Family History and Ownership: A Cultural, Philosophical and Religious Issue

Claims of ownership of genealogically important data are a major obstacle to genealogical research. The barriers created by ownership claims extend from individual claims to those made by governments and other archival institutions. Despite the fact that the Terms and Conditions of Use of the FamilySearch.org Family Tree specifically require users to relinquish any claims of ownership to the data, people using the website still claim personal ownership over the data.

Quoting from the "FamilySearch Rights and Use Information,"

In exchange for your use of this site and/or our storage of any data you submit, you hereby grant us an unrestricted, fully paid-up, royalty-free, worldwide, and perpetual license to use any and all information, content, and other materials (collectively, “Contributed Content”) that you submit or otherwise provide to this site (including, without limitation, genealogical data and discussions and information or data relating to deceased persons) for any and all purposes, in any and all manners.

Essentially, when you submit information or enter information into the website any claims you have to ownership are subservient to the license you have granted to FamilySearch. You will essentially find exactly the same type of provisions on any other major genealogical data website. In this context, using the term "my family tree" or any other similar reference to personally owned data entirely contradicts the provisions of the use of the website.

So why do users persist in viewing the Family Tree as their "personal" database?

The answer is a complex mixture of cultural, religious and philosophical baggage that is inconsistent with the reality of participating in them online, collaborative program. The basic concept that is part of the Western European worldview is that use implies ownership. In other words, by accumulating data about our families and spending the time to do research, we automatically assume a position of ownership over the content we have acquired.

If I go to a store and buy something, according to the dominant cultural view in the United States, I automatically assume a belief that I now "own" whatever I purchased. The idea of collective ownership is inconsistent with this belief. Now let me posit a hypothetical situation. Let's assume that if I go to a library and find a book containing information about my ancestor. If I copy that information, do I now "own" that information?

Before answering that question, I need to make a few comments about the concept of copyright. Relatively recently, our law in the United States has begun to recognize rights to what is called "intellectual property." In certain very complex situations, individuals can claim ownership rights to original works. The definition of these terms is subject to specific provisions of our Federal statutory law. If you as a family historian or genealogist think you have some intellectual property rights concerning your work as a genealogist or family historian, as I have written many times, you should become intimately familiar with the provisions of the United States copyright law. You should further assiduously abide by those provisions.

However, if you are simply adding information to your online family tree by gathering information from publicly available sources, so far, no court in the United States, to my knowledge, has ever held that that information is in any way proprietary.

You do not own your ancestors.

From time to time over the years, I have researched US case law for any cases pertaining to genealogy and genealogical information. Fortunately, my research has failed to find any pertinent law cases on the subject of claims of ownership to pedigree information. Some genealogists have heard of the term "work product" and assumed that their genealogical research is somehow protected by the law. Work product is a very narrow term that applies to the information gathered by an attorney in the preparation of a lawsuit. It certainly does not extend to genealogical research.

Those genealogists for family historians who enter their information into the FamilySearch.org Family Tree soon learn that the Family Tree is mandatorily collaborative. In other words, when you put your data into the Family Tree you retain only a very tenuous control over that data. Since the data is subject to the FamilySearch license, what happens to the data is really no longer part of your own personal concerns. However, in the practical reality of the situation, by putting your data into the Family Tree you are really using one of the safest and most secure places where that information could possibly be stored. The data will outlive all of us.

Under the rather narrow provisions of the United States copyright law, if you create an "original" work, you may, by complying with the copyright law obtain some rights of ownership to the work. Otherwise, forget about ownership.

By the way, and direct answer to the question posed above about copying information from a book, you may, in fact, be violating someone else's claim to a copyright.