Possible rip-=off?
Roy Johnson
family. Schnake is a rare name and as far as I know, I am the only one who
has written a family history of the German origins of the line.
Recently, a cousin received the following advertisement. It sounds
suspiciously to me like a rip-off similar to the Bath, Ohio outfit a few
years ago that would send you a "history" of your family copied from census
records, social security records, and all the general stuff that anyone
could get, complete with a "family crest" that they picked up somewhere. I
am wondering if anyone else has received offers from this address regarding
their family histories. Here is the information followed by further
comment:
===========
I got a solicitation in the mail from Maxwell and Christina's Schnake Family
Yearbook, 1181 S. Parker Road, Suite 105, Denver, CO 80231-2152, soliciting
orders for The Year 2001 Schnake Family Yearbook and an included CD-rom for
$34.85 plus $5.00 S/H. It indicates that it is published by Morphcorp LLC,
d/b/a The Schnake Family News - Maxwell and Christina Schnake.
It supposedly has factual information about Schnake marriages, births,
records, and gathering places (mentioning people by name), together with
"information about deaths, census records, Baptisms, immigrations,
employments, occupations, retirements, 24 databases researched in all -- all
about Schnake family members." "PLUS A complete revision of the classis
Schnake Family History." (If it's yours, there could be some copyright
infringement issues there.)
====================
I have not been able to pull up any Maxwell and Christina Schnake on
Switchboard.com or any other Internet source. It's possible they are even
plagiarizing my material, as I have never run across anyone else extensively
researching the Schnakes. I hate to give them the satisfaction of buying
the info to see.
In this kind of operation, they usually offer the same material but just
change the family name associated with it. It might be "Maxwell and
Christina Whatever" or even some other given name. Have any other members
received anything similar?
Roy Johnson
Mike Maxfield
>I have just completed a revision of the Schnake family history, my wife's
>family. Schnake is a rare name and as far as I know, I am the only one who
>has written a family history of the German origins of the line.
>I got a solicitation in the mail from Maxwell and Christina's Schnake Family
>Yearbook, 1181 S. Parker Road, Suite 105, Denver, CO 80231-2152, soliciting
>orders for The Year 2001 Schnake Family Yearbook and an included CD-rom for
>$34.85 plus $5.00 S/H. It indicates that it is published by Morphcorp LLC,
>d/b/a The Schnake Family News - Maxwell and Christina Schnake.
Let's just say that it appears that Maxwell and Christina are very
good at morphing their identities. The following was turned up
by the Google.com search engine:
http://www.newsherald.com/articles/2000/04/16/tp041600.htm
"Buyer beware of geneaology scam artists"
[...]
"The example on the web at
"http://www.dfc.cc/CyberCousins/genfraud.jpg
"features Maxwell and Christine's Sissom Family Yearbook."
[forget the example URL... doesn't work]
http://www.msstate.edu/listarchives/afrigeneas/200009/msg00178.html
"MorphcorpLLC, dba The Gieger Family News -
"Maxwell and Christina Gieger"
[Uh Oh. Someone uses it as a source in their stuff]
http://www.btsinc.net/famtree/jbevdesc/d18.htm
"information acquired from The Bevins American
"Diary. Researched, copyrighted, and published
"by The Family News-Morphcorp LLC on 4/15/1998"
--
tw...@io.com
MarshaE...@netscape.net
"World Boook of Ensmingers" (or something like that) several years ago. I
took him up on a sample newsletter offer, just out of curiosity. It was
useless.
This summer a fellow Westerhold researcher recived a solicitation for a
Westerhold opus, and a sample newsletter. All seriously overpriced, and
mostly useless. He just takes stuff from phone books and 23 other web sites
and then offers to sell it to you.
I've never seen him provide HIS surname... it's always just "Maxwell"
(hoping you'll think he's a member of your family, I suspect). Hadn't seen a
publisher before, but the address in Denver sounds familiar.
Of course, he never contacts the married women, because our maiden names
don't show up in the phone book.
I think it's a case of "let the buyer beware".
"Roy Johnson" <royjo...@networkusa.net> wrote:
>
> I have just completed a revision of the Schnake family history, my wife's
> family. Schnake is a rare name and as far as I know, I am the only one who
> has written a family history of the German origins of the line.
>
> Recently, a cousin received the following advertisement. It sounds
> suspiciously to me like a rip-off similar to the Bath, Ohio outfit a few
> years ago that would send you a "history" of your family copied from census
> records, social security records, and all the general stuff that anyone
> could get, complete with a "family crest" that they picked up somewhere. I
> am wondering if anyone else has received offers from this address regarding
> their family histories. Here is the information followed by further
> comment:
> ===========
> I got a solicitation in the mail from Maxwell and Christina's Schnake Family
> Yearbook, 1181 S. Parker Road, Suite 105, Denver, CO 80231-2152, soliciting
> orders for The Year 2001 Schnake Family Yearbook and an included CD-rom for
> $34.85 plus $5.00 S/H. It indicates that it is published by Morphcorp LLC,
> d/b/a The Schnake Family News - Maxwell and Christina Schnake.
>
> It supposedly has factual information about Schnake marriages, births,
> records, and gathering places (mentioning people by name), together with
> "information about deaths, census records, Baptisms, immigrations,
> employments, occupations, retirements, 24 databases researched in all -- all
> about Schnake family members." "PLUS A complete revision of the classis
> Schnake Family History." (If it's yours, there could be some copyright
> infringement issues there.)
> ====================
>
> I have not been able to pull up any Maxwell and Christina Schnake on
> Switchboard.com or any other Internet source. It's possible they are even
> plagiarizing my material, as I have never run across anyone else extensively
> researching the Schnakes. I hate to give them the satisfaction of buying
> the info to see.
>
> In this kind of operation, they usually offer the same material but just
> change the family name associated with it. It might be "Maxwell and
> Christina Whatever" or even some other given name. Have any other members
> received anything similar?
>
> Roy Johnson
>
>
>
--
*Marsha L. Ensminger
Bear...@aol.com
Family Yearbook - I received the same type of advertisement from these people
a number of months ago. At that time they were trying to sell a Shorb Family
Yearbook. They used the last name of Shorb instead of Schnake, but used the
same Maxwell and Christina first names and I think the same address. I
checked the personal listings on the internet at that time and found no such
Shorbs listed anywhere. I have distant cousin who lives not far from Denver
who did some further checking for me at that time and the results indicated
they were suspect.
Brian Shorb
Fairfax, VA
Dave Hinz
(snip)
: At that time they were trying to sell a Shorb Family
: Yearbook. They used the last name of Shorb instead of Schnake, but used the
: same Maxwell and Christina first names and I think the same address.
Interesting. They were Maxwell and Christina Hinz when they mailed me
a few years back.
Dave Hinz
Jazmyne
They were Maxwell and Christina Schwiesow when they wrote to a cousin of mine.
I had another cousin in Denver check out the address, and phone. They
described themselves as a 'collection agency'......and I highly suspect the
address is one of those mail box places.
Linda Schwiesow Nycum
Larry Naukam
newbie Internet genealogy and would love to have a bozo produced ad to
show the class (troll troll).
Mike Maxfield
>
>They were Maxwell and Christina Schwiesow when they wrote to a cousin of mine.
>I had another cousin in Denver check out the address, and phone. They
>described themselves as a 'collection agency'......and I highly suspect the
>address is one of those mail box places.
Over this weekend, after last week posting my insight about them, they
became Maxwell and Christina Maxfield by soliciting me for their
Maxfield Family Yearbook.
--
tw...@io.com