Grosvenor Arch and Cottonwood Canyon Road

As my time on this trip nears its end, I've been reviewing many of the images that I've made throughout the trip and in so doing realized that I left out sharing the spectacular Grosevnor Arch with you! I visited this arch about a week ago, on the same day that I hiked the Willis Creek narrows. Grosvenor Arch is located down the Cottonwood Canyon Road, which goes right through the heart of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Its a little odd visiting this arch as Cottonwood Canyon Road is a fairly rough road with lots of washboard bumps and rocks, yet when you arrive at Grosvenor Arch you are treated to a nice picnic area with toilet facilities and a paved walkway leading up to the arch.

Since my visit to the arch was in the middle of the afternoon, I was thankful to have some nice clouds in the sky to make the mid-day photos a bit more interesting. After photographing the arch I continued to drive down Cottonwood Canyon Road, admiring the scenery along the way. I snapped a few images along the road, then turned around when I was roughly half-way through the road (about 23 miles). I would have continued all the way through the road, but I wanted to be back at Bryce Canyon that night to shoot the sunset.

As I write this update I am in Wall, South Dakota after a drive through the Pine Ridge Reservation and an afternoon/evening visit to Badlands National Park. I am working my way back home with mixed feelings. After spending a few weeks on the road its nice to be heading home, but at the same time I don't want the trip to end. At least I can take comfort in the knowledge that not long after I return home flowers will be blooming and the trees will be budding, and summer will soon be here! Look for a post about the Badlands to come in another day or two....

(Above and below: Some of the scenery along Cottonwood Canyon Road)

Looking South

From the Crest of the Sandia Mts you can look almost in all four directions. It was so hazey that day that we weren't getting the best views as you do on some days. I didn't get any good ones from the walkway but did get this one at the start of one of the trails where you can actually hike from the top of the Crest all the way down into Albuquerque, about 11,000 feet down.

Old Friends and Fond Memories

Bob, Sandy, John, Gary, and Smitty. This photo was taken in December 1973, just a few weeks before I left Reykjavik, Iceland. It's really hard to believe that it was 35 years ago! My one-year tour of duty in Iceland was made much more pleasant because of their presence.

We stayed in touch for a while. . . Bob was onboard a ship heading for Japan about the time I left there in May 1979. I saw Sandy a couple of times before I went to Japan. John and his wife met me at the airport in Hawaii when I was on my way to Japan in May 1977 and I visited them in Seattle after my return. I have no idea what happened to Gary and Smitty. As often happens, we lost contact after a few years. I often wonder what became of them and some of the other friends I had while in the Navy. Occasionally I Google their names, but haven't found anything on them yet. I did get a couple of emails earlier this year from two of the girls with whom I went through bootcamp. They had found the posts on my letters from bootcamp. It was nice because I actually remembered who they were!

As my contribution to the 8th Edition of Smile For The Camera :: Stocking Stuffer, I would like to stuff this picture into the stockings of Bob, Sandy, John, Gary, and Smitty. Thanks for the memories!

California :: Highway One Poppies

April 1st, somewhere along California Highway One, south of Big Sur.

Not a Typical DL-1

Over the years I've been fortunate enough to befriend some very serious bicycle collectors. And I understand enough about how they operate to know it is unlikely that I will ever be one of them. I have a strong aversion to online auctions. I am unwilling to spend my weekends traveling across state lines to visit bike swaps and barn sales. Space is an issue. Andmost importantly, my tastes in bikes are too varied. But if there is one bicycle in which my interest has remained consistent, it is the Raleigh DL-1 Lady's Tourist.




I acquired my first one in - a run of the mill 1973 model in so-so condition - and "frankenbiked" it into a working city steed which I still ride today. The second Lady's Tourist was practically forced into my hands half a year later. The 1930s model was covered in surface rust and I did not want it. Where would I keep the filthy thing? But the gentleman who offered it insisted I was the rightful owner: "Take it. It is completely intact and that rust can be removed. You won't regret it." He was correct. It is a historically significant treasure that I look forward to carefully restoring some day.





At that point I knew that I would have a collection of DL-1s in the future; it was just a matter of time and luck. I did not intend to buy up random Raleigh Tourists; I was interested in specific things.An all-original model from the 1940s-50s was one of them. A pre-1930s model was another. And then there was the one that seemed least likely to surface: the chrome Tourist. But two years later, surface it did - in the hands of a collector in Germany, who did not want it for himself and promptly offered it to me. I was not prepared, but a chance like this does not come along often and after a feverish correspondence the bike was mine. The machine arrived completely disassembled and packed into a standard sized box in the most expert manner I've ever seen. It took us some time to put it back together, but finally we managed and here it is: a chromeRaleigh DL-1 Lady's Tourist.



The proportions of the 22" frame are identical to my 1973 bike. The hub is stamped 1980. "Raleigh Nottingham" headbadge. Most of the parts are original. The amount of wear suggests the previous owner rode it for years on a regular basis, but did not store it outdoors.





Aside from their eye-catching finish, what makes chrome DL-1s interesting is that historically they are somewhat of an enigma. On several occasions, Raleigh released limited edition All-Chrome versions of their roadster models. Originally these were made only for dealers as demos or display models. In later decades chromed editions began appearing in catalogues.In theory it is possible to find a chromed Raleigh roadster from any number of decades, made for any number of markets. The best known of these today is the Boss Bike - a balloon tire chromed Superbe Roadster produced for Raleigh's African market in the 1970s. There was also a chromed DL-1 produced for the German market through the late 1970s and early '80s. My bike is an example of the latter.






One very cool thing about the bike is the locking fork. Unfortunately, the key is missing. I will look into whether it's possible to get a duplicate made.




Also missing is the observation insert on the chaincase. The rear of the chaincase is slightly crumpled, but we are working on fixing that. The bike needs new cotters, and the headset could use repacking or replacing. Otherwise there is no damage.





A couple of things are not original, such as these newer tires (which ride great). The headlight and bottle generator are missing, though I do have the original tail light.





I initially thought these pedals were not original, but have since seen similar ones on other chromed Raleighs. The seller sent me these along with a set of the more typical Raleigh platform rubber pedals, but these are nicer and less than half the weight.






It looks like the grips were replaced by the previous owner after the originals wore out. The fit isn't quite right, but they feel and look fine, so I will keep them until I can find a better alternative. Late 1970s - early '80s Sturmey Archer trigger shifter.





The bolted rear triangle and fork ends are identical in design to my standard 1973 DL-1.





The rod brakes, however, are a little different. I need to take close-ups of the other bike for a comparison. They need new brake pads, but work reasonably well in the meantime. The rear one is stronger than the front.





My understanding is that originally these bikes came with Brooks B33 saddles, but it was missing here. The seller included a spare from his personal collection, which is a brown Brooks "Champion B66 S.T.R." This is a long-nosed men's saddle, most comparable to today's Flyer model. I would love to get a shorter nosed model for this bike, and if anyone would like to trade let me know.






I am still just getting to know this bike and not sure what I will do with it in the immediate future. Putting it in storage was my plan, but I rode it and it feels too nice to put away just yet.





For now I will get the cotters replaced and see what else needs adjusting. There is a local vintage bike show coming up in August and I might take it there if the timing works out.






While this bicycle is rare by virtue of being unusual (I only know of two other lady's chrome DL-1s in existence - one of themhere), the late vintage and used condition don't make it especially valuable in collectors' terms. It is, however, historically significant - serving as an example of Raleigh's chrome finish and late-production DL-1 models. I can hardly believe my luck in getting my hands on one of these.




More information on chrome Raleighs can be found here. And a good source of information on DL-1s in general is the author of this blog. Also worth visiting is Velo Ulli's collection - his focus is on pre-1920s bikes and it's glorious eye candy. It's always good to know collectors whose interests are different from yours... that way they can pass those unwanted bikes they pick up onto you!

The Huffman/Hoffman Kinexxion :: John & Dietrich

As mentioned in my previous post, the father of Susannah (Huffman) Berlin was found to be John Huffman. Based upon cemetery transcriptions in the “Henry R. Baldwin Genealogical Records” published in 1963, his date of birth was November 1779. On page 131 it states that the transcriptions were taken on June 21, 1907 for Washingtonville Cemetery in Green Township, Mahoning County, Ohio. Washingtonville actually lies partly in Mahoning County and partly in Columbiana County (Mahoning was created from Columbiana in 1846). The record shows that John Hoffman was “born 1779 died Feb. 8, 1860 age 80 years 3 mos.” and his wife Catharine was “born 1780 died Feb. 10, 1857 age 77 yrs.” with a notation that she was “age 77 yrs. 10 mos. 10 days given in another notebook”.



Other researchers with whom I've had contact, as well as numerous online family trees show that John's parents are Detrick and Susannah (Alder) Hoffman. Of course, there are no or few sources provided in those online trees. John was reportedly born in Berks County, Pennsylvania. He was married to Catherine Coy on October 24, 1801 in Washington County, Maryland. Catherine's sister, Mary, was also married in Washington County, Maryland - on November 19, 1803 to Michael Huffman, reportedly the brother of John.



But there is a slight problem with the presumed parentage of John Huffman – one that other researchers I've been in contact with in the past did not mention - and this is where my heart sinks and my stomach gets tied up in knots - In looking at deed records, tax lists, and census records for Columbiana County, I found that there was more than one man named John Huffman/Hoffman living in the county during the same time period, 1808-1860.



Tax lists prior to 1816 are not available at the Family History Library. However, volume 1 of “Index Ohio Tax Lists 1806-1810” edited by Ronald Vern Jackson has the following entries in Columbiana County for the Hoffman surname of various spellings (Hoffman, Hufman, Huffman and possibly Huffan). The township was “Not Listed” except in 1808 when it was given as Springfield. The index does not provide any other information so there is no way of knowing, without looking at the originals, where the land was located or even if there were absentee landlords. Just because they were taxed on land doesn't mean they were actually living there.

1807: Detrick p5

1808: Derick p63*, John p62*

1809: Oedrick p13, John, p11, John, p12, Nicholas, p12

1810: Derrick, John p24, John p27, Michael, p27

On December 19, 1807 Michael Hofman purchased 101 acres in S10 T16 R3 (Green Township) from Daniel Ruigle and his wife May (v1 p316). All parties were of Columbiana County. This land was sold on April 27, 1819 by a Sheriff's sale to David Coy, John Clinker, Daniel Coy, Nancy Coy & Susanna Coy for a judgment of debt and damages. (v5 p418).



The first land record I found for Detrick Huffman was on March 6, 1809 when he purchased 81 ¾ acres in the NW 1/4 of S12 T15 R3 (Salem Township) from Christopher Bair and his wife Susana (v2 p28). He owned this land for the remainder of his life.



How many John Hoffmans were there? Two? Three? or more? It's hard to say for sure...



On the 8th of March 1808 John Hoffman of Washington County, Pennsylvania purchased Lot 189 in the town of New Lisbon from Gideon Hughes and his wife Rebecca (v1 p349). Three years later, on March 10, 1811 John Huffman and his wife Elizabeth, of Washington County, Pennsylvania sold Lot 189 in the town of New Lisbon to George Huffman (v3 p346).



On April 14, 1808 John Hoffman purchased 155 acres in S6 T8 R1 (Unity Township) from John Snook and his wife Catherine. All participants were “of Columbiana County” (v1 p382). On the same day, John Hoffman and Elizabeth his wife of the county of Columbiana, sold that land to John Whitmore (v2 p463). Columbiana County marriage records show that a John Hoffman married Elizabeth Shnok on May 26, 1808 (v1 p37). Several online databases show her name to be Snook. Anyway, the marriage was a month after the sale of land so it can't be the same John and Elizabeth. It could be the John and Elizabeth who were of Washington County, Pennsylvania in the March transactions. There were additional purchases by a John Hoffman in Unity Township – he was taxed on 85 acres in the NE 1/4 of S6 from 1816 through 1833.



June 4, 1808 John Hoffman purchased 160 acres in S36 T16 R3 (Green Township) from John Roller and wife Catherine, all were of Columbiana County (v1 p404). On the same day, John Huffman and Catharine his wife sold a portion of that land to David Coy “said section was confirmed to John Hufman by John Roller and his wife Catharine by deed dated June 4, 1808... the part now sold... containing 60 acres (v1 p399). David Coy was a half-brother of Catharine.



On August 24, 1811 John Hoffman of Columbiana County purchased 17 acres in S31 T9 R1 (Springfield Township) from William Chain and his wife Nancy (v3 p12). In 1819 Adam Hoffman purchased 124 acres in that section. In 1822 Jacob Hoffman purchased land in that section. In 1823, Adam Hoffman sold his 124 acres to John Hoffman. In 1826, John and Elizabeth Hoffman sold 60 acres to the five children of Henry Harmon and 64 acres to Christian Hilt. In 1828, John Hoffman (no wife listed) sold 6 acres to Jacob Hoffman. And there were other transactions by Jacob and John Hoffman in this section... it makes your head spin!







In 1846, Green Township and Springfield Township became part of Mahoning County. From the map above you can see that Springfield township is directly north of Unity, while Green Township is directly north of Salem. The land of John & Catherine was in Green Township north of Washingtonville while Detrick's land was in section 12 of Salem Township on the south side of Washingtonville. This places them in relatively close proximity to each other but does that mean that Detrick and "my" John are father and son?



To be continued... see The Huffman/Hoffman Kinexxion :: Detrick

Horseshoe Bend

A mile or so south of Page, Arizona the Colorado River navigates around a horseshoe bend. There is a 3/4 mile trek through the sand, up and down a hill, to get to the overlook, but it is well worth the effort. I went there twice.

The first visit was late in the evening before the sun set. The overlook faces west so the sun was directly behind the bend.

The river and the rocks, highlighted by the lowering sun.

The early morning light gives it a completely different look.

As the kayaks and canoes were preparing to leave a beach on the bend a big motorboat passed by.

These photos were taken on June 3rd and June 4th. I left Page on the morning of the 4th for Southern California to visit my cousin and to attend the Genealogy Jamboree. After Jamboree I spent two days on the coast near Point Mugu and Ventura (no photos, gloomy, foggy, but still nice) then ventured into the central part of the state...

Petzl ERGO

Ueli Steckon the m6 Direct Startto the Super Couloir.Jon Griffin photo and link here:



http://www.alpineexposures.com/blogs/chamonix-conditions/1438782-its-been-a-long-10-days



The original Ergo was one of the new tools that started the mixed tool explosion. That was several generations ago now and it is obvious that dbl handled tools are here to stay. Once thought an esoteric in design and for the specialists only it became a pretty common place design along with the BD Reactor and other newer tools from a few companies playing catch up.













Then the Nomic came out. Even more radical in design and appearance it didn't take long for almost everyone to realise just how good the Nomic was and how much easier it made ice and mixed climbing. The radical shaft shape and lack of hammer didn't stop the Nomic users from getting on everything from easy alpine ice to hard M8 all with the same tool. And amazingly almost everyone happy with it!



The newest Ergo is another big jump in shaft and handle design. You now have an extremely high clearance shaft and the option of three supported hand positions.





To be honest I am still learning how to climb on a Nomic after 5 seasons and figure I have yet to fulfill its potential.



The new Ergo is a big step up on the Nomic's potential from what I first see, visualise and can act upon even now.



Another look at the new Ergo here with good pictures:



http://rafalandronowski.wordpress.com//02/12/petzl-ergo-at-haffner-creek/



More here from someone who can actually use the new Ergo as intended:



http://machavok.blogspot.com//10/petzl-ergo-mixed-climbing-tool-review.html



In the grand scheme of the Ergo I am a gumby climber. But then I am a gumby as well when you look at who the Nomic was designed for. It is a true stroke of genius to have a tool like the Nomic that climbers at any skill can take advantage of. The question is can a gumby take advantage of what the Ergo has to offer and will it up your game over the Nomic?























































For what it is worth the Ergo is an amazing piece of kit even for a beginner on mixed. Easy or hard terrain and with no concern for your climbing ability imo the Ergo is a rather big step up in performance over every previous ice tool I have used. There is little question it really excels on vertical terrain, mixed or ice. But you can just as easily climb Grade 3 water ice with the Ergo as you can with an original Quark or a Nomic for that matter. The more horizontal grip of the Ergo really has a grip strength advantage over even the Nomic'c excellent grip profile. Enough so that the Ergo's grip kept me on a climb that I should have and would have blown off an Nomic's grip when I popped both feet trying to get onan icicle while coming off mixed terrain.

The new grip angle is a big advantage on difficult terrain and doesn't seem to have any down sides or easy terrian that I can tell. It is easy enough to move your hands up the shaft as the terrian looses angle. The other big advanatge I see form the previous generation of Nomics is the serrated lower grip pommel. The serrated steel blade really does offer good bite on the ice and makes the tool much more stable. More so than I ever thought it would. Big plus here. Down side is the Nomic and Ergos pommel attachment design is seriously flawed and is prone to quick failure. Which makes the tool pretty worthless.

I really like this tool. Much more so than I had ever envisioned. It works very well on any mixed or pure ice terrain. Even the easy stuff and is exceptional on the vertical stuff. I can see this being the only tool many climbers will own and they will be satisfied by doing so.The only down side from a huge positive recommendation for a beginner wanting to climb harder and get better, tothe proficienthard core mixed master, is the poor pommel design that Petzl is obviously going to have to fix sooner than later.

But there is enough advantages to the new shaft design that I am going to figure out a away to make my set of Ergos reliable enough to take ontosome serious alpine mixed terrain.

(see the other post for the details on the Nomic Ergo"failures")

Engagement Day!

Above Image: "Where the Lake becomes the River" - Near the Gunflint Trail in northeast Minnesota, the Brule River resumes its journey toward Lake Superior after flowing through Northern Light Lake.









Last night, under the light of an incredibly surreal moonlit and lightning-filled sky over Lake Superior, I asked the woman I love to marry me. And she said YES! I feel like I'm floating on air today :-)









So, Jessica and I are now officially engaged :-) And what do we do to celebrate our engagement day? We spend it outside, of course! We went paddling on the Brule River and Northern Light Lake along the Gunflint Trail in Northeast Minnesota. It sure was a beautiful day!







Above: Jessica getting lost in the grass where the Brule River flows into Northern Light Lake







Above: The clouds and lily pads were awesome.







Above: It was loads of fun paddling through these reeds. Very interesting to watch them glide magically out of the way as the bow of the kayak nudged them to the side.







Above: Goofing off in the tall grass.

A Trip to Annie's Annuals

Annie's Annuals is an incredible nursery in Richmond, California. They have the largest selection of rare and unusual annuals and perennials anywhere. Some rarities they carry include a double-flowered nasturtium, a large, blue-flowered form of scarlet pimpernel, and a freakishly amazing South African spider iris.

Although Annie's is a veritable gardener's heaven, you need to drive through some rough neighborhoods to get there. That didn't prevent me, however, from stopping by and loading up on California native wildflowers such as baby blue eyes, tidy tips, bird's eyes, and 'Apricot Chiffon' California poppies.

Annie's Annuals is definitely worth a visit if you live in the Bay Area or are ever passing through.

Anyone else have excellent nurseries nearby?

Moving On :: Back in the Lower 48

Wednesday, September 1st - - It was cool this morning when I woke up but there was sunshine and blue skies overhead, for which I was very thankful. After finding free wifi (at a Safeway grocery store!) in Smithers and spending an hour uploading and scheduling blog posts, it was almost eleven o'clock before I was on my way once again.

Yesterday I had gotten to the end of the Cassiar Highway and turned east onto the Yellowhead Highway (Route 16). The last two hours on the Cassiar I saw perhaps two dozen vehicles. That number was surpassed in two minutes on the Yellowhead. It was as though I had turned the corner and gone into a whole different world. Not only was there more traffic, but the landscape was different too. There were still mountains and forests but there were also open areas of pasture and farmland. Houses, and buildings, and utility poles lined the highway for miles. Towns! And traffic! Civilization? Instead of watching out for bears and moose and other four legged critters I had to watch out for other drivers.

I continued east on the Yellowhead Highway to Prince George where I turned south on the Cariboo Highway (Route 97). There was road construction on the Cariboo, which caused some delay but it wasn't too bad although traffic was backed up for quite a ways. In one section they had completely torn up the road bed and it was a big mess. Concentrating on getting through that area I caught a glimpse of something walking along the side of the highway. I couldn't hardly believe my eyes – it was a black bear! And a pretty good-sized one too. There were no construction workers nearby so no one was in any immediate danger but still, it was there amongst all the noise and traffic, out in the open, and I could see it in my rear-view mirror as I drove on.

A short time later I stopped at the Canyon Creek Campground and RV Park in Hixon, about 35 miles south of Prince George. It had been a short driving day, only 265 miles. And it was only 410 miles more to the U.S. Border.

I would be remiss in not mentioning the fact that today - September 1, .. - marks the beginning of the second year of this incredible journey. One year ago I embarked upon an odyssey that has taken me places I had only dreamed of and some places that I had never heard of...

==========

Thursday, September 2nd - - It was another chilly morning. Cloudy but no rain. Continued heading south on the Cariboo Highway to Cache Creek where I turned west onto Trans-Canada Highway 1. By the time I got to Cache Creek at two o'clock the temperature had risen to 74 degrees – the warmest temperature I'd seen in three weeks! And it felt good. At 4:30, even though I was only about 60 miles from the U.S. border, I stopped for the night at the Telte-Yet Campground in Hope, British Columbia - it was 77 in the shade! Awesome. After paying for the campsite, I had $10 in Canadian currency left and figured this would be my last night in Canada, so I walked across the steet to Dairy Queen and had a banana split to commemorate the occasion!

==========

Friday, September 3rd - - Sunny skies once again. Left Hope at 9:30 this morning and got to the Sumas, Washington border crossing at 10:45 along with lots of other vehicles. I lucked out and got into a fast-moving lane - it only took twenty minutes to get through. There was no fancy sign, like in Alaska, welcoming me back – just this electronic billboard flashing its message...

I was “home” again, and happy to be here!

Thanks, Miriam!

Sunday, September 19th - - It was a delightful day that was spent with one of my favs – Miriam Midkiff of Ancestories :: The Stories of my Ancestors. Miriam has already written about our day but I just wanted to add that it was my pleasure to be able to spend some time with her - to get to know her a little better and to meet her son and husband. Her son, being a teenager, didn't have much to say but her husband and I had several engaging conversations while Miriam was off doing something else. The pot roast was delicious. It was very nice to have a home-cooked meal for a change!

Miriam Robbins Midkiff and Becky Wiseman. Photo taken September 19, .. by her husband.
Even though I knew that Miriam and I probably wouldn't get together until Sunday, I arrived in Spokane about mid-day Friday. I had decided that this would be a good opportunity to have a couple of “down” days. I had to tend to some errands – get the oil changed in the van, laundry, grocery shopping – you know, things that “normal” people do on a regular basis ;-)

I also took advantage of having electricity at the RV park to work on the photos from August on the netbook. I don't normally stay at commercial RV parks (or resorts, as this one was called) because they usually resemble parking lots. But for some reason the state of Washington closed the campgrounds in some of its State Parks in mid-September so I had no alternative. This particular RV resort was actually kind of nice. There were some trees and bushes in between each parking space, which provided some degree of privacy. A rarity in an RV park! They also had wifi available but I kept getting kicked off the network after about 15 minutes online. Luckily there was a McDonalds across the street...and their wifi worked great.

My stop-over in Spokane was a nice break in my journey. Several tasks were accomplished and I got to spend some time with a friend. Thank you, Miriam! And I look forward to our next visit, someday!

Can you date this axe?

Here is an interesting axe. Grivel for sure. Pre 1980 but how pre 1980?50cm and looks unaltered except for some sharpening. I asked Grivel for a production date.



"This axe was in producton between 1978 and 1985 (more or less). The shaft is in rexilon.

Ciao,

Alexis

Grivel"







This week I was told Grivelwas offering a similar axe as early as 1970. Virtually the same time as Chouinard had hisPiolet available, which was late fall of 1969 by Doug Robinson's recollections. I'll look into that further.



"Certainly by the next catalog the date of introduction of the Piolet is listed as 1969. And by October of that year Yvon delivered to me on the edge of the Palisade Glacier the hickory-handled 70 cm one (and that hand-forged Alpine Hammer) that we put to good use on the V-Notch the next day."

Doug Robinson, Jan 2 '09



http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=382806&tn=0&mr=0



Up date #1



The Grivel axe is a 45cm.not a 50cm. Really short for those days. Teeth and 2nd notch along the pick blade are all original. Import date into the USA is unknown at the momentbut first varified sighting of something similar in the USA was Sept. 1970.



"I first saw the axe in September, 1970, at Dakins Vermont Shop where Vermont products like cheese and maple syrup were sold. Helmut Lenes had a corner of the shop where he sold european climbing gear. I didn't buy that axe because it was too expensive and weird looking. Too short and too curved." JB



More to come asap.



But I suspect, this and another story I am working will put a couple of long standing ice climbing myths to death.

Is this Fair Use?

This morning I received an email from someone who was asking me for more information about a person they had found on my site at Ancestry.com but the first thing that popped into my feeble brain was that I don't have a website on Ancestry and I knew that what they were referring to was not on my freepages at RootsWeb!

So I went to Ancestry and did a search for "Phend" which brought up the following screen and didn't see anything out of the ordinary (click on any of the images to make them easier to read):



So I elected to view all 229 results:



The "Internet Biographical Collection" jumped out at me. Notice the padlock? I clicked on that link, but this is a "for pay" subscription database, and since I wasn't logged in I couldn't see the detail any more than the listing of pages, all of which, except for the last one, are from my website and they are definitely NOT part of Ancestry.com!!!



After logging in and clicking on "View Record" on one of the listings, what you see is shown below. No indication of where this came from, only a small link to "View Cached Web Page", Okay, so it says it is a cached page. . .



Click on "View Cached Web Page" (click on these images to make them bigger) you'll see a small link at the top of the page to "View Live web page" and it will then take you to the page, maybe.



For this particular page the link works because my site is still live. But when I was investigating all this I had gone to some obituary links. The site where the obituary was retrieved from is even more "hidden" for lack of a better word - many newspapers only keep obituaries online for a short time so the page is no longer live. I wonder if Ancestry.com is paying those sites to "store" their obituaries and make them available to Ancestry subscribers?

Is this legal or moral? How is it right for Ancestry.com to take my website pages, which I've made freely available, and CHARGE people to use them? And if they can legally or morally do this, how can they in turn say that it is illegal for their users (me and you) to use their images (census records, draft cards, etc.) on our websites or in our books or other publications?

The more I think about this, the angrier I am getting. At first I thought, okay, they say it is a cached web page, but it's not overly obvious. But they are charging people for access to my stuff!!! I really don't think it would bother me so much if this wasn't hidden behind a padlock. The more people that can find my data and possibly connect to me or someone else, the better - but they shouldn't have to pay to see it! Now, Ancestry is probably going to say they are simply providing a service for all of us poor webmasters and making it so that more people will see our stuff - but does that make it right? They are profiting from my work, and not just my work but the work of anyone with a genealogy related website. Will my blog pages show up next?

This is different than Google or Yahoo or any other search engine storing cached pages or providing links to websites. This is a company using other peoples work for their own gain - Ancestry is charging for these 'searches'. That is just not right, and not just because this is my work showing up - if you have genealogy pages out there anywhere they will probably show up as part of this new Ancestry database.

*** Update 4:00 PM Tuesday ***
I spent a while this morning and afternoon putting this post together, and while I was doing so, it appears that "all hel* was breaking loose" on this issue, see these posts with some very good commentary on the subject:

• Kimberly Powell with Has Ancestry.com Gone to Far?
• Janice Brown with Ancestry.com Hijacks Cow Hampshire
• Randy Seaver with Ancestry.com is Caching some web site data
• Amy Crooks with Ancestry.com Nothing but Theifs

*** Update 4:44 PM Tuesday ***

Ancestry.com has now made the "Internet Biographical Collection" a "free" resource. You have to register to view these free records, which is not the same as signing up for a free trial, but why should you even have to register to view the "Internet Biographical Collection"? Registration is not required to view the Ancestry World Tree entries. To my way of thinking, this step by Ancestry does not entirely resolve the issue.

*** Update 11:30 PM Tuesday ***

Dick Eastman's post yesterday on The Generations Network Receives Patent for Correlating Genealogy Records has a lot of comments dealing with the Internet Biographical Collection, which really had nothing to do with his original topic, so you could say the comments thread got hijacked. As can be expected there is a wide range of opinions on the matter. Some make sense, others don't. Some valid, some not. And Dick is really good at playing the devil's advocate!