A few months ago, one of our
subscribers received a letter and advertisement from Halbert’s, of Bath, OH.
They were offering a book entitled 'THE NEW WORLD BOOK OF OLMSTEDS' , and
claimed to have startling news about the Olmsted Family. The letter was signed
Lewis S. Olmsted, i.a. The subscriber asked me how this unknown Olmsted could
have came up with so many new things.
Fortunately, I had just seen
the answer to the question on the Internet. The following article is from
Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter and is copyright 1998 by Richard W.
Eastman and Ancestry, Inc. It is re-published here with the permission of the
author. So here is the lowdown on Halbert’s of Bath, OH. And I do mean
low.
Have
you ever received an advertisement from Halbert's of 3687 Ira Road, Bath, Ohio?
I suspect that you have, given the volume of advertisements this company sends
out every year. These are bulk mailed to addresses in the United States and
Canada. Halbert's and their "partners" also send similar
advertisements to thousands in England, Germany, Switzerland, Australia and
maybe other countries, too. However, these ads normally carry a local return
address within each country.
I
have written several times before about Halbert's and their competitors,
including a full review of one of Halbert's "books" in which I
said:
Halberd's of Bath, Ohio, is the most notorious of
the mail order companies that send out ads offering to sell you "an
astounding new book" with insinuations that the book tells all about your
family name. These letters, as well as the "books," are all mass
produced by computers with family surnames and your name inserted in
appropriate places. For instance, a letter sent to me will say:
I have exciting news for you and all Eastmans! Though we are
probably not related, I want to tell you about extensive work done throughout
the world on a project relating to the distinguished Eastman name. What might
be the oldest facts about Eastmans in North America have been discovered. Now,
an astounding new book, 'THE NEW WORLD BOOK OF EASTMANS,' is about to be
published for you and it features Eastmans back to 1620."
The
advertisement then goes on in breathless prose with lots of exclamation marks
scattered about. It claims to present facts about early Eastmans and also
asserts that it includes an up-to-date international directory of Eastmans. If
your name is Smith, then the letter sent to you will have the name Smith
inserted in every place where my letter says Eastman. If you live in England or
Germany or some other country, then the geographic references will be changed
to match. (Halbert's is an international operation.) All of the advertisements
will claim to be "a one-of a kind book."
If you are gullible enough to order the book
for $34.50 plus another $4.88 postage and handling, you eventually receive a
booklet of general information about how to get started researching genealogy
plus many pages of extracts from old telephone directories listing people with
the same last name as yours. The Eastman "book" that I looked at last
year had names and addresses listed for some of my relatives who had been
deceased for years. The "one-of-a-kind book" lives up to the
description; it actually has a cardboard cover and looks like it was glued
together on someone's kitchen table. The pages in the 1996 Eastman
"book" weren't even aligned properly.
I don't know when Halbert's started this
business, but I know they were already notorious in genealogy circles in the
mid-1980s. They have frequently received legal injunctions from postal
authorities, but that doesn't seem to slow Halbert's down much; apparently they
continue to send out thousands of these advertisements every week despite legal
efforts to shut them down.
The
Halbert's ad I received in 1989 was signed by "Doris Eastman, i.a."
Now, Doris never claimed to be a relative of mine in that advertisement, but
the fact that the letter was signed by someone named Eastman lent credence to
the "book" title of The New World Book of Eastman. I was intrigued by
the letters "i.a." that appeared after Doris Eastman's name. After a
fair amount of research, I discovered a Legal Dictionary that listed it as an
abbreviation for the Latin words "in absentia" or, translated into
English, "in absence." In other words, Doris Eastman wasn't present
when the letter was written, and someone else signed her name to it in Doris'
absence.
In
1989 I called Halbert's and asked to speak to Doris Eastman. I was told that
"Doris isn't here right now, can someone else help you?" I was
suspicious that Doris was a fictitious name and later court documents proved
that my assumption was accurate.
I'll point out that calling Halbert's is difficult. Their telephone number isn't in the ad. I was later told that Halbert's mailing address in Bath, Ohio is simply a mail drop; there are no offices at that address for a company called Halbert's. In fact, Halbert's is one of the trade names owned by Numa Corporation in nearby Akron, Ohio. Apparently, mail delivered to the Bath, Ohio, address is simply forwarded to Numa in Akron. I eventually found a number for Numa and called their offices looking for Doris Eastman. Not surprisingly, she wasn't there, either.
A few months ago I received another ad from
Halbert's, much like the ones I had received in 1989. Again, it was signed by
"Doris Eastman, i.a." and was from the 3687 Ira Road, Bath, Ohio
4410-9953. I purchased this year's "book" as I wanted to see what had
changed. To be blunt, I don't see much difference in the 1998 edition. It is
the same old stuff. It still has extracts from old telephone directories. It
still lists my uncle in Auburn, Maine despite the fact that he sold that house
more than ten years ago and then died about seven years ago.
Halbert's
has been in court several times to answer charges lodged by the U.S. Postal
Service. The court documents always list Halbert's as a subsidiary of the Numa
Corporation of Akron, Ohio. In fact, the Numa Corporation of 1566 Akron
Peninsula Rd, Akron, OH 44313-5154 does have a telephone listing. I don't think
there is anything illegal about using a mail drop, but I wonder why any company
would do that. The next time you receive an ad from 3687 Ira Road, Bath, Ohio,
you might ask yourself, "Why do they use this address? What are they
trying to hide?"