Is it proper to include names from a published surname genealogy book?

Question

The book "Genealogical History of the Maple/Mapel Family in America by Telford Grant Maple, Ph.D. has a wealth of Maple family lines and matches in WikiTree.. Under the 1993 copyright notice it says "No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any mean, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recordings, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright holders, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review".

This statement makes me question putting anything from the book on WikiTree.

Please comment

Thanks, Tom

Answer 1

Hi Tom! you have to get the authors permission. I think this will be easier if you promise to refer to your source. Give it a try!

Comments

My understanding is that you can repeat facts found in books, but you can't reproduce narratives, entire pages, or images without permission.  I believe you should be able to add names and dates that you find in a genealogy book, but always best to include the source citation with all of the publciations details included  -- but that is true for any information you add -- cite your sources.

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I think you hae that right, Tami. The facts can't be copyrighted.

Answer 2

Telford Grant Maple passed away in 2005 with no heirs. His book was published privately, and is no longer available for sale. It was not sold for profit -- he charged only for the cost of printing. He also distributed CD versions at cost. While, strictly speaking, it is improper to put large passages on WikiTree, in practice it IS THE PROPER THING TO DO!.

Grant devoted many years of his life to the study of Maple genealogy, and he shared his work freely with others. His book was partly based on the earlier notes of John Jameson Mapel (1848-1932), who interviewed many Maple families. As such, it contains many unreferenced statements, which do not fit well into a standard Wikitree format. I think it is best to put his writing out in its original form, and let researchers decide what to make of it.

What is not OK is to copy passages from the book and then pull out a few references as sources, making it unclear who actually wrote the passages. Label passages clearly as quotes from T. Grant, and give him his due!