does geneaology include researching people still alive and if so are the people search websites unethical?

Answer 1

Though some will disagree, I would say that genealogy absolutely includes tracing down family members who are both dead and alive. The "ancestors only" approach to genealogy with the only focus being the pedigree chart is a very "western" perspective. Tracing the descendants of people can be just as important as tracing the ancestors (and often much more realistic).

That said, I think there are better ways to connect to people rather than using people search websites. Start by contacting the family members you know of, and then try the surname message boards at:

http://boards.ancestry.com
http://genforum.genealogy.com

Slowly you will begin to build a network of extended family members. For example, our family association now has about 2000 families on the mailing list for our semi-annual newsletters.

Best of luck,
Dave
--
http://www.familypulse.org

Answer 2

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Answer 3

Genealogical - family research - is kept offline to the extent that personal information of the living is not published. I also ask first about using a name or email address when giving credit for information received. I have been contacted by a niece of a woman in her 90s that I hadn't known was still living but did not want her information shown online and one must respect that.

About whatever those "search websites" are I don't know and don't use them. On the other hand I made a living and am now retired from finding living people - the skills come in handy - so I do know the difference and when it is likely ethical and when not.

There have long been phone books and other references, as well as abusers with dishonest, even criminal, intents. Today it's very popular with the naive to splash oneself voluntarily all over the internet as if there's nothing to lose. Anyone who wants to contact other online genealogy researchers won't have much trouble finding them. If it's not genealogy then genealogy probably isn't the right venue to be hunting live people.

Cousin and I have phoned people with the surname we're looking for where we'd expect we may find them and located relatives that way, and arranged to meet them in person. Nothing unethical about that -- but we didn't publish their info online, either. That is their choice not mine/ours. That's the difference.

Answer 4

Genealogy doesn't generally include researching live individuals, at least not through web sites. Most commercial genealogical web sites have a cutoff date, so that anybody born after a certain date is considered alive unless a date of death is *known,* and no information beyond a surname is posted.

The people-search web sites are not specifically for genealogical puposes (in fact, they really aren't much use in genealogy, as a rule). If you're looking for someone living, you usually just don't need those sites to find them. When I speak with people, I make it clear that I don't want to pressure them in any way, and that if I ask ANYTHING that makes them uncomfortable in the least, to let me know. It's very important to me to have consent of people who are living before I post anything. When I upload to a site like RootsWeb, my data is subject to time restrictions just like anyone else's.

There's a fair amount of data that's available through the "public domain." I have a lot of that in my own research, but again, if it's about living people, it doesn't get posted other than a surname; it's strictly for my records.

Answer 5

Absolutely, I am just as interested in finding the descendants of my gr gr granduncles as finding my antecedents. Also my gr gr granduncles are my ancestors also, but not my direct ancestors. They are linear ancestors. A real dictionary will give you the definition, not Dictionary.Com. Webster's collegiate has coming down from a source, very vague.

However, people on this board are not going to furnish you names, addresses telephone numbers, and dates of births because of identity theft.

Anybody can use Yahoo People Search because that is public information. If a person wants to be that private, they usually
have an unlisted phone number. Family Trees online usually will not list liviing people.

Actually on Ancestry.Com' s Ancestry World Tree, if a person had put the information in one person at a time, not uploaded a URL, they can actually put in the person's name, DOB and place of birth where they enter but then Ancestry.Com changes to to Living Smith if they were born after 1930 where everyone views the tree. Therefore I can keep track of people, living and deceased in my Ancestry World tree, but no one else can see it. You can give certain people authority to go in and look at what you have entered. I have a niece I work with and I have given her permission.