I never suspected there would ever be a need to write a blog post about this. Whoa is me.
I know how excited we are when we find our ancestors. I know how excited we are when we find out about where they lived. I can only imagine the pure joy of learning the home your multiple great grandparents homesteaded has remained in the family. I understand the desire to obtain photographs of them and of their old "home".
I'm a genealogist, too. Oh, how I love the photographs and what was and what it looks like today.
But! And this is a very important but, even if your multiple great grandparents home is still owned by family members it does mean it's open to every descendant that set of multiple greats had. It's private property. If your name is not on the title you do NOT have free reign to explore the old "home" place. It doesn't matter if you grew up on that chunk of land. It does NOT belong to you. It belongs to someone else.
In fact, if you put one foot on that chunk of ground you are trespassing. It does not matter if it doesn't have a sign stating it's private property and no trespassing is allowed. Government land, on all levels, is labeled as such. If it's not labeled as government land, it's private property.
The most upsetting thing about this post: Why is this NOT common knowledge? Have we sunk that low in our evolution?
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