DUTTON-L Archives

From: "Larry Langston" <>
Subject: Halbert's - Up To Old Tricks
Date: Tue, 11 Nov 1997 14:02:57 -0500

>From:
>To:
>Subject: Re: Halbert's Offer
>Date: Tuesday, November 11, 1997 10:54 AM
<
>Due to some timely and very informative comments from several family
members,
>I have decided to pass on Halbert's latest publication concerning the
Dutton
>Family.
>Many thanks to those involved.
>John Dutton

Hello Cuzzins,

Just a little something to share with you, something I got from
another surname list on a suject raise here a few days ago.

Later,

Larry Langston
P.O.Box 1
Trion, GA 30753-0001

--------- Begin forwarded message ----------

- Halbert's - Up To Old Tricks

I have been writing about Halbert's for years. I first wrote an
article about them in 1989, long before this newsletter came into
existence. Since 1989 I have purchased two of their "books," seen
several other Halbert's "books" and have followed their numerous
legal problems in several countries. If you have been involved in
genealogy for a while, you probably know about Halbert's. If so,
you can skip the next 5 paragraphs. For anyone who is new to
genealogy, however, I will offer a bit of background information.

Halbert's of Bath, Ohio, is the most notorious of the mail order
companies that send out ads offering to sell you "an astounding
new book" with insinuations that the book tells all about your
family name. These letters, as well as the "books," are all mass
produced by computers with family surnames and your name inserted
in appropriate places. For instance, a letter sent to me will say:

I have exciting news for you and all Eastmans! Though we are
probably not related, I want to tell you about extensive work
done throughout the world on a project relating to the
distinguished Eastman name. What might be the oldest facts
about Eastmans in North America have been discovered. Now, an
astounding new book, 'THE NEW WORLD BOOK OF EASTMANS,' is
about to be published for you and it features Eastmans back to
1620."

The advertisement then goes on in breathless prose with lots of
exclamation marks scattered about. It claims to present facts
about early Eastmans and also asserts that it includes an up-to-
date international directory of Eastmans. If your name is Smith,
then the letter sent to you will have the name Smith inserted in
every place where my letter says Eastman. If you live in England
or Germany or some other country, then the geographic references
will be changed to match. (Halbert's is an international
operation.) All of the advertisements will claim to be "a one-of a
kind book."

If you are gullible enough to order the book for $34.50 plus
another $4.88 postage and handling, you eventually receive a
booklet of general information about how to get started
researching genealogy plus many pages of extracts from old
telephone directories listing people with the same last name as
yours. The Eastman "book" that I looked at last year had names and
addresses listed for some of my relatives who had been deceased
for years. The "one-of-a-kind book" lives up to the description;
it actually has a cardboard cover and looks like it was glued
together on someone's kitchen table. The pages in the 1996 Eastman
"book" weren't even aligned properly.

I don't know when Halbert's started this business, but I know they
were already notorious in genealogy circles in the mid-1980s. They
have frequently received legal injunctions from postal
authorities, but that doesn't seem to slow Halbert's down very
much; apparently they continue to send out thousands of these
advertisements every week despite legal efforts to shut them down.

The Halbert's ad I received in 1989 was signed by "Doris Eastman,
i.a." Now, Doris never claimed to be a relative of mine in that
advertisement, but the fact that the letter was signed by someone
named Eastman lent credence to the "book" title of The New World
Book of Eastman. I was intrigued by the letters "i.a." that
appeared after Doris Eastman's name. After a fair amount of
research, I discovered a Legal Dictionary that listed it as an
abbreviation for the Latin words "in absentia" or, translated into
English, "in absence." In other words, Doris Eastman wasn't
present when the letter was written, and someone else signed her
name to it in Doris' absence.

In 1989 I called Halbert's and asked to speak to Doris Eastman. I
was told that "Doris isn't here right now, can someone else help
you?" I was suspicious that Doris was a fictitious name and later
court documents proved that my assumption was accurate.

I'll point out that calling Halbert's is difficult. Their
telephone number isn't in the ad, and it isn't listed by the
telephone company. I believe that is rather unusual for a company
in the mailorder business, one would think that they would want to
receive orders by telephone as well as my mail orders. I was later
told that Halbert's mailing address in Bath, Ohio is simply a mail
drop; there are no offices at that address for a company called
Halbert's. In fact, Halbert's is one of the trade names owned by
Numa Corporation in nearby Akron, Ohio. Apparently, mail delivered
to the Bath, Ohio, address is simply forwarded to Numa in Akron. I
eventually found a number for Numa and called their offices
looking for Doris Eastman. Not surprisingly, she wasn't there,
either.

Halbert's and Numa were in court in 1988 as defendants in an
action claiming false advertising. I don't have the details of the
1988 action, but the 1995 complaint referenced an order in 1988
requiring Numa/Halbert's to stop claiming that the advertising
letters were signed by relatives of the addressee. The 1995 court
session apparently took a dim view of Halbert's fake signatures.
Quoting from an announcement released later by the National
Genealogical Society:

At that time Halbert's was ordered to cease and desist from
falsely representing ". . . that (1) a solicitation for a
surname-related product was sent by a relative of the
solicitee; (2) a relative of a solicitee was involved in
preparing a surname-related publication; or that (3) a
relative of a solicitee endorses a surname-related product."
The Postal Service contended that the company's solicitations,
which advertised books such as The World Book of [surname] and
The [surname] Since the Civil War, violated the 1988 consent
agreement, because they appeared to be letters from relatives
of the addressees urging them to purchase a recently completed
book on their family.

The Halbert's ad that I received in 1996 was not signed by anyone
claiming to have the name Eastman, and the letters "i.a." did not
appear after the signature. It seemed that Numa and Halbert's had
accepted the court ruling. Letters sent to Canada and to England
(sometimes under another Numa subsidiary name of Burkes) were
still signed by someone claiming to have the same surname with the
letters "i.a." I assume that is because the U.S. court decision
only covers the United States, and Numa is free to do as they wish
in other countries.

However... I have in my hands at this moment a Halbert's ad
received in California a couple of weeks ago. A member of
CompuServe's Genealogy Forums forwarded this advertisement to me
as he knew I'd be interested. It is a brand-new ad for the "New
World Book of Becks." It has all the same wording as I mentioned
above except that the word BECK has been substituted for EASTMAN.
What caught my eye is the signature:

Nancy J. Beck, i.a.

Numa and Halbert's apparently have gone back to their old tricks
in violation of the 1995 court order. Fictitious signatures
followed by "i.a." are back in use.

This thread:

• Halbert's - Up To Old Tricks by "Larry Langston" <>