Cassie, I appreciate and agree with your suspicious nature on something like this. It may very well be a legitimate effort, but it is still a good idea to exercise some caution with an organization that asks for birth certificates or other personal information as "proof," especially if it's an relatively new venture with no history to use as validation. I appreciate everyone's input into the Elam "gene pool" of information, and Cassie's hard work and dedication to seeing that it works so well for all of us. Marilyn Allen-Wible > -----Original Message----- > From: Cassie Elam [SMTP:celam@pdq.net] > Sent: Monday, August 16, 1999 8:19 PM > To: ELAM-ROOTS-L@rootsweb.com > Subject: [ELAM-ROOTS] Fraudulent lineages > > There is a website at > http://www.linkline.com/personal/xymox/fraud/fraud.htm that discusses > fraudulent lineages published by GUSTAVE ANJOU (1863-1942) and lists the > 109 "genealogies" of his found at the Family History Library in Salt > Lake City, Utah. The Elams are not listed, but you may want to check > for other names you have been searching. There is an update which lists > further fraudulent lineages. > > The website's main purpose is purportedly to share information on our > earliest colonial ancestors. While it may be a perfectly valid venture, > I have some reservations about it. They espouse the truly noble purpose > of only including ancestors whose existence is proven by valid > documentation. The problem I have is with their requirement that you > provide a Xerox copy of a birth related document on yourself, and that > of the parent your line goes through. Perhaps I am overly suspicious > (10 years in the legal profession will do that to you) and this is a > perfectly legitimate request, but this in conjunction with their open > enrollment cutoff of 31 Aug 1999 just sounds a little fishy to me. At > any rate, other people have submitted information and there are some > names/biographical info in the database so you may want to have a look > for your relatives. > > Cassie