nancy59

I think I would ask the cousin if it is okay with them, that you would like your kids to have a copy. If they shared it with you, I doubt they will have a problem with sharing with your children.
I also agree that this is an expensive hobby, I have been doing genealogy for years and have had a lot of fun with it. Shared my information with several "found" family members, until I started noticing they were publishing without paying attention to dates (entering incorrect data on the ancestry website)

Mgrubbs

Ditto to your post!! More fun and family gatherings make it worth while and no charge! Love this board!

carolaug

as one who does genealogy the only thing I ask and don't get often...is pictures from their stash...

applique

I have a question. My mother planned to spend a winter doing genealogy but passed away before she finished. She did have some old family genealogy books which were printed by relatives from years ago. She gave some extra copies to libraries etc. One looks like it is the only one, no extra copies. Would it be advisable to scan it and offer it online to others?

paulettepoe

My second love....family history. (I have 7000+ relatives in my personal family tree.)
I would take them to an office supply and have them copy them if you copies of the documents. or maybe they can burn the CD for your kids. I keep both CD and paper copies.

Alondra

I believe it is legal to copy them, as long as there is no patent on them. However, one caveat: always make a hard copy, too, since discs get damaged and formats change often. I am a genealogist and have first-hand experience of the grief it can cause not to have a hard copy of your information. All my genealogy stuff (and it is considerable!) is now backed up by Mozy Pro.

Alondra

Have you told her this? Most people who haven't done any genealogy work have no clue what goes into getting all that information. Most genealogists are very generous in sharing their information, but an exchange is always nice. If the exchange is one-way, though, the receiver should offer to pay some of the cost. But you have to be up-front with her - she can't read your mind.

seasaw2mch

I am my families historian and by all means YES you can make copies of the CD's to share with other family members that is what we make them for. Sure we do a lot of research and yes it takes a long time and sometimes a lot of money but that is our choice and the choice of offering him some money to help him out is a good idea but by no means should he or any family historian ever charge to do the work unless it's for someone else family.

I have spent years collecting information the would have other wise be lost and/or forgotten. The whole point of me collecting this stuff is so I can SHARE it with all my family.

So the answer is YES!!! BY ALL MEANS, PLEASE DO SHARE!!!!

seasaw2mch

Yes if it has family members the aren't living. I DO NOT EVER post family information on anyone that is still living.

paulettepoe

well....as for charging...I find it expensive to make copies of documents and family group sheets. So glad the CD was born. now i can burn it to CD and they can pay for their own copies if they want. hope that doesn't sound crass, but with the info that I have collected for almost 40 years, it would take 4 ink replacements plus the paper and the mailing....just too much.