Legal and Netiquette concepts utilized in the display of genealogy names, dates and locations at this website:

Public Domain:

�A creative work is said to be in the public domain if there are no laws which restrict its use by the public at large. All governmental records such as released census records, SSN Death records, etc, are in the public domain, are not protected by privacy laws, and may be freely and legally used on the WWW. Under U.S. law, works created by an agency of the U.S. government are public domain at the moment of creation.

Other public domain data would include information that is otherwise freely available to anyone in another public source, such as phonebook information, or previously published genealogies (printed or on-line) where the individuals are now deceased or previously provided their information for the express purpose of being included in a genealogy. Placing personal data into a public forum places it into the public domain. Placing copyrighted data on the Internet does not.

It is well-settled under U.S. Law that work in the public domain keeps that status, even after being embedded in a copyrighted work.

Dates for living persons included this genealogy have not been used at this site unless previously published, or explicitly provided directly by family for inclusion in this or another genealogy that has thus placed the data into the public domain. Whether �legally� in the public domain or not, it is my practice that any individual included on this website may freely �opt out� any personal data about themselves or their children published on this website, by contacting me directly. Identifying information such as address, phone number or social security numbers are NEVER used in my genealogy. Contributors should remember that mother�s maiden name has previously, frequently and naively �been (over-)used by credit card companies and others as a �security� identification question. Given the relative ease of obtaining such information from any number of public or paid sources, I strongly advise that you request those companies utilize a different form of identification, even though it is now extremely rare (in the wake of the far more serious and frequently exercised threat from the loss or theft of such data directly from the financial institutions themselves) for your name and mother�s maiden name alone to be sufficient means to identify oneself.

If your family�s page appears on this website, and you would like to move the living individuals to a page protected with a password that only the family would know, such as a private nickname or other piece of information, please contact me and I will set that up for you.

Copyright:

Ideas are not copyright-able.� Only the specific customized expression of ideas may be copyrighted. Where previously published information has been used, I have tried in all cases to credit the source and seek permission for use. If such a source is missing, I will gladly add that source upon notification, or immediately remove the citation\image\text, etc. if copyrighted and so-directed by the copyright owner. Credited excerpts of copyrighted data as used on this site for the purpose of source citation are permissible by law, under the concept of �fair use�.

Fair use:

Fair use is a doctrine in U.S. copyright law, which allows limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission from the rights holders, such as use for scholarship or review.

(Please note that several images on my web site have been obtained by permission from other organizations or individuals, and have been credited to that individual or organization. Others have been purchased from commercial sites like iStockphoto and Shutterstock. Permission to use such images, photographs or text should be obtained or purchased directly from those individuals or organizations.)