Copyright, Plagiarism, and Disclaimer

Genealogy is an intellectual pursuit involving research and preparing the results of that research for private or public use. Copyright and plagiarism are closely related concepts applicable to publication, and the results or conclusions stemming from research are always subject to further review and revision. Here is what I would like you to know about those three concepts.

Copyright

Congress shall have power...To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries

--Article 1, Section 8, Constitution of the United States

That clause is the basis for the copyright laws of the United States, and I claim those rights for the material I've written or formulated for presentation on this website. Facts, such as names, dates, and places cannot be copyrighted; you are free to use them as you wish. The writings containing those facts and other material are creative work and protected by copyright. You may use this material for your personal research, but please respect the copyright. Republication in any form is prohibited, unless you request and receive written permission from me.

Allowing the use of this material for research does not include republishing or reproducing it in other venues. In particular, I do not allow copying these pages, or their content, to a tree on Ancestry® or to be uploaded to other commercial websites or databases. While I'm honored that you think my material is good enough that you'd want to use it as your own, that is still copyright infringement. The content provided by commercial endeavors earns them profits which they do not share with me. Until they do, I do not wish to donate my material to them, nor see it donated by others. If you want to provide more than the basic facts of birth, marriage, death, and burial dates and places from these pages, I suggest using a URL link to this site so your readers will see the latest research

Plagiarism

Imitation is the sincerest of flattery

--Charles Caleb Colton

Imitation may indeed be flattery, but not without giving credit. If you use my material (or anyone else's for that matter) in your research, please give credit where credit is due and properly cite your source. Also, while my sources lend credibility to my work, and they should also be your clues to further research. However, they should not be a source for you until you actually use them. For example, throughout these pages I cite Torrey's New England Marriages Prior to 1700 (2011), but I do not cite his sources unless I've actually used them to try to answer a particular problem.

Suggested Citation Formats

Source Entry: Cooke, Gregory Don. Cookie Crumbs Ancestry. Internet Website:<http://www.gdcooke.org/ss/default.aspx/page/org2-o/index.htm>: ©2021

First Note (typical): Gregory Don Cooke, Cookie Crumbs Ancestry, Internet Website, <http://www.gdcooke.org/ss/default.aspx/page/org2-o/p11.htm>, Edward Ambrose Cooke, retrieved: January 2013. Hereafter cited as Cooke, Cookie Crumbs Ancestry.

Subsequent Note: Cooke, Cookie Crumbs Ancestry, <http://www.gdcooke.org/ss/default.aspx/page/org2-o/p11.htm>, Edward Ambrose Cooke, retrieved: January 2013

For further information on source citation, please see: Elizabeth Shown Mills, Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace, (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co.). Ms. Mills also has an article, "QuickLesson 15: Plagiarism--Five 'Copywrongs' of Historical Writing" on her website at <http://www.evidenceexplained.com>. It greatly expands on what you've read here.

Disclaimer

The genealogist who brags that he never makes mistakes, may or may not be a first-class genealogist, but he surely is a first-class liar.

--Donald Lines Jacobus

I will leave it for others to determine the quality of my work. I certainly will not claim there are no errors on these pages. The genealogical conclusions presented here are mine, or have been gleaned from the sources I've used and cited. They are provided without warranty or recourse, and your reliance on those conclusions, is, quite simply, at your own risk. Reliance on my work, or any published source, whether electronic or in print, can be hazardous to your pedigree if you do not make the effort to verify what you find.

Think not those faithful who praise thy every word and deed, but those who kindly reprove thy faults.

--Socrates

When you do find an error, or if you think that I may have violated someone else's copyright or committed plagiarism, please send a note. There's an email link in the footer below. Don't be shy; I find mistakes all the time. And if you like the website, I would enjoy hearing about that too.