Genealogy Hoaxes, Fake Coat-of-Arms and Scams
One of the most misunderstood concepts of American family history and genealogy research is the European coat-of arms. From their April 2011 web page: "The College of Arms is the official repository of the coats of arms and pedigrees of English, Welsh, Northern Irish and Commonwealth families and their descendants." On their FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions page
| Q. Do coats of arms belong to surnames? |
| A. No. There is no such thing as a 'coat of arms for a surname'. Many people of the same surname will often be entitled to completely different coats of arms, and many of that surname will be entitled to no coat of arms. Coats of arms belong to individuals. For any person to have a right to a coat of arms they must either have had it granted to them or be descended in the legitimate male line from a person to whom arms were granted or confirmed in the past. |
Eastman's Genealogy Newsletter discussed the Myth of Family Coats-of-Arms November 13, 2009
2008 scams include SearchYourGenealogy.com, notice no information on the bottom of the pages, Ancestry-search.com and Australian-Ancestry.com
A new really bizarre scam is FakeFamily.com which charges $74.95 to generate a fake family for your web site to generate traffic for income purposes only. Read Dick Eastman's commentary.
The Halbert operation in Ohio was closed down by the Federal Government in 1999 on mail fraud before the internet became so poplular. They used early computers to copy phone book listings of surnames, made up a family coat-of-arms and included vague genealogy information they passed off as 'your family history'. I bought a couple of their books to see what they were about. Amazing how cousin 'Pat FOLLIS' or 'Pat ZEIGLER' could claim to know so much about my family but give nothing of real value. Unfortunately, in 2005 this company appears to have been resurrected as MorphCorp a more sophisticated internet scam company.
Coat of Arms
Americans do not understand that the Right to Coat of Arms belong to a European individual based on a military action similar to our military medals in the United States that have to be approved by a recognized authority. We might be a descendant of a person with a coat of arms, but the arms is theirs, not ours. Just like an American ancestor who earned a military purple heart or other medal of honor, the medal is theirs, not mine. "Arms" refers to - a military weapon! Since the majority of my ancestors were Anabaptist Brethren, some Mennonite, some FOLLIS were Quakers, it follows those families wouldn't have any military service at all. Something similar in the United States would be military medals like the purple heart awarded by the President in recognition of heroic injury during combat. In 2005 a controversy arose when the Hollywood movie "Wedding Crashers" encouraged people to visit their web site and download a fake purple heart. They quickly withdrew the download when the news media reported the story resulting in angry military purple heart recipients contacting their Congress members and a Congressman introduced legislation expanding existing law to make such distribution and possession of a fake purple heart or any military medal a punishable crime.
FALLIS FOLLIS Coat-of-Arms
Coat-of-Arms do not exist in the United States, so any family that has been in America for hundreds of years like most of my ancestors would not have an a recent ancestor with a legitimate coat-of-arms! There are a number of fake coat-of-arms sellers on the internet. The House of Names is a fraud with this Fallis Coat of Arms. Notice the slight difference with the Follis Coat of Arms. There are no documented Fallis or Follis ancestors prior to the early 1700's in the United States or Ireland to claim descendacy from with a legitimate Coat of Arms. Tradition has Follis as Scots-Irish, but in Scotland our name is spelled Foulis or Fowlis in the early records, so there is no legitimate Fallis or Follis in Scotland at an earlier time to even claim as an ancestor! Those spellings are found today, but not in early records. Genealogy scams are alive and well in the 21st century! Type a name and the coat of arms barely changes such as the Zeigler Coat of Arms. My line of Ziegler/Zeigler families were one of the first anabaptist brethren families in Pennsylvania in the 1770's so they would not claim a military medal if one exists in Switzerland, and it would take more documentation than any of these sellers provide. So don't fall for it.
I had an interesting discussion on the FALLIS Rootsweb Mailing List on this topic in 2002. It is unfortunate that the original writer seemed upset as she never responded again. Notice her Fallis Family crest from Halbert's is similar but different from the one the House of Names is selling, both are cute coat-of-arms someone simply made up. Family crests sit atop the coat-of-arms. Dick Eastman pointed out August 11, 2004 on his newsletter that House of Names had taken over Halbert's. You can make your own coat-of-arms and it will be just as nice and fake. Common sense says that not every European individual could possibly have a coat-of-arms which belonged to a wealthy land owner or military officer, yet plenty of organizations on and off the internet are willing to sell you one. As the Better Business Bureau and others say "if it sounds to good to be true - it probably is".
- Genealogy Hall of Shame
- Genealogy Magazine Coat of Arms
- Scams Myths and Frauds
- Society of Genealogists Leaflet # 15 Right to Coat of Arms
- Viruses, Scams and Hoaxes
Genealogy research is never complete, important details might be missing, and often contains errors, so let me know if your research contradicts mine. My Indiana and Ohio family research comes from conversations with relatives, scrapbooks, library research, online records, visits to courthouses, final resting places on family farms and cemeteries. Families in other states rely mostly on the research of others. Links to other web sites often change then won't work, so if you find broken links, have additional information on any families, corrections, photos, or anything to add to the history of our families, please leave a Comment in my Guest book, join my Follis Families on Facebook page for updates and new discoveries, or send an Email. The Wayback Machine archives most old web pages so copy and paste the broken URL address to find the missing 404 pages that disappeared. Read Dick Eastman's newsletter on using Unverified Data from the internet. This web site is designed to work with JavaScript and the latest browsers. If you experience display problems you may need to update your browser.
