Unless you are the only descendant of your great-great-grandparents, they are not just your set of ancestors. Most of our ancestors have other descendants besides us.
We can’t stop others from publishing incorrect things about our relatives. While books and articles we may write about a relative can be protected from unauthorized distribution by others, facts that we discover or public records that we locate and then share can be distributed without our consent or permission.
Ethics aside, it needs to be remembered that no matter how much emotional investment we have in an ancestor or a relative that they usually have other relatives who are related to them as closely as we are.
We may feel that our ancestors are special to us, but it’s important to bear in mind that they usually have other descendants as well. All the genealogist can do is to work to discover their story, present their story as completely and as accurately as we can, and to preserve that story as best as we can.
What others do is on them.
No responses yet