his is copied from Dick Eastman's Column for Sept. 14, 1999. To read the column go to: <http://ancestry.com/columns/eastman/eastnew.htm> - Halbert’s Is Going Out of Business Halbert’s is closing down. The company blames "competition from the Internet" as the reason for their business problems. Cendant of Parsippany, N.J., the parent company of NUMA and Halbert’s, announced this week that the publisher of pseudo-genealogy "books" will cease operations on Sept. 30, 1999. I wrote in the June 8, 1999 edition of this newsletter ( http://www.ancestry.com/columns/eastman/eastjune08-99.htm) that Cendant was trying to sell Halbert’s and all other divisions of NUMA. Apparently Cendant was unable to find a buyer. Halbert’s is infamous for its mass produced "books" which claim to offer genealogy information about your surname but, in fact, deliver simple listings gleaned from telephone directories and other sources of public domain information. For years Halbert’s sent thousands of ads weekly for the "New World Book of (your surname)." For instance, in the ads sent to me, the book would be called the "New World Book of Eastmans." If your last name is Smith, then you would receive an advertisement for the "New World Book of Smiths." The advertisement would bear the signature of a fictitious person with the same last name as yours. Halbert’s has been well known in the genealogy world for years. Most major genealogy societies have issued repeated warnings to their members to not waste money on these "books." Halbert’s always used a Bath, Ohio mailing address. However, when I visited Bath last year ( http://www.ancestry.com/columns/eastman/eastAug31-98.htm), I was unable to find the company in the building they use as a return address. Halbert’s also has been in court several times to answer charges lodged by the U.S. Postal Service. The court documents always listed Halbert’s as a subsidiary of the NUMA Corporation of 1566 Akron Peninsula Rd, Akron, Ohio. That address is a few miles from Bath, Ohio. NUMA/Halbert’s stopped marketing in August and will end operations Sept. 30, according to Elliott Bloom, spokesman for Cendant. Bloom said all orders will be filled, and the 70 employees will be given severance pay. "The shutdown is related to a weakness, largely the result of consumers having access to a greater amount of general data on the Internet," Bloom said. "The product has really run its course as far as viability, so the best course of action was to close the business." I suspect the standards set by the genealogy community at large contributed to this announcement. My congratulations to all of you who insist on quality in your genealogy purchases.