For the most part, the information in our genealogies was obtained from publicly available sources. Examples include obituaries and newspaper articles; wedding and birth announcements in newspapers; birth, death and marriage records on file at county courthouses; and various resources available at public libraries. Despite the public nature of its origins, the compilation and publication of such information with respect to living persons has been the subject of much spirited discussion within the genealogical community, with opinions ranging to both extremes.

Out of respect for those who hold the more conservative views, we have opted to conform to that position as much as possible and to exclude all details regarding living persons.

The nature of a large genealogy collection, however, is such that it is impossible to always know the current status (i.e., living or deceased) of people in far-flung branches of the tree. Thus, it sometimes happens that someone long deceased is presented as though possibly still living. This holds true for all generations, simply for lack of a death date, and can be upsetting to a close family member who comes across it.

To avoid such pitfalls but still respect the privacy of living persons, we have taken the following approach:

The policy of the U.S. government regarding personal information contained in Census data is to wait 72 years before making it public. We have taken it one step further and attempted, as much as the screening mechanism of the software allows, to exclude details regarding all living persons under the age of 82. Such persons for whom we have a birthdate will be identified simply as "Living," while those for whom we do not have a birthdate will be identified only by their names, and nothing more. This is actually less information than is published in obituaries and wedding announcements when listing other family members.

We do respect your privacy and hope that you recognize our efforts in that regard.