by Judy G. Russell | Nov 19, 2018 | Ethics, General |
Genealogical privacy issues Reader Nanci is thinking about starting a blog about her family history and, as she thought about it, she had a question: “My main question for you is about privacy and the use of names,” she wrote. “I’m not sure if I should just put my...
by Judy G. Russell | Nov 4, 2018 | DNA, Ethics |
MyHeritage to begin testing It’s the Next Big Thing in DNA testing: the ability to extract DNA from artifacts like envelopes and stamps with saliva from relatives who’ve been gone for decades, and extend our DNA research farther into the past than we can...
by Judy G. Russell | Oct 28, 2018 | DNA, Ethics |
To be published & effective in 2019 Without further ado or comment, the following press release comes from the Board for Certification of Genealogists: Board for Certification of Genealogists Adopts Standards for DNA Evidence On 21 October 2018, the Board for the...
by Judy G. Russell | Sep 25, 2018 | Copyright, Ethics |
Full-sized images removed from other website There’s been some progress over the past few days in resolving the appropriation of images from the FindAGrave.com website by an upstart website called PeopleLegacy. Billing itself as “one of the largest online...
by Judy G. Russell | Sep 19, 2018 | Ethics, General |
… and you can join in Every year, around the time of its Board of Trustees meeting in Salt Lake City in October, the Board for Certification of Genealogists does something special. It says “thank you” to the Family History Library and its staff for everything...
by Judy G. Russell | Sep 18, 2018 | Ethics, General |
Listen to the speaker instead It happened again last week at the New York State Family History Conference. The rules of the conference were crystal clear: no photographing the slides without the express consent of the speaker (note: and this post intends no criticism...
by Judy G. Russell | Aug 5, 2018 | DNA, Ethics |
…and the ethical need to follow them NOTE: This blog’s recommendation at any time of GEDmatch has been withdrawn due to privacy issues. See “Withdrawing a recommendation,” The Legal Genealogist (https://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog : posted 15 May 2019)....
by Judy G. Russell | Jul 29, 2018 | DNA, Ethics |
And raise questions that need answers The disclosure earlier this year that a DNA database used almost exclusively by genealogists to help answer family history questions had been used by law enforcement to solve a cold murder case has sparked a continuing — and...
by Judy G. Russell | Jun 24, 2018 | DNA, Ethics |
When the DNA results are not what was expected… The question came in again this past week, as it has so many times in recent years. A genealogist had asked others in the family to test to further the genealogist’s own research. When the results came in,...
by Judy G. Russell | May 11, 2018 | Copyright, Ethics |
Ask, don’t just take It was one of those obituaries that a genealogist just loves to read. “I was born,” it began. “I blinked and it was over.” Beautifully written by Emily DeBrayda Fisher Phillips, who died in Florida in 2015 just 28 days after being diagnosed...