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The popularity of genealogy, encouraged by the increasing use of the Internet 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 they have done their own research, a few recipes, and (sometimes) a list of names, addresses and telephone numbers culled from publicly available telephone directories. [1]
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 genealogist, said the fines for such practises are puny when compared with the hundreds of thousands of dollars he believes such vendors rake in. [2]
Those who have sold such books so far include:
- Burke's Peerage World Book of [Surname]s - not to be confused with Burke's Peerage
- Halberts Family Heritage - World Book of [Surname]s
- William Pince Publishers - SGN Genealogical Foundation
- Maxwell MacMaster [3]
- The [Surname] Name in History.