I don't mind that my volunteering ended up benefiting the original owners. FindAGrave was a terrific idea, and they implemented it well. Plus I love doing it. I started volunteering as a gravestone photographer after seeing (on another site) photos of my great-great-grandparents' graves in London. I was touched that someone had taken those photos, and decided to do what I could in my area. Rob, do you mean not many photographs have been taken in the Nashville area? YES, you should volunteer! You'll probably love doing it, just as I do.

Like I said, public libraries can be very helpful too. After I had the date of death, I contacted the library in the Mass. city he lived in for many years. (They had previously looked up & scanned me a copy of the newspaper coverage of his 1930 wedding, but couldn't help me on my original request without a date of death.) However, even with the date of death, they found nothing. It was suggested I contact the Boston Public Library, which I did via email within the last few days. I was very surprised with their efficient service, as in today's snail-mail, I received an manila envelope with copies of his obit from three different Mass. newspapers, and stating there was "no charge". Seems he moved from his original home to another Mass. city seven years before his 1969 death according to the most detailed obit, and was remarried (I had an inkling that the 1930 marriage ended in divorce, but not positive---now with the name of a successor wife, I am).

Lov_mkitchen complains, "In other trees I have found my information turned into an ancestry file.....what do they call them.......family data or something like that. And passed off as a shaky leaf when in fact it is not a documented fact at all. A family cemetery I did for findagrave, out in the middle of a farm field turned into Iowa Cemetery Index. My word only that those people were buried there and the facts I supplied were correct. How's that for a source! I had a person who I suspected died in a certain place at a certain time that I put as a fact with the disclaimer of "as much as I know now" that turned into an ancestry hint complete with her personal information. Anyone finding that would assume it was correct. ancestry has turned into a big hat with all sorts of bits and pieces thrown in. Stick your hand in, pull a fact out, add it to your tree. No research needed." From the Ancestry.com web site: "The Shaky Leafs are Ancestry Hints designed to aid you in your family history research. They provide other records in our database that could possibly match the individual in your tree. These hints are automatically generated, and are there for you to determine whether or not the record hint matches the individual in your tree." [emphasis in original] If you, Lov_mkitchen, see a Shaky Leaf and take it as documented fact, that's YOUR problem. If other people see a Shaky Leaf and take it as documented fact, that's THEIR problem. Some of us are not willing to accept everything that's out there as documented fact. I never, ever, accept anything on anyone else's tree as documented fact unless and until I see the documentation for myself. Then, and only then, will I add it to my tree. I have well over 5,000 people on my tree. Not nearly as many as some, but many more than others. And every single name has been researched and verified before being added. You've also said, "I'm helping them to the point that I have made information available that wasn't on the site previously." And you have undoubtedly gotten a lot of information from Ancestry.com that wouldn't have been easily (if at all) available to you otherwise. Genealogy research is a give-and-take proposition. We take a lot more than we give (that's the nature of our research, after all), so we (YOU) really should stop complaining about other people taking our information when we post it to a public web site.

Oh, I am using the classic view now but it won't be a choice before long. I did look at the New and Improved site. Twice. Hated everything about it. Ancestry doesn't care what the user thinks. When they did other stupid things and we gave our 2¢ they just plowed ahead and did what they wanted, not what we wanted. The comments idea is just to pacify us. Which it doesn't because we all know their mind is already made up. Money. It's all about the money. I'd like to know how much they spent making us so unhappy this time. It's making it very easy to break the ancestry.com habit, though. Considering what I had tentatively budgeted for next year, I can do something else really nice for myself and it won't involve ancestry.com. I'm getting everything off of there now. I'm so sorry I started the ancestry DNA but I will abandon it there and concentrate on Gedmatch. I found that the DNA matches at ancestry are the same people I have already made contact with and if I want to look harder, just search for family trees. My advice is save your money on the DNA kits. You will find the same people using the family tree search there. Use the connect feature or the contact button. What is really worrisome is them collecting health information. Now, that is scary! They won't implement any way for us to work with our DNA data but they'll gladly write down every health problem we have. They aren't going to do anything that will help us; they're going to sell the information to 3rd parties.