Scam genealogical book
Encyclopedia
The popularity of genealogy, encouraged by the increasing use of the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...

 is encouraging a number of people to mass-market what authorities regard as scam "genealogical books" which are sometimes promoted by affiliated websites. They tend to contain a general introduction, a section about the origin of surnames in general, a section about heraldry, a couple of blank charts for the purchaser to copy and complete once he has done his own research, a few recipes and (sometimes) a list of names, addresses and telephone numbers culled from the publicly available telephone directories. The books are not unique to a particular surname, are not published annually and contain no pictures of the buyer's family members. In a recent case, Jeffery Scism, a San Bernardino, California genealogist, said the fines for such practises are puny when compared with the hundreds of thousands of dollars he believes such vendors rake in .

Those who have sold such books so far include:
  • Burke's Peerage World Book of (Taylors) - not to be confused with Burke's Peerage
    Burke's Peerage
    Burke's Peerage publishes authoritative, in-depth historical guides to the royal and titled families of the United Kingdom, such as Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, and of many other countries. Founded in 1826 by British genealogist John Burke Esq., and continued by his son, Sir John...

  • Halberts Family Heritage - World Book of (Taylors)
  • William Pince Publishers - SGN Genealogical Foundation
  • Maxwell MacMaster
  • The (Taylor) Name in History.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK