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Archiver > KYMCCREA > 2003-07 > 1057851806


From: Margy Miles <>
Subject: [KYMCCREA] McCreary GenWeb Site
Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2003 10:43:26 -0500


Hi Everyone ...
As all of you who know me, know, I don't involve myself in these back and
forth "competitions" (for lack of a better word) that inevitably appear in
online genealogy.... but I feel you deserve an explanation about one thing
so here it goes. Thank you for taking time to read it.

When I left the GenWeb project, I *had* to remove my website. It was not
hosted on a free site. I had to pay for it every month. All of you who have
seen it knows how big it was - that was a problem for me and for my server
..... and not having loads of money, I could not just leave it there.

After removing my files from the net, I contacted the new McCreary GenWeb
CC and explained that I respect people's copyrights and ownership so I
*could* not give her any major file that was contributed without the
owner's permission (there was only one and the owner had already told me
that she did not want it put back online). **BUT at the same time, I told
her that I would give her all my files that were "user-contributed" by more
than one person.** That meant all the death certificates.

I started sending them to her and she emailed me not to send anymore
because all my files are in HTML code and she couldn't use them. I figured
that she would eventually learn HTML -- because I don't know how one
maintains a website without it (my ignorance perhaps) -- and that she would
THEN be able to post the death certificates. I never heard anything more
about it so in order to keep them online for all of you, I have been trying
to decide if they should go on the MPCPS (McCreary Pioneers Cemetery
Preservation Society) website with the cemeteries (which I host). That
decision has not been made yet for several reasons.

I just thought you should know. Most of my McCreary site came about from
just plain old dedication and downright gruesome hard work and any
contributions (such as pictures, etc) were there more as a courtesy to the
contributor than anything else - to help them make connections with other
site users. When I took my site down, I did not feel that I had a right to
pass anyone's pictures onto someone else. I figured anyone who had a
picture or something posted on my site would want to decide for themselves
if they wanted it posted to a different site. But something like the death
certificates was different because it was a huge database of records from
many different people. (I hope I am wording this so that it is clear and
not confusing.)

Please remember when you do online research that whatever website you go to
involves lots of hard work by someone - and aside from the many
"pay-per-view" sites that are popping up, all of it is done by volunteers.
We do not get paid to do this.

The only other files I had that would fit into the category of the death
certificates was the marriage and birth databases. Those are large
databases that involve some very technical setups - they cannot be hosted
on free sites. Those databases were never McCreary GenWeb databases - they
were on my "Down Home" site AND they are all STILL there.
<http://www.pastseeker.com/crr>;

Some may have been confused by that because I linked to them from the
McCreary site. But I started the "Down Home" site way way back in 1997 (I
think it was) when I started the CRR (Down Home) List and it is still
online but has NEVER been a part of the GenWeb project or Rootsweb in ANY
way.... it is just something I did and still maintain completely on my own.
It has nothing to do with ANY project in any way. It is just my private
site.

I hope this helps to clear things up. I am not the kind of person who would
take things from anyone and not give back and it is hurtful for anyone to
insinuate that I would. During my time with GenWeb (or any other time) I
held and still hold the utmost respect for all of you who love family
history as I do. I *LOVE* McCreary County and it was very hard to give up
the website - I know that it meant a lot to a lot of people. But I know I
made the right decision to leave the Rootsweb organization for my own
conscience and I do not regret that at all.

I thought you all should know. I am sure that the new McCreary CC will do a
great job for you and I hope that everyone who plans to benefit from her
work will give her the support that she is asking for. It is not an easy
task that she has taken on.

Sincerely,
Margy


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