In doing my research, I have so far encountered 3 types of ethical challenges, where I have had to think about issues connected with the information I have obtained and whether to publish it or not on my web site.
Firstly, now and then I uncover something new about an ancestor. Usually this is classic stuff like their parents' names and places of birth.
But sometimes I discover under age marriages, illegitimate children, mysterious early deaths, backyard burials and other snippets about their lives.
And therein lies a dilemma. Do I publish it on the web for all to see or not? Is it exposing family scandals or simply adding a bit of colour to the black and white information (names, dob, etc) I have ?
Then there is the issue around what to publish about living ancestors - I guess that means they are relatives. Do I publish recent photos of them, information about their dates of birth, marriages etc?
What are the risks of doing this? Is identity theft really possible just with a few pieces of information published about them on my web site?
Finally, there is the issue around what I should do with information sent to me or shared with me by another researcher. Do I just assume that I can put it on my web site? Is there such a thing as copyright over publicly available information??
All interesting things to grapple with as I continue my research, and here's my take on them:
1 - I feel comfortable publishing ANY information that I discover about ANY ancestors prior to my grandparents.
Two reasons: I don't feel any shame at all about them, they are part of my history, part of my make up and in fact I feel proud about their struggles. It can't have been easy being extremely poor, transported to Australia or banished from their families.
And it is unlikely that any living relatives will have strong memories of them and so feel offended by anything I might publish. This is why I don't include my grandparents in the above (not that I have anything that I would have otherwise published anyway).
2 - I am happy to publish on my web site any information that a living relative is happy to share with me, knowing it might end up on my site.
This boils down to their dates of birth, maiden and married names, names of children. I am yet to be convinced that anyone can steal someone's identity just by having this information. Surely they need documentary evidence to support their claims. Besides which, this info is easily obtainable from many public offices anyway.
3 - If I think any information shared with me by another researcher would be of interest to visitors to my web site, I ask before publishing it and I credit the source.
To me this is just plain old good manners. Most people so far have been happy for me to publish pieces of what they have shared, though some have preferred I didn't. So I don't. In addition to betraying their trust, it is a little like "biting the hand that feeds" and I value the relationships I have struck with many of these people.
So they're my dilemmas and how I deal with them. People probably have other views on how they would handle them but as long as I stick to these principles, it is clear to those who share info with me or visit my web site, where I have drawn lines.
Saturday, February 18, 2006
Sunday, February 12, 2006
Who do you think you are?
To go with the BBC's popular tv series of this name, today BBC London ran a Family History day at the British Library.
[note to self: Add a visit to the library itself to my list of London things to do]
We collected loads of information about family history: pages of web links, details about what the National Archives holds (lots, apparently!) and leaflets about places we hadn't thought to visit, such as the Museum of Docklands (didn't even know it existed) and the Imperial War Museum (to look at merchant shipping records).
Well worth checking out: and interesting to see just how many people are interested in their family history (judging by the crowds.)
I hear that the BBC are helping create a series of WDYTYA for Australian tv. Hope it is also shown in the UK.
[note to self: Add a visit to the library itself to my list of London things to do]
We collected loads of information about family history: pages of web links, details about what the National Archives holds (lots, apparently!) and leaflets about places we hadn't thought to visit, such as the Museum of Docklands (didn't even know it existed) and the Imperial War Museum (to look at merchant shipping records).
Well worth checking out: and interesting to see just how many people are interested in their family history (judging by the crowds.)
I hear that the BBC are helping create a series of WDYTYA for Australian tv. Hope it is also shown in the UK.
Saturday, January 28, 2006
What do I want to know?
Fine - so after working through what I knew, I then needed to decide what more I wanted to know. Or rather, how much information I wanted to try and discover about my ancestors.
In project management terms, think of it as the scope.
I'm no genealogist (more on that later!) so I don't know the term for it but basically, I decided to trace only my direct ancestors along the four branches of my family tree.
Never mind their brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, distant cousins and all that stuff - if I was ever going to have a life outside this project, I needed to draw the line.
Besides, there is a limit to how many people I can hold in the family history software and I already have enough living relatives, thank you, so there's really no point unearthing any new ones.
The next thing to decide was what to find out about them. I went for the basic stuff: when and where they were born, when, where and who they married and when and where they died.
Three historical records: births, deaths and marriages.
Except for the convicts, of course.
In project management terms, think of it as the scope.
I'm no genealogist (more on that later!) so I don't know the term for it but basically, I decided to trace only my direct ancestors along the four branches of my family tree.
Never mind their brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, distant cousins and all that stuff - if I was ever going to have a life outside this project, I needed to draw the line.
Besides, there is a limit to how many people I can hold in the family history software and I already have enough living relatives, thank you, so there's really no point unearthing any new ones.
The next thing to decide was what to find out about them. I went for the basic stuff: when and where they were born, when, where and who they married and when and where they died.
Three historical records: births, deaths and marriages.
Except for the convicts, of course.
Ya gotta have a plan
My day job involves project management and like any good project manager knows, if you want to achieve something, it helps to have a plan.
So the first thing I did was to make a plan of how I was going to research my family history - and here it is:
But at least I have a plan.
So the first thing I did was to make a plan of how I was going to research my family history - and here it is:
- Get some software to hold my family history information as I gathered it
- I found a great shareware program called GenoPro
- Create a web site to populate with information as I found it (so I can share it)
- I used some of my server space at funnelweb
- Work out what I already knew
- Most of this was about the Perrys and the Walls
- I reviewed all the information I "inherited" from my grandmother, compared it with the information on Dennis' website and discounted some of it as things just didn't fit
- Work out what I needed to find out and where I needed to look
- The ongoing bit
But at least I have a plan.
Monday, January 23, 2006
Getting started - thanks
Many years ago, my grandmother gave me a folder filled with a mixture of old documents and letters. Apparently, one of my father's cousins had "done the family history" and the evidence was literally all "in the bag".
Years went by. Every now and then I'd dip into the folder to read one of the nuggets of information - three, four convicts, an illegitimate child, etc. Sometimes I'd make a half-hearted attempt at finding a bit more information to fill a gap, but would soon give up due to the amount of effort required.
Until recently.
Last year, a very good friend from Sydney came over to stay with us. Kimberly is a qualified archivist with many personal connections in the Mitchell Library, NSW State archives and other such places.
She showed me a wonderful new web site: the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages. The NSW government really ought to be congratulated for doing their bit to make genealogy much more accessible for people.
The web site lists all NSW-registered births from 1788 to 1905, deaths from 1788 to 1975 and marriages from 1788 to 1955. All the information is searchable and unlike many genealogy web sites, you can get enough information not to need to purchase the underlying certificate for it.
With Kimberly's help, I was able to trace another of my family lines back through several generations, all the way to more convicts.
So many thanks to Kimberly, the internet and the NSW government.
They have inspired me to try and fill in some gaps in the great work that my father's cousin has done into the Perry line of my tree and to also start finding out about the other branches of my family tree.
The first thing I did was to sift through all the information in the folder and set up a web site as a working tool to show what I have discovered and what I am researching.
And now, this blog - to tell the story of how I discovered the stories of my ancestors.
Years went by. Every now and then I'd dip into the folder to read one of the nuggets of information - three, four convicts, an illegitimate child, etc. Sometimes I'd make a half-hearted attempt at finding a bit more information to fill a gap, but would soon give up due to the amount of effort required.
Until recently.
Last year, a very good friend from Sydney came over to stay with us. Kimberly is a qualified archivist with many personal connections in the Mitchell Library, NSW State archives and other such places.
She showed me a wonderful new web site: the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages. The NSW government really ought to be congratulated for doing their bit to make genealogy much more accessible for people.
The web site lists all NSW-registered births from 1788 to 1905, deaths from 1788 to 1975 and marriages from 1788 to 1955. All the information is searchable and unlike many genealogy web sites, you can get enough information not to need to purchase the underlying certificate for it.
With Kimberly's help, I was able to trace another of my family lines back through several generations, all the way to more convicts.
So many thanks to Kimberly, the internet and the NSW government.
They have inspired me to try and fill in some gaps in the great work that my father's cousin has done into the Perry line of my tree and to also start finding out about the other branches of my family tree.
The first thing I did was to sift through all the information in the folder and set up a web site as a working tool to show what I have discovered and what I am researching.
And now, this blog - to tell the story of how I discovered the stories of my ancestors.
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