The Fine Print

The "Fine Print"

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Feel free to link to my home page or to any page on my website. However, the contents of this site may not be re-published or duplicated in any fashion (in print, or other web pages, etc.) in full or in part, except for private study purposes. Any other use requires the express written consent of the author (me, Marty Grant.) See below for details and further explanation.

The "Fine Print"

First and foremost, my data is here to be shared, and to benefit everyone who is interested. However, there have to be a few ground rules. Consider my pages to be no different from any book found in a library, or that you've purchased. The same copyright rules apply to my site as they would to a printed book. In other words, if you use this material, give credit where credit is due, and don't copy (for republication) large amounts of my work. Small amounts are okay under the "Fair Use" rule. For example, you can quote a sentence or paragraph from my site on your own, but mention who wrote it. Of course, you can paraphrase me all you want, but again, giving credit to the originator is always nice. Of course names and dates (and other "facts") can't be copyrighted, so I'm not referring to that. That is explained in more detail further down this page.

Linking

Anyone who has their own website who wishes to link to my home page or to any pages on my site, please feel free to do so, you don't have to ask permission. I appreciate all the links I can get. If you have a site devoted to a surname I am researching, let me know, and I'll set a link up to your page as well. You can link to the home page or to any page within my site. "Deep Linking" is not a problem, go for it.

Downloading my pages

Feel free to download or print any of my pages for your own personal use. However, if you wish to re-publish small portions of this data on your own web pages or in any other form, please give me proper credit, including (preferably) a link to my pages. Please do not republish entire pages, or huge sections of any of my pages (this is a violation of copyright laws, and can also be considered plagiarism.) Instead of quoting large portions of any of my pages, provide a link to my page instead. You would be surprised how many times I've found large portions of my own work listed verbatim on someone else's pages without any mention of my name or of my website. This is outright theft and plagiarism, please don't do it! If I wanted to, I could bring a lawsuit against people who do this. I'd prefer not to do that, so please don't steal my work.

Note to Public or College Libraries. If you wish to print some of my pages to put in your vertical files or to bind in a 3 ring binder or something like that, you have my permission to do so, but please include a reference to my website so that any interested person can go to the source and see the original pages, for they do change quite often, and a printed version will be out of date rather quickly.

Sharing my data with others

Feel free to refer others to my web pages. You can also print my pages and send them to those who don't have Internet access. I don't mind this at all. On the other hand, I ask that you do not submit any of this data (excepting any of your own work, of course) to The World Family Tree (WFT) or the LDS Ancestral File, or to Ancestry.com or any other group that makes it publicly available via Gedcoms, or searchable databases or puts it on a CD and sells it or distributes it in other ways. My work is already publicly available, via this website, and that is the way I'd like to keep it. Those groups (WFT, LDS, etc) are fine and useful, but don't send my work to them. Feel free to send your own though, if you want.

Disclaimer

As with all genealogy data found on the Internet, use the data listed on this site "at your own risk." While I strive for the highest accuracy possible, it is likely that there are mistakes in the information that I am presenting. Most of the data included is my own research, so if mistakes are present, they are my fault. However, I have received some info from other researchers over the years. I attempt to verify everything that is sent to me, but mistakes are bound to slip by, especially in the data I received when I was a "newbie" (many years ago) and didn't know better than to just believe whatever someone sent was accurate. Let me know if you spot any such mistakes. Don't assume that everything listed on these pages is completely accurate. Some information is based on conjecture or circumstantial evidence and can be interpreted several different ways. If you have data that contradicts what I have listed, please let me know. It won't offend me if you say I'm wrong about something, just be ready to show evidence to support your point of view.

Copyright

This website and all the pages are copyrighted. To avoid confusion, let me briefly explain this. First of all, the "copyright" means that the data as presented is my legal property, under my copyright, and I own all rights to it. However, that does not mean that I have a copyright on the names, birth dates, birth places, etc of our ancestors. Similarly, I can't claim copyright to public records. The copyright refers to the textual and graphical way in which I present the data. All commentaries, etc, are entirely my own work (unless otherwise noted) and are protected by copyright. This is the same way a genealogy book is copyrighted, no difference at all. Any quoted material, such as verbatim comments shared by other researchers, etc, remain the property of the originator.

For more information on Copyrights, visit the U.S. Copyright Office Home page.

For more detailed information on Copyrights, try one of these books:

Marty Grant, Kinston, NC, USA