ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS and CONTRIBUTIONS

We are delighted to say that we receive regular generous offers of fresh material, some as corrections or amendments, and we'd like to acknowledge our gratitude for these here and now. Willing contributors have been a particularly invaluable resource in filling in huge gaps in our tree. More and more this is becoming a 'family' affair, and that's just what we set out to achieve. So keep the material rolling in, cousins!

However, after a couple of recent misunderstandings over our failure to respond or take on board all the material we've been sent, we thought it would be a good idea to explain our policy.

ACCEPTANCE OF MATERIAL

Keep it brief.

Try to be complete: full names, full dates where available, places of birth, marriage, death, etc.

Give full references and/or sources (GRO fiche or FreeBMD or IGI, or parish records, letters, wills, etc) so that others can do their own checking.

If you're not sure about something, say so. It still might make sense to someone else, or be useful, maybe spark off a train of enquiry.

If it doesn't link in some way with our families or looks dodgy, or we can't agree with it, I'm afraid it's a no-no.

Sorry, but we do have to use our discretion about what's relevant or useful. As they say elsewhere, the Editor's decision is final!

METHOD OF INPUT

E-mail only, please. If you don't have a home computer or an e-mail address, you can get help with this at your local library. Whilst a minority of our material also comes in by snail-mail, this is only ever by prior agreement. (We just don't have the time or good enough eyesight to go through masses of paperwork, and we years ago began to dump or return unsolicited mail without reading it.)

Do put in a clear subject, such as a family name, eg Dorothea Olivetta Wellwoman (1867-1923). Otherwise, where we don't know the sender and there's no clue about the subject, we delete e-mails automatically to protect us from viruses. Sorry!

The reason for our 'online only' policy is that every piece of material has to be checked digitally. The whole process is faster online, including the discussion about what we want or don't want.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

It is not our normal policy to name live individuals on this website (errors are made, but we strive to stick to this.)