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Archiver > APG > 2003-01 > 1041611491


From: "Darlene Joyce" <>
Subject: [APG] Re: Genealogical Fraud
Date: Fri, 03 Jan 2003 11:31:31 -0500


While we are discussing misrepresentation of family information, I wonder if
any of you have had any success complaining about/stopping companies or
individuals who sell bogus family history books and newsletters? After
buying the following product, I filed formal complaints with the Colorado
State Attorney General and the Better Business Bureau. Are there other
steps that might be effective?

I have been a serious REIQUAM researcher for many years, and when I saw "The
Reiquam Family News, 2003 Edition" advertised, I bought it, just to see what
was being sold. I suspected it would be bogus, and it certainly was! Sold
by Morphcorp LLC in Denver, Colorado, this spiral bound book and CD-Rom
promised "HUGE" info on the Reiquam family in America, including census,
vital records, addresses, photos, recipes, occupations, immigration,
retirements, etc. The sellers never gave their names, but represented
themselves as a Reiquam couple. What arrived was the worst piece of garbage
I have ever seen, and the only real data in it was skimpy and downloaded
from the SSDI and online directories. Worse, the canned genealogical text
["morphed" to include my name and my family surname] was a trite rendition
of the history of the world. They included a bogus family crest. They
included photos, and in fine print, they admitted the people in the photos
are unidentified. To add insult to injury, they fattened the whole package
with bad jokes in which my name and surname featured prominently, and added
a few unidentified recipes. There was just enough legitimate historical info
in the text to confuse an unsuspecting person who knew nothing about
professional genealogy. Yet they did not figure out that Reiquam is an
American name derived from a Norwegian farm name, as any serious Reiquam
researcher would do. And they made rash statements about immigration and
migration patterns in this family that can be prooved false. I hate to
think of relatives paying for such trash. And I can just imagine what those
family members will think when I am ready to publish a legitimate book on
our family!

If you have suggestions for how to deal with situations like this one, I'd
like to hear them. Darlene Joyce, CGRS, Minnesota



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