Legal Policies
Privacy Policy
Whether you leave a comment on the site, send a contact request or make a donation, I do not share or sell your personal information with any other organization or affiliate. A valid email address is required to leave a comment, however your email will not appear on our site. All comments are held for moderation and must be approved prior to being published. All spam comments are automatically deleted from our site.
Donations
You can make a donation to the site by using the PayPal Donate button on our Support page or on the right side menu. All donations are made through a secure payment portal directly through PayPal. Please do not send payment information directly to me. This protects both of us and keeps your payment information secure. The Support page also lists other ways in which you can help support this site. I am not paid or compensated for the work involved in putting this book online. This is a labor of love for me sparked from a love of learning, sharing and love for my Grandma, Evvie Reeves, who passed her copy of the family book on to me.
Terms of Use
According to United States Copyright Law:
(Section) 304. Duration of copyright: Subsisting copyrights
(a) Copyrights in Their First Term on January 1, 1978. —
(1)(A) Any copyright, in the first term of which is subsisting on January 1, 1978, shall endure for 28 years from the date it was originally secured.
Trek to Texas was originally published in Fort Worth, Texas and copyrighted by Pearl Foster (O’Donnell) in 1966. While the above subsisting copyright law places the work into the Public Domain, I ask that the book, or any portion of this site not be copied in full or part onto another website, or in print, without permission and/or acknowledgment. All additions to the site, including additional information, photos, corrections and additional pages/stories are copyrighted by me unless otherwise noted.
(In case you’re wondering, a certain book by a certain unnamed “Pulitzer Prize winning” author about a “fictitious” location of the same name found within Trek to Texas DOES contain identical text that was written while Trek to Texas was still under copyright. Trek to Texas was written FIRST, about a REAL location of the same name. Rest assured, the text as it is written here is directly from the ORIGINAL text of Trek to Texas and is in no way related to the mysteriously similar text from the fictional book.)
When using the text contained in this site directly from the book, Trek to Texas, in a research paper or bibliography, you can use the following annotation:
Foster O’Donnell, Pearl. Trek to Texas: 1770 – 1870. Fort Worth, Texas: Branch-Smith, Inc., 1966.
Or:
Foster O’Donnell, Pearl. Trek to Texas: 1770 – 1870. Fort Worth, Texas: Branch-Smith, Inc., 1966. With notes by:
Bigham, Kathy. Trek to Texas – 1770 – 1870: A Family’s Journey. 2010. <http://trektotexas.com>.
If you do use my site for a research paper, I would love to hear about it! Please contact me and let me know if the site was useful for you in your research. 
Accuracy
Where possible, I will correct typos in the book, as well as errors in lineage, etc. On occasion, I may find a passage particularly interesting, therefore I will leave it with the standard [sic] notation. Also, notes in this color on Book pages are my own and not from the book. If you have a question, update, or correction to the site please feel free to contact me. I may not be able to answer all genealogy questions or questions as to the validity of the content, as my Grandmother’s cousin Pearl did all of the research and is no longer with us to validate her sources. I will, however, do my best to find out if you believe any portion of the text to be incorrect.
The “story” as she wrote it may remain unchanged even on the site, as that is the story as it was meant to be, passed down from generation to generation. (She does acknowledge that there are inconsistencies in some written and verbal accounts, due to everyone always remembering details differently. It is not for me to try and change someone else’s memory.)
Addendum to Accuracy and Corrections: It has been brought to my attention that by correcting typos or other errors contained in the book within the typed text on the website, I am, in effect, changing the original book. My reasons for the corrections remain unchanged: 1. By having the original text on the site it is searchable using the search form directly on the site. My search form does not take typos into account so the user cannot know if there was a misspelling in the book; 2. My goal in putting the book online is to provide – as accurately as I am able – the family lineage contained within the book. I am also taking into account factors which others may not be aware. Discussions between my own grandmother (who is personally listed incorrectly herself as the daughter of her brother) and Mrs. O’Donnell to have this corrected in a later edition that was planned but never completed; the fact that the book was created prior to not only word processors but also prior to public availability of correction fluid (which came 2 years after the book was published); a personal understanding of the typewriter Mrs. O’Donnell used – older model typewriters used typebars rather than the standard familiar “ball”, which would jam and “stick” quite often (see Wikipedia photo here for an example of jammed typebars); and the knowledge that the book was entirely self-published, without benefit of an editor to find and correct these minor mistakes. Rather than changing the book, I am, in fact, taking on that role of editor to the best of my ability.
For anyone concerned about Trek to Texas, the book, as a piece of history in and of itself, I would like to add that the next phase of the Trek to Texas online project includes scanning each page as an image for site users to flip through and see the original text. I also will include notes to any major changes, errors or omissions on the Book pages, as can be seen on the Table of Contents page.
Affiliates Disclosure Policy
Due to changing U.S. laws governing affiliate marketers, I am required to let you know that in addition to selling my own products at Yellow Rose Designs, I also earn commission on products and advertising links through online affiliate programs such as Google and Amazon. In accordance with the new FTC Guidelines, please be aware that, unless otherwise noted, links to other sites may contain an affiliate linking code. I receive no monies for providing links on my site (also known as Pay Per Click) and I do not accept or receive gifts in exchange for links or reviews.
I carefully review all affiliate sites and only link to reputable companies. Any purchase you make will be covered by the seller’s Guarantee and Terms.
