Living people in print genealogy

[Derrick]

I'm considering printing a version of my family history. What are people's policies about including people who are living in printed histories? I'm restrictive entirely about living people on my website, but I wonder whether there would be any reason to vary from this in print.

Thanks!

[donworth]

Re: Living people in print genealogy

I have very restrictive rules on my web site (I eliminate anyone born after 1940 from the data that is loaded to the web site and enforce privacy rules on anyone living that is left.) However, the people who seem sensitive about the web site are not so worried about the book - in fact those that want a copy of the book WANT to be listed in the book, even if they didn't want to appear on the web site. I suppose the feeling is that the books I self-publish have very limited circulation (the one I did last year has no more than 50 copies out there) so the risk is much lower than for a web site. (Notwithstanding the fact that I donate a handful of copies to genealogical and historical societies.)

Don

[Cormac]

Re: Living people in print genealogy

I'm considering printing a version of my family history. What are people's policies about including people who are living in printed histories? I'm restrictive entirely about living people on my website, but I wonder whether there would be any reason to vary from this in print.

Thanks!

I have a family history book that I appear in. I think I must have been about 15 or 16 when it was published in 1976/7. I don't remember anyone asking me or my parents. Other than DOB for members of my family, marriage date for my parents there were not any personal information given. For some people, a location (city/town/village, state) was given.

While that might have been ok in the 70's given that trying to trace someone was a little harder back then, now it might be better off to ask.

[donworth]

Re: Living people in print genealogy

I should probably amend what I posted above somewhat. When I publish a book I do remove all the dates from living persons' sections of the Register Report. I keep the name of the person (which implies who their parents are) and any (dateless) general biographical narrative I might have had in the notes field. So, readers of the books can't get birthdates, marriage dates, etc. But they can infer mother's maiden name, where they went to school, who they married, names of children, what they do for a living, etc.

Increasingly, the horse has already left the barn w/re our "private" information. Just look at what you can get on Ancestry.com (especially for states like California) - I can easily get anyone's birthdate, marriage date, names and birth dates of their children, parents' names, etc. And, as time goes on financial institutions and others that used to use knowledge of simple things like Mother's Maiden Name, birthdate and other things (even SSN) as proof of identity are starting to change that practice. And someone in the FBI told me once that without a bank account number or credit card number to go with an SSN and name, most of this information has very little monetary value to people who sell stolen identity information. At this point, eliminating it for living persons from my web site and books is more about respecting people's sensitivities and anxiety about the issue - not for any practical consideration.

[Derrick]

Re: Living people in print genealogy

Thanks for all of this. As I don't know all of the living people who might be included, I think I'll err on the side of not including people.