Before you sign onto Angie's site, check out this page. Elizabeth Myrt's Book is FINALLY here! a.. Click HERE to ORDER from Amazon.com TODAY! b.. Chapter Outlines DearMYRTLE's Daily Genealogy Column Talk Radio a.. HOME b.. About c.. Best of the Internet for Genealogists d.. BookShelf e.. Chat f.. Contact g.. Events h.. Heirlooms i.. Links j.. Lessons k.. Messages l.. Search m.. Speaker n.. Subscribe o.. Talk Radio p.. Topics Subscribe to Daily E-Mail Subscribe to Consolidated E-Mail b PROBLEM: Spam and a Bad Web Site DearREADERS, Many have written to complain about a lot of spam mail, and mention of a new genealogy web site. The message board administrators, and USGenWeb volunteers have been e-mailing back and forth. The following is perhaps the BEST description of the problem. Avoid this web site! -------------------------------------------------------------------- Forwarded with permission from Teresa Lindquist, a KS CC who tried out the "Angie's Genealogy Research Site" link which has been making the rounds in the USGenWeb Project and Rootsweb mailing lists lately. -- Teresa stresses that the information she got was certainly NOT correct, by any stretch of the imagination. Alice USGenWeb CC forClark Co. WA http://www.rootsweb.com/~waclark/clark.htm Listmom for WACLARK-L ----- Original Message ----- From: merope < merope@Radix.Net > To: <USGENWEB-ALL-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Saturday, August 04, 2001 7:43 AM Subject: [ALL-L] Angie's Genealogy Page > This may interest some of you that have received the spam messages from > mailto:'sussex@sussex.com, "clark@clark.com" etc., that take you to > http://65.10.15.149/FreeGen/ This is "Angie's genealogy Page". I took > the plunge and registered [big mistake, my email address is probably on > its way to spam central as we speak], and here's what happened. > > After about a day I got a confirmation email. I tried to click on the > link to confirm my membership and it timed out for a couple of days. > Finally got in. Once you are a confirmed member, it takes you to a > search screen. You start out with "50 credits". Each surname search > costs you two credits. To get more credits, you need to send $10 to > "Angie Giles, P.O.Box 873, Rowlett,TX 75030-0873". Each credit costs one > cent. I searched on "Smith" and got the results "Name not yet in database > or surname/givenname missing. Use back button and try again." And I'm > now down to 48 credits. :) Tried "Jones". Same result. Down to 46 > credits. Tried "John Smith" [perhaps a given name is required]. > Ahhh..this time the search took an incredibly long time [several minutes] > and pulled up a large number of "John Smith" entries, with the following > information: "Surname, Given Name | Sex | Birth Date | Spouse 1 | Spouse 2 > | Spouse 3 | Spouse 4 | Spouse 5". A sample entry looks like this: > "SMITH, JOHN |Bet. 1827-1847 SCROGGINS, VONNIE LIQUITA| > | |". Then you are asked to select one name for further searching. Each > search of this list costs 6 credits. The next screen gives you their > parents and offers you the opportunity to "expand the information" at a > cost of 6 credits [I'm now down to 38]. >In this particular example, JOHN > SMITH has no info for his parents, but additional marriage information is > available and there is info on his spouse VONNIE LIQUITA SCROGGINS, > including her parents and children [interestingly enough, her children > with John all have the last name of Jordan.] I chose to expand her > father's information, HENRY AARON SCROGGINS. The information for Henry > lists his date and place of birth and death [1902-1948]. >Now I think this > odd, since his daughter's husband was supposedly born between 1827 and > 1847 and he died between 1872 and 1933, but no birth and death info is > given for Vonnie or her mother [and I am now down to 20 credits]. Trying > to access information on her children resulted in repeated server errors, > but did not cost me any additional credits. When I finally did access her > kids, there was no birth or death date information, although some of them > did have spouses and kids listed [2 credits remaining] > > Just for the heck of it, I did a search for which I did not have enough > credits. The search was completed and shows a credit of -4. When I > tried to go past that point, I got this message "You are out of credits. > To order more credits: One credit equals 1 cent, send a minimum of $10 > to: Angie Giles, P.O.Box 873, Rowlett,TX 75030-0873 Be sure to include > your email address." > > So, what did I get for my 50 free credits? Well, obviously incorrect > information, for one thing. Very little of any use, even if I were > researching "John Smith". And in order to explore this further, I need to > send $10 to a complete stranger who has a P.O. Box in Texas. > > Oh, and for those of you who care about that sort of thing, NO source > information was provided for any of this. > > -Teresa > merope@radix.net -------------------------------------------------------------------- In my humble opinion, it is just this sort of person and web site that spoils the reputation of online genealogical research. BEWARE! Myrt :( DearMYRTLE, Daily Genealogy Columnist America Online Keyword: roots or myrtle www.DearMYRTLE.com To post a message on this topic, go to Myrt's Message Board Type a word or phrase and press enter. Search This Site The Web Get your own Search Engine Since 1995 DearMYRTLE has been the Daily Genealogy Columnist for AOL's Golden Gates Genealogy Forum. AOL Keyword: roots GenealogyForum.com © 1995-2001 DearMYRTLE@aol.com | Myrt's Copyright Policy