subject line and send an email voicing your concerns
to all of the administrators listed below.  Please mention the cemeteries in
question and request that action be taken.  I would ask that you include in
your letter a request tha t they make available a special email address or
link where copyright issues can be reported and investigated.  If you have
others in your address books that might be concerned by this issue, please
contact them.  I doubt that this is a problem to only our area. 

jim at findagrave.com ; russ at findagrave.com ; AJ at findagrave.com ;
katrina at kindagrave.com ; info at findagrave.com ; robert at findagrave.com ;
deb at findagrave.com; info at findagravecom 

Thank you so much for your time, 

Stephenie Flora
www.oregonpioneers.com/ortrail.htm
www.oregonpioneers.com/marion/LeeCem.htm 

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