Regarding Information
If you have additional information which you would like me to add to this site, I would be happy to receive it, so long as you understand a few things:
- There must be a connection to someone already listed, either a new son/daughter/spouse/parent or new information such as birthplace.
- If your data conflicts with my data, I get to pick the winner (hey, it's my website!).
- Getting the information in electronic format (there’s a form here you can fill out, or just email me) will make me happy. Getting it in GEDCOM format will make me very happy.
I can't make any promises on when I can add the new information.
If you want to drop me a note to say hello, that's fine. If you have questions, that's okay; I enjoy hearing from my distant cousins.
I’m usually rather disdainful of websites that have bunches of legal disclaimers — like, who ever reads that stuff? And is it really necessary?
Amazing how one little email threatening legal action changes one’s world view...
Anyway, to deter future flame mails, here are additional rules for sending me information (beyond the ones listed above):
- If you send genealogical information to a guy who publishes a genealogical website, don’t get torqued at him when he publishes it. (Actually, this probably a good rule of thumb for any genealogical website.)
- I’m sure you put a lot of time and effort into researching the stuff you sent me. Nevertheless, I currently have 207 sources of information (and growing), and not everybody gets their name listed on the home page. I used to publish the full source list, but it was the complete source list, which meant it had emails, etc., and one of my sources asked (quite nicely) if I could not do that with her personal information. So now all sources are obfuscated. It’s just safer.
- If I use your information in a way you don’t like, don’t threaten your lawyer on me — I’ll be happy to remove it.
- If you want me to remove it, don’t just say, “Take my stuff off your site,” or “Take my family off your site.” I’m sorry, who are you again? Give me a name, or a link, or a page shot, or the date you emailed me, or something.
What you can do with this information
So if you want to use any of the information on this website, go ahead. (That’s why I’m publishing it, after all.) Add it to your own page, pass it around the family, whatever. Obviously I’d prefer that nothing be used for nefarious or evil purposes, but if you are, you certainly won’t care what I have to say on the subject.
Where does all this stuff come from?
I would never have even thought of attempting something like this site without a computer and excellent source material. For a long time the software I used was Family Origins (FOW) on the Windows side, then edited for the Web on my Macintosh; that involved too many edits, alas, and updates were a major pain, so I switched to MacFamilyTree.
My source material is the Horlacher book (aka "the Red Book," but more formally Family of Hans Michael and Maria Veronica Horlacher) by Levi Jackson Horlacher and Vaneta Thomas Horlacher; and The Ryan Book by Frances Ryan Lamphere. These authors kept track of all the information (of which this site currently has only a fraction) using index cards and a dedication which amazes me. Their work made my job easy.
My cousin Robert Patrick (Pat) Ryan showed me a book on the Gillette family by Bertha Bortle Beal Aldridge, published in 1955 (Gillettes are ancestors through my Ryan side). I took photos of bunches of pages, but haven’t had a chance to get more than a few of them in here. Some day.
On my wife's side, I've been lucky to have several excellent sources of family oral history, including my father-in-law, the Rev. Robert Tanguy, and my sister-in-law's parents, Paul & Kay Reinhart. Plus a Paxton family history and other material.
I keep getting information from distant ancestors who stumble across this site, as well as relatives and in-laws, not to mention that I still have data from the Ryan and Horlacher books to enter. (And I’m happy to get more, so long as you understand how I use it.) So who knows how big all this will get eventually.