mckeeman@wivax.UUCP (08/09/83)
In response to my query below, there were a couple dozen
answers, all saying "don't buy it". They are appended for
those who might like see how you all said it.
I received an ad for "The McKeeman Family Unique and
Distinctive Book", for $27.85. I am wondering how many
other surnames might have gotten such a pitch. It looks to
me like a grand sort of all telphone directories in the
country. If you got one, send me a note. I'll count them
and post the results to net.followup.
Bill McKeeman
-------------------------------------------------
I ordered a similar book for the last name Partridge. I
don't remember who offered it for sale, but it was
somewhere in Pennsylvania I sent the order. The book
proved to be a listing by zip codes of people named
Partridge. It was totally worthless, but it did live up to
its advertising claim of telling me who all the Partridges
were, so I couldn't make a claim for a refund. But I urge
you not to part with you money. Gordon Partridge, GenRad,
Inc., Route 117, Bolton, MA 01740.
Yes, I got one (an ad, that is), the Unique Crown Family
name or whatever. The ad promised a directory of more
Crowns than I could ever hope to look up in my life, plus a
'personality module' (my term) containing much inside
information about the history of the Unique Crown Family
name. ("The Crown Family name has a unique and interesting
history in the U.S. ...", quoting from some fuzzy memories.
It has been over a year, I think.)
John Crown
...decvax!teklabs!tekecs!johnc
I got one too.
Bill Andrus
Well, my uncle got a letter last year from a woman wanted
to sell him a history of the Hochberg family for ~~ $20 ...
sounds like the same deal.
He didn't bite ... so I can't tell you what he got.
Ray Bloom
About 2 years ago a similar offer was made to the Theus'
family. I don't remember if it was the same outfit or not,
but the price was about the same.
Also, if I remember correctly, my father also had a similar
offer a few years back - for the Gniewosz family. Even
though my name was in the phone book the same year, I did
not receive such an offer. They must have used a different
list than the phone book.
Barbara Gniewosz Theus
Consumer Reports did a short article on these books a
little while (as did netnews). You are right, it is
basically a listing of all the people in the country (as
determined from phone books, city directories, etc.) with
your surname. They tack on a few chapters (common to all
the books) about doing genealogical research.
=Spencer
There was a discussion of this just recently; basically
it's just paste-up junk (but it's a big enough business
that CONSUMER REPORTS had a short take on it).
Those of us who have done serious genealogical work are
well aware of these charlatans. It is a total ripoff and
gives those of us who never can quite get rid of the musty
smell of old courthouse records a bad name. Yet there are
suckers born every minute, and I'm sure the promoters will
do quite well.
Count me in the graet family tree book scam. (I am also
getting my parents mail temporarily, and they got one too.)
Dewey Frech
Don't buy it! I live in a fraternity at college. Since
we're basically transients, it doesn't make sense to use
our real names in which to register phones since we have
about a dozen phones, each of which would have to be
changed every four years. So we registered the phones
under names like Jim Nasium, Norton South, Bill Melator
(Bill me later), and Mike Hunt. Well, there are a few nice
features to this. For instance, one week, we received
about a dozen cards that sound very similar to the one you
received. It was so obviously a phone scam. Every card
was identical except for the names on them. They said
things like "Did you realize that there are over 20,000
Melators in the United States today?" or "Wouldn't it be
wonderful to know what the Nasium forefathers were like?"
Anyway, I have even heard of people who ordered this thing
for themselves and they were really dissappointed. Some
people at school take on "Mail fraud" names (which is
actually pretty sleazy). But at least when you have a
second identity, you can figure out that when you get
duplicates under your real and fraud name, where they got
your real name from.
Good luck, Steve Silberberg
It might be a different book, but about a year ago I
received a postcard saying that there were only <n> Levine
families in the US, etc., and that I could order a book
about my name. I kept it on my door for a while because
they had the wrong FIRST name. Several months later a
friend of mine got an almost identical card. The number
<n> was the same, only the names were changed to protect
the guilty...
-- David D. Levine
I got a letter like that a couple of years ago. You mean
I'm not the only one? Gary Mager mager@uw-beaver
I received an ad for the "Mauney Family Book" almost a year
ago. Interestingly, my parents never got an ad, and were
presumably not in the list of all the Mauneys in the US.
My mother's mother bought a copy of the Tolleson book, and
found it not very useful. It contained mostly general info
on genealogy, some incomplete discussion of the origin of
the name, and the list of Tollesons had curious omissions:
some of her grandchildren were listed, but her son was not.
Sounds like a waste of money to me.
Jon Mauney
About a year ago I received a similar offer. I didn't
respond but I suspect that replying to the offer will
result in them trying to get a commission for a search of
the family tree. Either that or it's just a "blank book"
in the format of baby books.
Dave Schnepper
Count me twice. Once with my name misspelled. Apparently
what they do is play puns and anagrams with your surname
until they find a match (or near match) in any of several
reference books available at most public libraries. Then
they reprint the stuff and send it. The followup is more
junk mail about glasses, stationery, etc. with your "family
crest" imprinted on it. No, I did not find out about this
the hard way. Some friends did. There have been several
consumer protection articles about this.
Actually, my ancestral title seems to be Lord Parity, Last
Count of Register. Ray Tackett
I didn't get one, but I recall that
(a) Both Johnny Carson and Ed MacMahon got them. They
talked about them several times on the show. MacMahon,
being a real Scottish name, had an impressive family crest.
Carson got the vanilla one that all the other unrecognized
names got.
(b) Consumer Reports did an article on them.
(c) It came up on the net about a year ago.
(a) and (b) were for "family tree" info, where they sent
you a copy of your "family shield and crest" or some such
fancy thing. (c) is essentially a grep of a number of
white pages for your surname.
The general conclusion in all cases was that it was a
ripoff and not worth wasting your money on. All of them
are based entirely on your surname and not on any real
research done specifically for you.
Mark Horton
There are two companies putting these out, and yes, they
are basically name and address lists with some extra
non-committal front matter. I have been solicited for both
Hirst books, and my office mate has for both Feiner books.
Graeme Hirst, linus!brunix!gh
We got a similar add, although the book didn't have the
exact same title. What was interesting is that the company
claimed to have compiled my whole lineage in the United
States -- although I have no ancestors here (I'm born in
Germany, and visited the U.S. for the firts time in 1974.)
-Walter Tichy
I got one of these mailings, or at least, something very
like it.
I bought a similar book focusing on the Kilmer surname.
The names were sorted by zip code. Some GENERAL
information about genealogy and tips on how to conduct
genealogical research were included. I was glad I bought
that book (although my dad's name wasn't listed in it), but
then I like collecting some such things. Don't expect too
much in such a book!
Neal Kilmer
nmtvax!tightgas
I got one about a year and a half ago, which was forwarded
from an old address (from when I was still in school). It
told me that there were only about 1000 Grunewald's in the
country. This may be true, but almost my entire family was
exterminated during WWII. My father, Grandparents, and his
sister got out in '36, but the rest of the family was
trapped. I know where my family tree dies, and the book
would just be a big rip-off.
I agree with you that it is probably just an oversize phone
directory. If I want to know about my family history, I'll
do it my way.
jeff
You are essentially right in your observation that the book
is a glorified telephone book. I have read several articles
about these books, and I know several people who have
received them or who have been asked to buy them. No one
seems to have anything good to say about the books once
they look at it. My girlfriend's name is McCandless, and
her brother got one of these books, and sent it back the
same day. The gimmick is that the people who compile this
thing pick a name that is 'historic' sounding, and of an
obvious ethnicality. They then look in phone books for
everyone with that name, make up a mailing list, and
basically publish the mailing list to try to sell to
everyone on it. I don't know, some people may be impressed
with this 'link' to their heritage, but it seems to me to
be nothing more than a glorified, over- priced rip-off.
Avoid it if you can. Pete
Yeah, I got one...
Don McClimans
i receive a couple of months ago the same pitch. my last
name is cohoon. several months ago in net.general there
were several requests trying to find out whether the book
is legit. no one claimed yes.
good luck
jim cohoon
I ordered that Van Cleef family book from the Beatrice
Bailey group about - 4 years ago, and heard nothing until I
just recieved an add, again for a limited time only, for
the book.
Needless to say, my response to the add will be to ask for
my money back. - Bob
I have gotten such a message not once but twice. Have
never sent for one, since it sounded like borderline (at
least) mail fraud.
David Sewell
I received such a thing about 6 months ago. About that
time, there was a net discussion about the organization
that sent these solicitations. The general feeling was in
agreement with yours and that it was essentially a lot of
B.S.
KEITH PILOTTI (The Wiz)
I read your inquiry in netnews concerning the "Family
Book." I have received ads for a book concerning my family
name but I did not respond. However, I have talked to
people who did respond and it sounds like a "rip-off" to
me. They did receive a book. It contained a coat-of-arms,
a little family history, and a bunch of names. The
coat-of-arms and family history could easily be made up or
obtained from a readily availble source, and the list of
names came out of telephone directories--not worth $27.85.
Now another but related subject. Do you think there would
be sufficient interest in a net group on genealogy to set
one up? I am very deeply involved in family history and
would be interested.
Albert H. Spinks
P. O. Box 2143
Burlington, N. C. 27216