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Archiver > BARRINGER > 1998-03 > 0891328387


From: Erin Bradford <>
Subject: [BARRINGER-L] from the listowner....genealogy book scam
Date: Mon, 30 Mar 1998 23:13:07 -0800 (PST)


Hello everyone. Normally I do not like advertising about scams and hoaxes
on the list (such as those about viruses) since most are actually not true.
This however, I know personally to be true and this company tends to get a
lot of newbies in the genealogy world to buy their books at high prices with
the buyer expecting a heck of a lot more than they get. The company is
called Halbert's and operates out of Bath, OH. They advertise their books
by sending you an announcement personally through regular mail telling you
about a book on your family surname. Sometimes they even mention relatives
or ancestors who appear in the book. I just want to tell everyone now to
save your money! What the books actually are is divided into 2 parts
(usually) with the first part being a list of every person with your surname
who has died since about 1945 to now and the 2nd part usually is a list of
addresses of living people. I bought this book for the Bradford surname
when I was in high school and it cost almost $70!. I will tell you right
now, this book and it's format for all surnames is of very little use to all
of you because we live in the computer age with internet access and
EVERYTHING that is listed in the book can be EASILY found on the internet.
The death info can be found in the Social Security Death Index and in fact,
that's exactly what that part of the book is. The other part can be found
at People finder or where ever. Obviously you will save yourself TONS of
money by not buying the book. Also, they usually (but not always in the
case of my Bradford book) have the title something like "The World Book of
...." (ex: The World Book of Hacketts"). Also, it is against the law for
this company to send these advertisements so often times they'll go under a
different name, but if you get a solicitation similar to what I described
above, check to see if it is from Bath, OH. They also have a front company
in Quebec I believe, but not sure. If you do get one of these
solicitations, you can take it to your local post master general and make
them aware. Sorry this is so long, but they just discussed this on another
list of mine and I realized a lot of you on these lists are new too
genealogy so this could be a good thing to make everyone aware of. Good
luck in your searching.

Erin Bradford

Listowner for Barringer, Black, Bradford, Coventry, Eller, Hackett, and Kern
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Plains/6106/genlinks.html (+800 genealogy
links)
http://www.angelfire.com/mt/listdex/index.html (Homepage for surname lists
above)

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