PRIVACY

A commodity that can be too easily squandered.

An obituary or photo that results in the names of living people being revealed on a public forum is a breach of that persons privacy. Your contributions, no matter how well intentioned should NEVER breach the privacy of any living person. It is not hard to make the names of living people unreadable on a photo, or to strategically place a flower or vase to hide the names of those who may be still living.

Someone else's right to privacy IS NOT YOURS TO GIVE AWAY in either word or photo format. When a contributor is asked to remove or edit such an image that shows the names of living people and the request is met with refusal... well then it becomes a wilful act & as such could be viewed as the crime of doxing.

Everyone has a story to tell and stories told are a way to honour and remember those that have preceded us, they have all led remarkable lives in their own way.

It's not so long ago that knowledge and effective treatment of infectious disease was limited... to simply survive ones childhood in that era was remarkable in itself.

When I am able to add a little information to the bio section, it is done with research via various genealogical sites, newspaper archives or other historical records.

When I am able to add an image, be it a headstone photo, person picture or a little snippet of news that I believe may assist in helping someone correctly identify their loved one, or helps tell a little of their story, I try always to be respectful.

And finally, whilst everyone has a story to tell, not every story needs publicising on a public open forum. There are some stories I come across when researching a personal history that I don't include, perhaps the more gruesome details of a death or the stories that might get whispered through family lines, that might have caused shame or embarrassment to the individual or were swept under the table with hopes they'd be forgotten to time. Those stories might be better told elsewhere. Newspaper archives hold many of these stories.

I use only photos I have personally taken, or snippets I have personally researched. I will always document the source of any snipped news article or image I add to help someone else further their own research, and to correctly identify my source of information. I do not ever use images from someone else's research even when such images might be viewable on other sites, those images are not mine to share.

And lastly

A memorial biography should ONLY include information relevant to the individual memorialised, it's their life and their story. Memorial biographies are NOT the place to include a name link to someone who has provided the information or details to update a memorial. A link to a contributors account is rendered useless once the contributors account becomes inactive and is, in my opinion, disrespectful to the person memorialised. I will not include links in a bio to any contributor of information to a memorial since that contributors identity is IRRELEVANT to the memory of the individual memorialised, and due to the useless nature of such a link. I request the same consideration when and if I contribute edits to a memorial.

I sincerely hope my efforts help someone.