This is more of a comment than a question

Question

I have been fighting false genealogies for years and hope that people are aware that there are fraudulent genealogies out there. I have found some of them here on Wiki and tons on Familysearch, Geni and OneGreatFamily. Well meaning people copy genealogies that they have found on Family Search and elsewhere assuming that all was verified. Then they upload it all in Gedcom files and it winds up copied over and over on all of the genealogy sites. This problem has been around for over 100 years. Some of you will run into brick walls that you will spend years trying to get over only to find out it was fake to begin with. Please verify your trees with some of the well know grafted on. Please note the surnames in the lengthy list below
If you have any family data from these sources it is false!
This data was generated by Gustave Anjou and sold to rich customers
in the late 1800's & early 1900! They are all useless!
The numbers given after the title are the call numbers at the Family
History Library.

The ANDREWS Family 929.273 A1 #688
The BACKUS Family 929.273 B128a
The BACON Family FHL #908083 item 7
BEACH Family FHL #908083 item 9
The BELL Family FHL #908833 item 4
BLAISDELL Family Manuscript 929.242 A1 no. 25
Histore de la famille BLOEDEL 929.273 B6214a
The BRAMAN Family 929.273 B7311a
BROOKING (Broquin) Family 929.273 B79132a
The BUCKNER Family 929.273 B857a
CALDWELL Family 929.273 C127an
History of the CARR Family of Scotland,
England and the United States Part 1:
Scotland and the United States 929.273 C23a
CARROLL Family FHL #908510 item 11
CARUTHERS Family 929.273 C2372a
CARTER Families FHL #897418 item 22
The CHALFONT Family 929.273 C35a
CHAPLIN Family FHL #908086 item 9
The CHILD Family 929.273 C436a
CHURCH Family 929.273 A1 no. 544
The CHURCH Family from 1202 FHL #389396
CHURCH, the English Ancestry of Richard Church of Hartford FHL #000182 item1
CLEMENT Family 929.273 C59171a
The CLISE Family 929.273 C619a
COCHRAN Family 929.273 C643a
COOK Families FHL #908136 item 5
History of the COPLEY Family of England with Ancestry of Thomas Copley,
Shelbrook, Yorkshire, Northampton, MA 929.273 C791an
History of the COPLEY Family of England with Ancestry of Thomas Copley,
Shelbrook, Yorkshire, Northampton, MA Revised Edition 929.273 C791a
CORBIE Family 929.273 C81a
CORLIEZ Family 929.273 C81342a
CORRY Family FHL #1651933 item 12
CRAWFORD Family 929.273 C856a
CUNNINGHAM Family 929.241 C917a
The DANIEL Family 929.273 D221a
De RONDE Family 929.273 R667a
DEVECMAN Family 929.273 A1 no. 542
DICKEY Family FHL #924400 item 4
The DORNAN History 929.273 D73451a
DOTY Family 929.273 A1 no. 543
DU PONT Family FHL #908504 item 1
DUNCAN Family 929.273 D912a
ERICKSON Family 929.273 A1 no. 551
FICKEN Family 929.273 F446a
The FISH (FISK) Family FHL #908219
FLANDERS Family 929.273 F613a
Early History of the FREEMAN Family; of Surrey, England, and New Jersey,
Michigan, North Carolina, and California in the United States FHL #1033558
item 9
GALWAY Family (GALLAWAY, GALLOWAY) FHL #908219 item 9
GILL Family FHL #908504 item 10
The HOLLIDAY, HALLIDAY Family 929.273 A1 no. 545
The HULBERT Family, 1305-{1884}; with the Ancestry of Walter HULBORD,
Thomas HULBERT, William HURLBERT, and their Connections with Early
Immigrants to the New World: Connections with Samuel BENNETT in James
1635 to Lynn, MA.,
the HYDE, HURD, PARTRIDGE, HARDY and Other Families/Henry
Carlton HURLBERT, Descandant of Thomas HULBERT of Saybrook, CT and
Wethersfield 929.273 A1 no. 540
The HULL History: Containing the Ancestry of Richard HULL of Dorchester,
1634 929.273 H877a
HUNGERFORD Family 929.273 A1 no. 548
The Jack Family (JACQUES, JAMES) 929.273 J12a
The JOHNSON Family 929.273 J63an
The JOHNSON Family 929.273 J63ab
JONES Genealogy, A Welsh Family 929.273 J71a
KENNETT Family 929.273 K393a
KLAUS (Claus) Family 929.273 K668a
LANE Family Extracts from Suffolk Probate Record FHL #908071 item 7
LEE Family 929.273 A1 no. 549
The LENMAN Family (LEMAN, LANHAM, LENHAM) 929.273 L547a
The Lewis History; Containing Also the History of Various American Families
FHL #908006 item 1
The LILLY Family: LILLIE, LILLE, LILLI, and LILLY: A Complete History of
the Lillie, Lille, Lilli and Lilly Families from Sweden to France to
America, 1291-1898 929.273 L628an
LINCOLN Family 929.273 no. 550
MARK Family 929.273 M34a
The MARSHALL Family 929.273 M355a
The McVICKAR History FHL #908006 item 4
MONS (MANTZ) Family 929.273 M758a
MOORE Family 929.273 M781a
The NICHOLSON Family 929.273 N52a
ORD Family 929.273 Or2a
ORMOND Family 929.273 Or45a
PARSON Family Records 929.273 P251a
The PULLMAN Family 929.273 P967a
REDBURN Family 929.273 R246a
History of the RICHARDSON Family Q929.273 A1 no. 24
ROBINSON Family 929.273 A1 no. 556
ROBINSON Family: Genealogical History of the Robinson Family from John
Robyson of England in 1374, to Henry and Richard Robinson of Maryland in
1650, to John Robinson of Delaware in 1698, to John M. Robinson, 1878
929.273 A1 no. 556 Rev. Ed;
ROCKWELL Family 929.273 A1 no. 546
ROGER Family FHL #908510 item 12
The ROSS Family 929.273 R733a
RUNK-RUNCK Family 929.273 R874r
RUSSEL Family 929.273 R911a
History of a German Family: the SCHNEIDER
Family of Friesland, 1492 A. D.
etc. with the Ancestry of Various American Immigrants 929.273 Sch58a
SEAMAN Family 929.273 Se16a
SHAPLEIGH Family 929.273 SH64ag
The SPROULL Family from 1283 A. D.: with Ancestry of, e. g., Governor W. C.
Sproull of Pennsylvania.
Also the Affiliated Families; CLARK, with the
Ancestry of Sen. W. C. Clark, MURE,
PATTERSON, CARRUTHERS, etc. 929.273
Sp87a
STONE Family 929.273 St72a
STOWELL Family FHL #90854 item 12
SWIFT Family 929.273 Sw54a
THAXTER Family FHL #908504 item 11
THOMPSON Families 929.273 T371an
The TILNEY Family 929.273 T468a
The TONE Family 929.273 T612a
TOPPING Family FHL #924086 item 4
The TRAYLOUR Family (TRAYLOR) 929.273 T699a
TURNER Family FHL #924400
The von HORN Family 929.273 H783a
WALLEY and other Families 929.273 A1 no. 599
WARD Family FHL #908504 item 3
WATERBURY Family FHL #908504 item 5
The WELD Family (WELLS, WELLES, WILLIS), 1066 A. D.-ca. 1910; and WILDS FHL
#928025 item 2
WELLING Family FHL #908504 item 2
WHEELER Family FHL #908834 item 6
The WHITMAN Family 929.273 A1 no. 582
WILSON Family 929.273 W691c
WITHERSPOON Family 929.273 A1 no. 558
WOLFF Family, ca. 760 A. D.-1916 929.273
W832a
WOOLEY History 929.273 W888a
The WORCESTER Family 929.273 A1 no.

The following Web Page Addresses will provide you with the backup
information for the above comments: Sorry the links I posted are now under new ownership and do not work, I will find better links and post them.

Comments

Fun trivia:  Internet started in 1969, GEDCOM was released in 1984 :)

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G2G has an anjou tag that could be added to this question.

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Thanks Keith, before Ged-com and the internet people had to copy all of this by hand! Although the two have become very useful tools in genealogical research, it also has spread some of these false genealogies globally. I hope you don't think that I was implying the use of ged-com files for the past 100 years!! LOL, Carol

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For fake or just bad assumptions. Add William Buel by Albert Welles [The English side} There was an American written update and a recent update by his son compounding the mistakes in England. American descendents might be correct

and Robert Carter by Carl Gustav Anjou the English side. Some of the American side can be confirmed.as in the Welles' Buell work  This maybe LDS film  897418 item 22

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years later, revisiting this extensive list (thanks for sharing it if you're still around Carol Collins...) 

The "Bacon" name caught my eye; it references FHL Film 908083 Item 7, but there is no item 7 for that film, which appears to end with item 6. Can anyone else find this elusive item 7? 

There is a 1915 Bacon genealogy by Baldwin, but it has a completely different LDS film # 874242, Item 2. There is reference within it to a pedigree researched by Anjou, but it's not clear if that pedigree was pertinent to claims made in the 1915 work.

Answer 1

Thank you for this Carol.  The links do not work, do you have other hyperlinks that we can refer to instead?

Assuming this is all correct and these genealogies are demonstrably false, I seem to recall that we have a category, or a free-space page, somewhere here on Wikitree that records fake genealogies.   Can we link this information there?

Also wondering if the eradication of fake genealogy could be a project?  Ie.  a group of wikitreers who are focused on identifying fake genealogy and putting warnings on relevant profiles that data is proven to be suspect.  I know people are doing this now, but should this become more of a concerted, centralised effort?

Comments

Hi Leigh, I am so sorry about the links, I will try to fix that. The LDS Church, after learning of these fraudulent genealogies issued this list and some others and asked patrons of familysearch to please verify information instead of relying only on family tree data. People using Family History Libraries should ask about this while there researching.  Most genealogists have volumes of these and I will try to get ahold of downloadable versions. Currently I do mine the old fashioned way with published lists. It makes me so sad when I find someone who has worked months or even years trying to find an ancestor that doesn't exist. I agree that this is something that would make a great project because validity in sources is of paramount importance. Best regards, Carol

Answer 2

Hello Carol,

I also thank you for this.  Would you be willing to add a note to the biography of some of the people in WikiTree who are known to have particular parents who are fraudulent? It would be good to know who those parents are for when they get disconnected from their parents. That way someone is less likely to try to reconnect them.

Thanks and sincerely, Peter

Comments

Category:Gustave Anjou Fraud  is intended to help alert people to the issues with Anjou-related genealogies. It can be added to any profile for a person whose genealogy has been affected by Anjou's fraudulent work.

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Thank you for this Ellen, I am happy that some are aware, however I have seen some of these lines on Wiki!! I think this would be a great project because Gustave Anjou was not the only perpetrator. So,  if I run across one of these line, I should tag it? In the notes and sources section? Sorry for my ignorance but I am new to Wiki (2 months) and am just getting the hang of it. I have, however been doing genealogical research for about 35 years and this is something I have come across over and over again. Much respect, Carol

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Dear Peter, You are so welcome. I absolutely would be willing to do this and wondered how Wiki would like it done, Best wishes, Carol

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You don't need any special permission, nor do you need a formal project, to add profiles to a category. By convention, categories are listed at the top of the text section of a profile, inside double brackets. Adding [[Category: Gustave Anjou Fraud]] will put a profile into the Anjou Fraud category.

When you are identifying serious errors or bogus information in profiles that other active contributors have created (and possibly sweated over), it's a good idea to communicate with those other contributors about the bad information before you make major edits to the profiles. G2G (this forum) is one good place for communication, particularly if a profile has had several contributors or if the needed fix will be complicated.  In my experience, not everyone will understand the issue, and some contributors will express anger when you tell them you want to cut ancestors out of their genealogy, but things will likely go better when you to try to communicate.