The Distant Field Project

I have gathered information on my family for over 60 years now and the Distant Field project is a recording and preserving, to the extent that I have discover it, of the descendants of my great great great great grandparents, Edward and Elizabeth Field. Edward was a Private in the New South Wales Corps who arrived with the Second Fleet while Elizabeth was a convict who arrived in the Colony in1791 The project includes the Morris line because of their descent from Elizabeth, albeit not from Edward. It has been a "living" project, in that as I learned more it grew. My records that flowed from the Distant Field project are still freely (but for later generations conditionally) available to the family and other researchers. Those records are widely acknowledged as a magnificent family resource.

From a Distant Field started life back in 1986 as a book, but far/long outgrew that format. It now exists as two websites, From a Distant Field, the Early Generations and what I refer to as the "private and unpublished" website, From a Distant Field, the Living Edition. From a Distant Field, the Early Generations is on the Internet. As a measure intended to protect the privacy of the living, From a Distant Field, the Early Generations is restricted to the earlier generations. The "private and unpublished" website, From a Distant Field, the Living Edition is still available subject to commitment to license conditions. You are welcome get a copy of the "private and unpublished" edition if you are prepared accept the licence conditions. All you need to do is to open this "know more" link, fill in the request form and agree to abide by the license conditions. That is all that is required. It is free and without obligation other than adherence to the license conditions.

The "private and unpublished" edition is mind blowingly immense. As an indicator of its size, it includes an index of more than 35,000 names of family members - if the index was printed out on A4 paper it alone would run to 675 pages!!!.

Let me explain about the license conditions - their sole purpose is to protect the privacy of living members of the family whose genealogical details are included. The license conditions prohibit:

1. you giving of a copy to any other person, or allowing any other person to take a copy;
2. you or anyone else putting it on the Internet or a network;
3. you or anyone else publishing any information sourced from the website on any living person without first obtaining that person's prior agreement;
4. you or anyone else using any information on any living person that has been obtained from the "private and unpublished" website to that person's disadvantage or embarrassment or for commercial purposes.

Nothing you tell me or I otherwise discover that updates your line of the family beyond those generations already in From a Distant Field, the Early Generations will be included in other than the license protected "private and unpublished" edition and you have my assurance that I will never put such material on the Internet.

Before finishing up, let me just tell you what happens should you request a copy of the "private and unpublished" website, From a Distant Field, the Living Edition. What I do if you run Windows is send you a link that enables you to download a compact self-extracting file that, on running, installs the website on your computer's hard drive. With this done, you will then have on your own computer as much information about the descendants of Edward and Elizabeth Field as I do. If you run an MacOS system computer, I send you a link that enables you to download a zip (i.e. compressed) file that unzips to comprise the website.

Many thanks for your interest in the Distant Field project.

Colin Field