{"id":919,"date":"2011-09-25T21:04:48","date_gmt":"2011-09-25T21:04:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/synagoguescribes.com\/blog\/?p=919"},"modified":"2011-09-26T09:32:03","modified_gmt":"2011-09-26T09:32:03","slug":"warning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/synagoguescribes.com\/blog\/warning\/","title":{"rendered":"Warning"},"content":{"rendered":"

We have been robbed!.\u00a0 Not once, but twice!\u00a0\u00a0 Firstly, by a Very Large, Highly Respectable, \"\"<\/a>Organisation.\u00a0 We still aren\u2019t\u00a0 clear what\u00a0 possessed them.\u00a0\u00a0Over-enthusiasm? Naievete? Or sheer thoughtlessness?\u00a0\u00a0 Whatever the cause, the result\u00a0 has been highly damaging. Whole datasets from our SynagogueScribes database and large amounts of data from our CemeteryScribes website have been copied to their website without permission or proper consultation.\u00a0 Once alerted to these infringements, and, to their credit,\u00a0 they are now acting to redress the situation.\u00a0 And, because they are an organisation who are interested in the promotion of properly researched genealogy, the data has not been intentionally<\/strong> tampered with, although some of the Hebrew parts of the records appear to have been incorrectly entered.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, at the same time as incorporating this material into their own searchable database, they also made it available in the form of a downloadable gedcom, with no immediately apparent restrictions on use.\u00a0 We cannot know how many people have downloaded this gedcom \u00a0\u2013 which contains unauthorised transcripts from other providers, not just ourselves.\u00a0 Nor what use they may put it to.<\/p>\n

Worse case scenario is that it could fetch up on a pay-to-view site and researchers will find themselves paying for incorrect material that they could have had for free, and which, since it would still carry the name of the original known and trusted source providers, they will assume to be accurate .\u00a0 A double whammy, if ever there was one!<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, our present pressing concerns lie with one specific site, devoted to a particular branch of Jewish Genealogy, which has uploaded all this gedcom material on to their website and who refuse to withdraw it, even though they have been courteously apprised that they are infringing ours and others\u2019 copyrights. \u00a0So, not only are they re-publishing incorrectly loaded records they have no rights to but, far more dangerous and far more damaging, \u00a0they are allowing the records to be wiki-ed.<\/p>\n

So, for example,\u00a0 where a Great Synagogue marriage record gives a groom\u2019s Hebrew patronymic as \u2018Abraham b. Behr\u2019 <\/em>\u00a0but other data held by a descendant, perhaps a tombstone inscription, may give the name as \u2018Abraham b. Issacher Behr\u2019<\/em>. or where\u00a0 someone’s Great-Grandmother was always known as Sophie, but her 1810 pre-civil registration marriage record gives her name as Simony, they will alter original marriage record to match.\u00a0\u00a0 Does that matter?\u00a0 Yes, it most surely does.<\/p>\n

The original record was written in the Synagogue Register by a scribe on the day the event, \u00a0– birth, marriage, death, circumcision \u2013 was recorded.\u00a0 You cannot take a pen and strike it through, or add an insertion with a proof-reader\u2019s symbol<\/p>\n

The same respect must be paid to transcriptions of the original record. If we come across an apparent \u2018error\u2019 in the record or if , for example, where no English names have been recorded, we can add more details about the individuals concerned, we will happily do so in a note.\u00a0 But, as we have said, the original record is a primary source<\/strong> and cannot be tampered: neither should a report or transcription of that record.<\/p>\n

So we issue this Warning to serious Jewish genealogists and family historians: Material sourced to\u00a0 Angela Shire, SynagogueScribes, or CemeteryScribes that has been illegally republished on other websites or searchable databases, may not damage your health, but it may seriously damage your research.<\/p>\n

For reliable transcripts of Synagogue Records and \u00a0Cemetery inscriptions, visit CemeteryScribes<\/a> and SynagogueScribes<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We have been robbed!.\u00a0 Not once, but twice!\u00a0\u00a0 Firstly, by a Very Large, Highly Respectable, Organisation.\u00a0 We still aren\u2019t\u00a0 clear what\u00a0 possessed them.\u00a0\u00a0Over-enthusiasm? Naievete? Or sheer thoughtlessness?\u00a0\u00a0 Whatever the cause, the result\u00a0 has been highly damaging. Whole datasets from our …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[20],"class_list":["post-919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-stories-articles-interest","tag-jewish-genealogy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/synagoguescribes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/synagoguescribes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/synagoguescribes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/synagoguescribes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/synagoguescribes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=919"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/synagoguescribes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":922,"href":"https:\/\/synagoguescribes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919\/revisions\/922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/synagoguescribes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/synagoguescribes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/synagoguescribes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}