You see and receive advertisements offering to sell you the crest, coat of arms or shield associated with your family name.

Problem is ...

These items were awarded to individuals -- not to families.

Now, some day you might be one of the lucky people who come across a symbol belonging to one of your specific ancestors. Let me assure you that you won't make this find at a booth in the shopping mall or through mass-mail advertisements.

Don't fall for that scam!

If you receive an advertisement offering to sell you a book of your family's history -- buyer beware. You may be buying a compilation of telephone directory listings for your surname, or other such information which is virtually useless (and which is available free on the Internet, anyway).

There are authentic family history books, but you won't typically hear about them through mass-mailing advertisements!

Many of us can't travel to all of the places on this planet where our ancestors lived, so sometimes we may consider hiring a professional researcher to find something for us.

That's sometimes a good deal -- if you are sure about the credentials of the researcher.

For example, what if someone advertises that they will do research for you at $65.00 an hour, and then takes 13 hours to complete the research. Are you going to be startled to receive a bill for $845.00 for a single document?

There have even been reports of researchers demanding up front payment and then never being heard from again.

As always, buyer beware -- at least enough to be sure of what you're buying!

One of the tricks the genealogist must beware of are subscription Web sites that automatically renew your subscription.

They say the purpose is "for your convenience," but we all know that if they were worried about our convenience, they'd offer a choice of one-time subscriptions, as well.

Also, they assure you that an e-mail will alert you shortly before they make another charge against your bank account --------- as if it would be odd for you to worry about strangers holding on to your private bank access information, and even making future purchase decisions for you. Should we give them keys to our houses, too???

We've all heard horror stories of people who believed that unsubscribing from some Web site would be easy, until they called phone numbers that weren't answered, or encountered Web sites that weren't working when they tried to cancel a subscription.

The fact is, there's little way for the Web surfer to know which sites truly are easy to cancel.

For all of these reasons, I believe that honest and reputable Web sites let their customers select whether or not they want automatic renewal of their subscriptions.

If a Web site is not willing to let each purchase decision be made by the person making the purchase, one has to wonder why .....

Copyright 1996-2006, Granduncle Mark
(Mark Ellsworth Hickman, PhD)

Granduncle Mark's Genealogy Parlor

Click here to contact me

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