Here is a note sent to me on a local list by Mark Howells (the husband of Cyndi Howells of "Cyndi's List" and a VERY active internet genealogist in his own right) re: Kindred Konnections, an internet-based company that has been sending out spam (unsolicited advertising or junk e-mail) about their genealogical services. Read on, and buyer beware! Mary Kathryn ********************** Hi all - Loathe though I am to encourage KindredKonnections with a monetary reward, it seemed only fair to "put my money where my mouth is" when warning others about KK's unethical business practices and mis-leading advertising. So I joined up for a brief trial of their services. This e-mail describes what I found and documented. To summarize, the information which KK had available in its database DID NOT MATCH the subject line which they sent to me as unsolicited commercial spam. They had plenty of my surname, but not in Wales and certainly not in Penmark as implied by the subject line of their spam. This is "baiting" customers at its most crude. It is tragic that the thousands of volunteer hours put into the surnames web pages are being exploited for the monetary gain of an enterprise selling a service of dubious value. Please feel free to pass this information along to others who may have received KK's spam. =`=`=`=`=`=`=`=`=`=`= Since I had received an e-mail from feedback@kindredkonnections.com titled: "DEERE from 1796 to 1900 in Penmark ,Wales." <my research interests lifted by KK directly from the voluntarily-hosted Glamorgan surnames web page of GENUKI>. The advertisement further stated: "DEERE from 1796 to 1900. We show there are 105 DEEREs in the Ancestral Archive Index at http:// "<remainder of URL snipped as they don't deserve additional advertising> it seemed fair that I search KindredKonnections for the DEERE surname located in Penmark, Wales in 1796 in order to see what I got as a result. =`=`=`=`=`=`=`=`=`=`= I did a search of their "Ancestral Archive Index" for the surname DEERE occurring in the year 1796. Here's what I got back: 83 instances of DEERE from 1796 - of which: 31 were double counted (same record returned twice) - leaving 52 actual "hits"; Of the 52 hits, 9 were either mis-directed links, completely blank pedigrees, or "files not found" - leaving 43 "hits"; Of the 43 "hits", 30 contained NO location information at all (in other words, no information on the place where a birth, marriage, death occurred) - leaving 13 "hits"; Of these 13 DEEREs which had location information, only ONE WAS EVEN FROM WALES; NONE of the results returned were from Penmark, Wales at all. =`=`=`=`=`=`=`=`=`=`= If you have been solicited by KindredKonnections, DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY. Chances are excellent that KK does not actually have any information regarding your surnames in the times and places of your interests. If you find this sort of mis-leading advertising based on the unethical commercial exploitation of volunteer resources on the Internet to be worthy of complaint, you may wish to bring KK's activities to the attention of the following organizations: KindredKonnections' e-mail address is - feedback@kindredkonnections.com KK's Internet Service Provider (whose acceptable use policy prohibits spam) is - abuse@inconnect.com The State of Utah's Division of Consumer Protection (KK is a Utah-based company) accepts consumer complaints of mis-leading advertising and unethical business practices at - commerce@br.state.ut.us - Mark ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ markhow@oz.net -- Mary Kathryn Kozy mkozy@attglobal.net My Home Page: http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~marykozy/ South King Co. Gene. Soc. page: http://www.rootsweb.com/~waskcgs/ Dougherty Co., GA USGenWeb: http://www.rootsweb.com/~gadoughe/ Monroe Co., GA USGenWeb: http://www.rootsweb.com/~gamonroe/ Lawrence Co., IL USGenWeb: http://www.rootsweb.com/~illawren/