Carolana - About This Website and Terms of Use

About This Website and Terms of Use

Terms of Use

All information, data, graphs, and text within this site is 100% free for public or private use. The Author only requests that if you download or otherwise use any of this information, for whatever reason, that you please cite where you obtained it - you can merely cite "from www.carolana.com," or the exact URL of the page being used. You may also cite the Author's name and website name - "from www.carolana.com, used with permission of J.D. Lewis." All information used must be presented with no modifications - use "as is." If you disagree with the content, include the content "as is," then provide a succinct disagreement if needed.

Anyone may link to this website without prior permission from the Author. Requests to have a link from this website to yours will be considered based entirely on your content and its historical significance, as well as its accuracy and usefulness. These links will be few because the Author really hates to surf the 'Net and find so many broken or outdated links, and if your website is not going to be around for a while, or if you keep moving it, then there is no point, is there? FYI, I am quite aware that many of the links herein to other sites no longer work, sadly. I intend to either replace these or delete the links as soon as I can - as stated, it gets old finding good information out there, but it simply disappears. Oh well.

This site is primarily intended to provide accurate information about the history of North Carolina and South Carolina - for the "serious researcher," and all efforts possible have been made to ensure that the information contained herein is accurate. If you find anything herein that looks questionable, please contact me either via e-mail at the address below. Please include the URL of the webpage so we can both be on the same page. Yes, as any human, this Author makes errors, but never intentionally. If you find errors, please briefly state the issue, then provide the correct information - AND - provide your "proof" along with your name and relationship to making the correction(s). Anonymous submissions will most likely result in a very short reply that may or may not be entirely pleasant. You are warned.

If you want to contribute to this website, please note that it should be as accurate and concise as possible to be considered; very few submissions will be added, and the Author reserves the right to edit anything received. If approved, your name and the date will be included on everything that gets included herein received from you.

If you have questions about what you find herein, please contact me at: jd.lewis@carolana.com. All inquiries received will be answered. If you do not receive an answer within one week, please check with your ISP to see if this domain is blocked or considered as spam. I have received scores of e-mails that I simply cannot respond to because my reply has been blocked and/or considered as spam. Not much I can do other than try.

Sometimes, my response to an inquiry includes one or more attachments, most often Adobe PDF or .jpg images. If your e-mail system is set to block messages with attachments, then my response may not be accepted. This is not something I can fix; you must adjust your settings on messages with attachments. Please do not send me "hate mail" if you have not received my response that included attachments.

Yes, I too have anti-spam software, so not all inquiries will make it - sorry. If your domain is on my anti-spam list and your messages are blocked, please send me snail-mail with your bounced e-mail message, at the address below, and I'll unblock your domain, if possible.

All reasonable inquiries will be answered - even if it's just that the Author simply does not know the answer. Unreasonable inquiries will most likely be ignored, sorry, just not enough time for all of them. Interestingly, we used to be a civil society and when help is provided, most folks send a nice thank you note. However, as time marches on, these "niceties" are forgotten and fewer and fewer thanks are sent, even if it took three hours to prepare a response to an inquiry. A sad state on our collective society.

Please do not send requests for SAR or DAR applications. I have tried to help hundreds, but these organizations are so arbitrary in what they accept vs. do not accept, plus I have no way to prove ancestry. Just not worth my time anymore, sorry.

Please do not send snail mail to the now-cancelled Post Office box. This has been removed from all major webpages, but since there are so many webpages, it has not been removed from them all. But, the PO box has been shut down.

About the Author

J.D. Lewis is an avid amateur historian and genealogist in general, but specifically focused on the Carolinas. Born and raised in North Carolina, he left and has lived all over this country - and several other countries, then moved back to South Carolina in the early 1990s. Constantly amazed at how different the two states are, he tried for over a decade to figure it out - therefore, this website is one result of that long-standing curiosity.

I am a firm believer in a "Free Internet." With more and more websites becoming "pay" sites, it is becoming increasingly difficult just to do basic research, particularly on our collective history. The past has already been written, it will not change - even though people's perspective on the past may change, the facts are unalterable. So, why pay for this? Our ancestors lived it. They wrote it. If more people quit "paying" for our collective history, then perhaps these sites will eventually either go away or they will open up and let us all have the information for free - as it should be.

I am also a firm believer that the Internet is 99% advertising, which is SAD. This Author has been approached by hundreds of advertising agencies attempting to get me to include their advertisments in this website. I have turned them all down. No popups. No scrolling banners. My goal is to provide completely advertisement-free historical information that viewers can read or use, with no interruptions. FYI, I have been asked to sell this website to many others, but it will never be sold - even after my expiration date.

Furthermore, it continues to amaze me that people just throw up a new website with either so little information or information that is mostly incorrect and virtually useless to the reader. What is the point? It's like folks are so impressed that they are now empowered to "rewrite" history, even if it is unintentional.

Please folks, if you're going to put it out there for the world to see, check your facts, and make it as complete as you can - if you are unsure or if you do not have everything, then simply say so and ask for help - AND let the reader know how to contact you to help. Just don't throw it out there if it isn't right or if you're not sure.

Finally, I do welcome correspondence and debates. If you find something worth discussing, please contact me and we'll sort it out together. I'm sure that future generations will thank us all for keeping our collective history alive - and FREE - and as accurate as humanly possible.