MY PHILOSOPHY

I am a huge advocate of privacy.

Most genealogists will want to put your family tree online, but I do not do that for the reasons discussed below. I will, however, give you the digital tools to either do that yourself or allow one of your family members to do that.

Do you want to upload your DNA to one of these sites and search for relatives? If so, then my recommendation is that you learn to do your own research. Don't hire me, I'm not the genealogist you want.

I use a genealogy program on my computer and I will then use this program to design and create a physical hard copy book for you. I will also give you a flash drive that not only holds a copy of every document (pictures, census records, family letters, birth/marriage/death certificates, etc) included in the book, but also a PDF file (ie. an electronic file) of the book that you can e-mail to people, along with a GEDCOM file that can be either uploaded to a family tree site or imported into a family tree program on your computer. This GEDCOM file will save you (or someone you give it to) the trouble of re-typing all of the information used to build your tree.

So why won't I build your tree online? First, and foremost, because no one will read it except for other researchers. Will your 7 year old grandson go onto Ancestry.com and navigate through and read your tree? No. Will your 25 year old daughter? Maybe. But probably not for more than 15 minutes. But if you give them a physical book to flip through and look at pictures, and read stories, they will. If you give each of them a hard copy of the book, they will have it and cherish it forever and maybe one day they will even use it to do their own research. And what happens to your Ancestry account after you die? Especially if no one knows you even HAD a tree online.

And Ancestry.com isn't the only website where you can store your tree. There are many. So which one should you choose? Or should you upload it to all of them? And when you have a change or addition, will you remember to update ALL of them?

And what about living individuals in your tree? Can these websites be hacked by the Russians or Chinese? Maybe. Maybe not. Do you want to take that chance? What if you forget to click a button that keeps their info private? Will you tell all of the living people in your tree that you plan to put their personal information online? Should you get their permission? Or their parents permission if they are a minor? Do you want copies of your parents love letters (or divorce documents with details of physical abuse) online for all to see AND SHARE?

And what about these documents you upload or find online? It can be tricky to keep them "connected". Some people are shocked to find out when they try to download their tree from one of these sites that they lose the connection to the source documents. Separating the source documents from your tree is a recipe for confusion and mistakes. And if your source documents are online, will you be able to access them if they are behind a paywall or if the database is not accessible anymore (this happens ALL the time).

And you must be careful with linking your tree to other people's trees. I cannot tell you how many times I have found my ancestors on other people's trees with information that was COMPLETELY wrong......wrong birth/death dates, wrong mother's, wrong everything.

Other genealogists may disagree with my philosophy (and you may too). But there are certainly other pros and cons for either uploading your tree or not. Neither of us is wrong, I just prefer the more private option.