Scam genealogical book

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 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.[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.