ATTENTION Curators, please assist

All that NH law says is that only direct close family can have access to the information (specifically, cause of death and any particulars)....but what you do with it is your own business...and in NH, I suppose any other relative as close....but that would be between you and them....and I believe the worse they could do is to take legal action to make you delete that particular item...of course, you could still use the obits, gravestone records...and anything technically OPEN to the public...with no such legal recourse to them.

I dont know that the State actually enforces it...they just want their $15 to print it up for you....after that, its your piece of paper..

Other than cause of death...all the other facts could be obtained from 'public' sources...and sometimes even that is put into print by the family themselves...

I know my family would not care if I uploaded the Document for our family, probably even my husbands immediate family.

It just seems to me that if you can find a birth or death date listed publicly for someone that has even been born or died recently, how could there be legal repercussions? Obits and Birth announcements are listed in the newspaper everyday.

AND the info is obtained from the FAMILY so it gets very fuzzy about where the line is on privacy...

The cause of death is the touchy part...some people don't want the truth to be out there...(drugs, suicide, some diseases..etc; manner of death if gruesome, shot by jealous husband/wife who found them with another person (but that would make the news anyway)).

Kinda seems silly in most cases, since the OBIT is public, the cemetery is public, etc...and HOPEFULLY someone would notice if they went missing.......

However, close to home may just be too close for comfort to be reminded of......our ancestors were much more stoic..

"shot by jealous husband/wife who found them with another person (but that would make the news anyway))." which demonstrates that the info can be released and used in public....because most news networks are careful about laws, and would in that case say "alledged murderer so-and-so...." but would state date, and the cause of death etc of the victim as released by the police (again evidence there is nothing illegal about using the info in public even if you are NOT family)...

I'm sure you mentioned above that states differ in terms of reporting cause of death. So it surprised me to come to the DC area and read obituaries that were explicit about cause of death whereas it was not ever stated in Texas.

Having just lost my sister, I would not like her death certificate to be uploaded and put on Geni. It's family business and in fact, only the next of kin can order a death certificate as I remember, at least in the jurisdiction that my husband died in. Although apparently that differs from state to state too.

I'm with Fay, cause of death is an issue. It's not the fact that a person is death, but for some families for some causes of death, they wish to keep the information private and in many states that is their perogative.

In Texas, death certificates are available free of charge to anyone with access to the internet at familysearch.org up to 1976, including cause of death. Every state makes its own rules about obtaining state registered deaths. Ive ordered in records for clients from just about every US state, and you would be amazed what I can find on just about any American in a short period of time. PA recently became much more open. It used to be I had to have clients order their own certificates from there, even ones like death certificates over 100 years old.

I think it is important to recognize the difference between posting something that was (also?) on a death certificate and obtaining an actual certified copy of a birth/death certificate. I am not a lawyer, but I am quite sure that is it not illegal to post a cause of death for a person in any state of the USA. Rude, inconsiderate, etc perhaps, but not illegal. Think about it, do you know of any state that doesnt have news reports of murdered people or traffic accidents etc?? even waiting until after notification of next of kin is a courtesy extended by any media outlet that doesnt want to be cut out of the loop of police notices but not technically a legal requirement I think.

I operate under a "living first" method, where if a living person has a request that isnt complelely unreasonable, I usually follow it. If I think a certain record is quite likely to cause hurt feelings/upset someone I omit it. If I find something iffy when researching for a client, I inform them what I found and offer to leave it out of the report if they dont want it included.

And I am quite sure that Geni has (had until now?) no policy against peoples dead children being listed as public profiles because I know of one where the a parent did not consent to a profile or it being public and there was nothing to be done about it. Again, rude, inconsiderate, and not what I personally would do (I would never, ever even think about adding a death certificate for example of a sibling of a Geni user!) but not technically illegal or against the rules. Courtesy and manners are a different thing than law (or website policy)

Of couse you can find it in the cenius.The cenius is a different animal all together! Birth records, death records and marriage records are filed in the state that these events happened in and state laws vary! You can not obtain a record from a town hall or city hall or a state or fedial vital dept. They just won't let you see it or have it without proof of relationshup and by the adoption records are not that easy to get either.If a birth record has adopted on it. They won't let you see it even if it doesn't have anyuseful details on it, unless you are the person that was adopted. I knpw that for a fact as I have a 1/2 brother that was put up for adoption and they wouldn't give me his birth record ,even tho I knew who his parents were. And that's all that was on the record,.To find him I had to go through the state , who contacted his family and got pemittion for me to contact them and get any info about what happened to him. If some decided to put it into book form, any of these records, then that's a different story. They most likely had the family records already. I for one have family that most likely would not like their info out there. Hence they ain't on there.and they won't be.

Thank you Kris...well put...and of course, on request to omit details regarding a death when made by a close relative would be honored.......and a good point on the airing of data on deceased children...IF they are public it is one thing....and obviusly quite another if deceased and coded 'private'.....

AND, as Judy pointed out...there are also certain instances where VERY close privacy is in play....

Another item to be taken into account in clarification regarding the policy of 'privacy' vs 'public'.

@Kris Stewart
Please amaze me and find info for George H Dennison, Navajo Code Talker. All his family knows is that he died in the '60's in California. His grandson is my friend.

Danny I added this hero to our http://www.geni.com/projects/Brick-Wall-Workshop/13085 project - to join yourself just go it, Actions -> Join Project. The amazing Kris is of course already a collaborator on it.

Invitation open to anyone with Brick Walls to unzip.

Not sure if a Curator wants to follow-up on the below - like why create a Private profile of Bieber ? (created abt 1 hour ago)

Cato Ingebrigtsen Cato Ingebrigtsen

ADDED private profile of:
Justin Drew Bieber Justin Drew Bieber

I am Not saying Cato can't do it - just wonder why he would !

Why critisise me?
Sure, Peter Rohel (c) can do it, just wonder why he would !

Hi, Cato Ingebrigtsen -- the point, of course, is that there is already a public profile for Justin Bieber, so one only needs to make the proper connection into the Geni World Tree in order to establish or 'find' a path to him. No need to create duplicates!

Okei, okei, okei okei, have deleted that profile to make you all guys happy!
When I choose PRIVATE, it is a reason for that, for NOT bother you guys.
But, private isnt private I see.. The only reason that I wanted to make the profile, is because I HAVE a relation to him, if I didnt, I never would bother.

But, as I said,
the profile is deleted and Im not gonna bother you guys anymore!.

Cato Ingebrigtsen

I'm trying to make some help info for the Dutch speaking Geni users.
So I'm curious why you (or anyone else) would create a profile that is already available.

You state you do it because you do have a relation to him, but I don't see why that should be a reason unless you want to add some data to the profile that you want to keep private. Was that the case?

If not would you please explain a bit more?

Yeah, I did add some info that wasnt at the other profile,
but, my plan was to melt those profiles together after
I had added those things, so my ads was getting into the main-profile.

But, my mistake, I shouldnt done it. so please....

Cato,

Thanks very much for explaining.

Cato (and others) ... Please don't interpret someone asking questions or offering suggestions as necessarily "being critical" or "attacking".

Often, it is either a case of not understanding the reasoning, a misinterpretation, or simply pointing out possible alternatives which might be better for the Geni community as a whole.

Different people often have different "bits of information" -- and one unique power of Geni is that all those "little bits" can be combined to give a fuller "profile" of the person.

Cato...please keep in mind that Justin Bieber IS a public figure because of his profession....therefore, you need to also have 'public' information attached....if you have infomration that is 'private' that may be another thing altogether....and better left unsaid.

Your problem appears to be that you wish to meld/merge private info with 'public' info.

If I understand your message correctly.

If your connection is that you are a relative....that is not clear by your message.

Omg, can't just people let this thing lay down, let the discussion die?
I'am starting to think about quit using the whole Geni,
if you guys can't give me peace now....

But to answer aswell: My ads to the profile wasnt private informations, but information that wasnt writen into the existing profile, but that I ment should have been there.. This is my finale answer in this discussion..........

Then just go to his profile and add the information....

Everyone was trying to be helpful....and save you steps that weren't necessary.

Don't give up . Hang in there. You can never win! But still hang in there. But do what Fay says. Just add the info if it's conenected to you and you know it's right.

Don't give up . Hang in there. You can never win! But still hang in there. But do what Fay says. Just add the info if it's conenected to you and you know it's right.

Thank you Judy...
And Fay, when the "edit profile" button is locked,
so is it not "just to add the information"...

Hi Cato

Sorry to add - this is just procedural for anyone who wants to contribute information to a "notable."

A couple of methods. The simplest / cleanest is upper right hand corner of a profile, Actions menu, request management. (A notification goes out to the existing managers & curator, if the profile is designated MP.). When accepted you will have "edit" rights and can add to the "overview"
- and build in any missing links (a little trickier for a living person - but that's the gist).

Hope this helps.

Thanks for a good answer and tip Erica! :)

My two cents. If someone wants to have a profile that is out of the loop, so they can avoid the hassle of shared management or just to have private details about the person if they have one or whatever, just put a bogus name on it and have the real info in the notes. That way you have the person in your tree without the hassle. You do lose the benefit of the shared info that branches from it, but if thats what you want you can do it that way and no one is the wiser or worse for it.

They are now.

Can i please have a curator look at this tree it seems to be all over the place . I have tried to contact various managers but there is so many and i cant merge profiles as they are private and doubled up here and there.
Edward John Merrick [Convict "Surprize" 1790]

If you look at the *manager* of that sole-managed profile, you will note they are "not connected" (to the Geni World Tree).

There are some 'behind the scenes' discussions about how to best clean-up or encourage people to log in and 'connect' to the World Tree, so, with a few weeks or so of patience this might get resolved.

The alternative is to simply copy anything unique from them and then "dismiss" the matches made with such profiles owned by 'unconnected' persons.