from soc.genealogy.medieval Subject: Fraudulent Genealogies From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Tue, Mar 23, 1999 11:53 EST Message-id: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> I just received my copy of the January issue of TAG with the article about the Somerby frauds by Paul Reed. This is certainly an eye opening article. It seems as though Somerby found related names on both sides of the pond and forged documentary evidence, such as wills, to connect these families for a fee. The forged evidence, of course, is not really filed where it ought to be. The frauds, in some instances, were sometimes even more hard to trace. Just think folks, if this kind of deceit found its way into works from well over a hundred years ago and is still causing problems, then this explosive information highway on the internet will probably compound the problem many times over. Probably most of you have received letters about your family name from that company on Ohio that sends out letters to everyone with a given surname that purports to trace the history of that family in a limited edition work. It is only a matter of time before unscrupulous entrepreneurs resurrect the methods used by Somerby to falsify some key document that falsely relates people to their continental ancestors for a good fee. This is the only problem I found with Paul Reed's fine article. It could practically be used as a manual on how to deceive for cash. However, since these methods have already been employed, the main purpose of the article is to warn us of this possibility. Forewarned is forearmed. What a field day one could have with such items as this in the hands of a sophisticated fraud such as Somerby. ______________ Family Origins �Name Program� with 23,000 surname histories and 13,000 First Name Histories. Comes complete with a clip art of Heraldry of over 600 armorial elements & devices for you to create thousands of coats of arms. A superb small business opportunity to produce scrolls, bookmarks, keytags & greeting cards. For your free demo version call at URL http://www.dataline.net.au/~famorign or E-Mail @ [EMAIL PROTECTED] ________________ - Ken Kenneth Harper Finton Editor/ Publisher THE PLANTAGENET CONNECTION _____________________HT COMMUNICATIONS____________________ PO Box 1401 Arvada, CO 80001 USA Voice: 303-420-4888 Fax: 303-420-4845 e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Homepage: http://members.aol.com/TPConnect/Page2.html Associated with: Thompson Starr International [Films ... Representation ... Publishing ... Marketing]
