Here’s a quick way and inexpensive way that you might find out about your felonious ancestors and relatives: 1. Go to Google Books, and type in “State v. [name]” and see what comes up. Try these variations: For some states, type in “People versus [name]“ For Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Virginia, “Commonwealth v. [name]“ For British, [...]
Continue reading about QwikTip: Finding Your Ne’er-Do-Well Ancestors and Relatives
This Sunday at Shades of the Departed, a new weekend column called Appealing Subjects debuts. And it’s written by me! I’m honored to be one of the four Weekend with Shades columnists. The others are Terry Thornton, George Geder, and Jasia. In Appealing Subjects, we’ll explore the strange and wonderful relationship between photography and law. [...]
Continue reading about Coming This Sunday: Appealing Subjects
This story has been reported elsewhere in the geneablogosphere, notably by Lee Drew (where I first saw it) and by Dick Eastman. But it is of continuing interest. Apparently, the California Department of Public health has decided to call a halt to the marketing of genetic tests directly to consumers. Companies such as Navigenics, Family [...]
Continue reading about California Crackdown on Genetic Genealogy?
For this lesson, you have to visit my friend the footnoteMaven. Enjoy!
The fall semester will be over soon at Pacific McGeorge School of Law, so I thought I’d practice for the grading season with the quiz that appeared here a couple of days ago. BTW, every one who tried it got a passing grade. Here’s the “model answer”: Copyright Infringement The first claim against Delia is [...]
One afternoon, Delia, a family historian, decided to rummage around her uncle Al’s attic. She came across a locked trunk that she recognized as having belonged to her grandmother. Delia asked Al if she could see what was in the trunk. Al, knowing of his favorite niece’s obsession with genealogy, said, “Sure. Help yourself to [...]
We’ve talked about defamation, but a far more serious issue for genealogists is “invasion of privacy.” The law generally recognizes four distinct “wrongs” that may constitute “invasion of privacy:” (1) intrusion into private matters; (2) public disclosure of private facts; (3) publicity placing a person in a false light; (4) misappropriation of a person’s name [...]
Continue reading about More Genealogical Law: Invasion of Privacy
Defamation in genealogical publishing is not a tremendous problem for several reasons. First, the law does not recognize defamation of dead people. This fact is combined with the practice of most genealogists not publish information about living people without permission of those people. The third fact is that things thought defamatory in the past are, [...]
I had intended Thursday’s post to focus on avoiding defamation in genealogy. But then I saw this comment from Chris Dunham: What are your thoughts on that John Dillinger story I blogged about a few months ago? Which uses of Dillinger’s name can be controlled by his relatives, and which fall under the “dead people [...]
Continue reading about Another Law Lesson: A Most Excellent Question
A few years ago, I thought about writing on the topic of defamation and invasion of privacy as they relate to genealogy, but I ultimately decided that there just wasn’t enough material there to make it worth the time. Then, somewhat more recently, I wrote something that drew a comment that seemed a bit hostile. [...]
Continue reading about Another Law Lesson: The Basics of Defamation
