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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
Carla<br>
<br>
< br>
<br>
<br>
-----Original Message-----<br>
From: Stephenie Flora <slflora47@msn.com><br>
To: 'or-roots mail list' <or-roots@listsmart.osl.state.or.us><br>
Sent: Mon, 6 Apr 2009 6:21 pm<br>
Subject: [or-roots] I need the help of all of you<br>
<br>
<div id=AOLMsgPart_3_2669d90f-a7ef-4be4-bed4-49af418adeb4>
<STYLE> #AOLMsgPart_3_2669d90f-a7ef-4be4-bed4-49af418adeb4 p.MsoNormal,#AOLMsgPart_3_2669d90f-a7ef-4be4-bed4-49af418adeb4 li.MsoNormal,#AOLMsgPart_3_2669d90f-a7ef-4be4-bed4-49af418adeb4 div.MsoNormal {margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";}#AOLMsgPart_3_2669d90f-a7ef-4be4-bed4-49af418adeb4 a:link,#AOLMsgPart_3_2669d90f-a7ef-4be4-bed4-49af418adeb4 span.MsoHyperlink {color:blue; text-decoration:underline;}#AOLMsgPart_3_2669d90f-a7ef-4be4-bed4-49af418adeb4 a:visited,#AOLMsgPart_3_2669d90f-a7ef-4be4-bed4-49af418adeb4 span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:purple; text-decoration:underline;}#AOLMsgPart_3_2669d90f-a7ef-4be4-bed4-49af418adeb4 p {margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";}#AOLMsgPart_3_2669d90f-a7ef-4be4-bed4-49af418adeb4 span.EmailStyle17 {mso-style-type:personal-compose; font-family:"Courier New"; color:windowtext; font-weight:normal; font-style:normal; text-decoration:none none;}@#AOLMsgPart_3_2669d90f-a7ef-4be4-bed4-49af418adeb4 page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in;}#AOLMsgPart_3_2669d90f-a7ef-4be4-bed4-49af418adeb4 div.Section1 {page:Section1;}</STYLE>
<div class=Section1>
<div class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Courier New" size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'">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.</SPAN></FONT></div>
<div class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Courier New" size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'"> </SPAN></FONT></div>
<div class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Courier New" size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'">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.</SPAN></FONT></div>
<div class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Courier New" size=2><SPAN st yle="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'"> </SPAN></FONT></div>
<div class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Courier New" size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'">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.</SPAN></FONT></div>
<div class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Courier New" size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'"> </SPAN></FONT></div>
<div class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Courier New" size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'">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.</SPAN></FONT></div>
<div class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Courier New" size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'"> </SPAN></FONT></div>
<div><FONT face=Arial color=black size=3><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><A title=mailto:jim@findagrave.com href="mailto:jim@findagrave.com">jim@findagrave.com</A>; <A title=mailto:russ@findagrave.com href="mailto:russ@findagrave.com">russ@findagrave.com</A>; <A title=mailto:AJ@findagrave.com href="mailto:AJ@findagrave.com">AJ@findagrave.com</A>; <A title=mailto:katrina@kindagrave.com href="mailto:katrina@kindagrave.com">katrina@kindagrave.com</A>; <A title=mailto:info@findagrave.com href="mailto:info@findagrave.com">info@findagrave.com</A>; <A title=mailto:robert@findagrave.com href="mailto:robert@findagrave.com">robert@findagrave.com</A>; <A title=mailto:deb@findagrave.com href="mailto:deb@findagrave.com">deb@findagrave.com; info@findagravecom</A></SPAN></FONT></div>
<div><FONT face=Arial color=black size=3><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> </SPAN></FONT></div>
<div class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Courier New" size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'">Thank you so much for your time,</SPAN></FONT></div>
<div class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Courier New" size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'"> </SPAN></FONT></div>
<div class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Stephenie Flora<br>
<A href="http://www.oregonpioneers.com/ortrail.htm" target=_blank>www.oregonpioneers.com/ortrail.htm</A><br>
<A href="http://www.oregonpioneers.com/marion/LeeCem.htm" target=_blank>www.oregonpioneers.com/marion/LeeCem.htm</A></SPAN></FONT></div>
<div class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> </SPAN></FONT></div>
<div class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> </SPAN></FONT></div>
</div>
</div>
<!-- end of AOLMsgPart_3_2669d90f-a7ef-4be4-bed4-49af418adeb4 -->
<div id=AOLMsgPart_4_2669d90f-a7ef-4be4-bed4-49af418adeb4 style="FONT-SIZE: 12px; MARGIN: 0px; COLOR: #000; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, Sans-Serif; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #fff"><PRE style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt"><TT>_______________________________________________
or-roots mailing list
<A href="mailto:or-roots@listsmart.osl.state.or.us">or-roots@listsmart.osl.state.or.us</A>
<A href="http://listsmart.osl.state.or.us/mailman/listinfo/or-roots" target=_blank>http://listsmart.osl.state.or.us/mailman/listinfo/or-roots</A>
</TT></PRE></div>
<!-- end of AOLMsgPart_4_2669d90f-a7ef-4be4-bed4-49af418adeb4 --><div id='MAILCIAMA026-5bc349db02aa184' class='aol_ad_footer'><br/><font style="color:black;font:normal 10pt arial,san-serif;"> <hr style="margin-top:10px"/><b>The Average US Credit Score is 692. <a href="http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1221421323x1201417385/aol?redir=http:%2F%2Fwww.freecreditreport.com%2Fpm%2Fdefault.aspx%3Fsc%3D668072%26hmpgID%3D62%26bcd%3DAprilAvgfooterNO62"> See Yours in Just 2 Easy Steps!</a></b></font> </div>