Genealogy, Privacy, and YOU

If you search for your own first and last name on Leonard Family Legends & Legacies and actually find it… it’s my mistake. Please contact me and I’ll remove it. Credit for photos, information, shared family history, etc. doesn’t show up in the Legends & Legacies Search, but is contained within the items you choose to share.

As much as it pains me, I’ve made every effort to remove living individuals from Legends & Legacies. It pains me, because living individuals are the very reason I created L&L. You are the reason it exists, you are the source of new information, and you are the “legacy” in Legends & Legacies.

Some of our “cousins” aren’t even aware that we’re related… and it pains me that L&L will do nothing to point it out to them. (Unless they happen to find a dead relative here.) So why aren’t living individuals listed? Two simple reasons… privacy and security.

Some people are intensely protective of their privacy, and I can’t say I blame them. It’s alarming how much of our private information is already in the public domain. Property records, tax records, even birth and marriage records are readily available if you know where to look. For those of you sensitive to personal intrusion… rest assured I will do my best to insure that Legends & Legacies is not one of those places.

We hear stories of indentity theft on a regular basis. More often than not, it has nothing whatsoever to do with the Internet and even less to do with genealogy and family history, but I can understand peoples’ concerns. How many times have we been asked for our mother’s maiden name as a security precaution? And let’s face it, if someone really was out to impersonate one of us, what better way than to rattle off the names of our children or aunts and uncles?

The National Genealogical Society’s “Standards for Sharing Information with Others” notes that it is our responsibility to, among other things:

• require some evidence of consent before assuming that living people are agreeable to further sharing of information about themselves.
• recognize that legal rights of privacy may limit the extent to which information from publicly available sources may be further used, disseminated or published.
• respect the restrictions on sharing information that arise from the rights of another as an author, originator or compiler; as a living private person; or as a party to a mutual agreement.

And last, but not least, I guarantee that I will NOT share your names and/or addresses, electronic or otherwise, with anyone without your express written permission. You, after all, are the source of much information and a good reporter never burns his sources.

Questions or concerns? Please, let me know.