Genealogy Chat

Hi I know there is a company that produces family history books on your surname. They have most surnames and it gives details all about your surname, hearldry and history. At the back of the book it gives everyones(address and full name)around the world with that surname. About 15- 20 years ago i remember my parents having a letter offering them a book on the surname MAJOR. Also my husbands grandfather brought his surname book TRICE. He paid abt £25 however he gave it to his sister. I know that this firms company are based abroad but they do a have a branch over here. When i last had the address the books cost about £36. I had quite a few names to get so i left it for a while. Ive now moved and lost the telephone number. So if anybody out there has any idea please let me know. Thanks Sarah

Hi Sarah My father-in-law bought a book called 'The World Book of Seldons' about 15-20 years ago. It is as you describe with names and addresses of Seldons all over the world. The letter that came with the book is from :- Halbert's Family Heritage Unit 16 Britannia Estate Poyle Road Colnbrook Berkshire SL3 0BH The phone number is 0753 686059, but this is not a current number. Hope this helps Sue Seldon UPDATE Just put 'Halberts Family Heritage' into search engine (Ask Jeeves) and found some very interesting comments. Apparently Halberts took over Burkes Peerage a few years ago.

Be a little bit wary. I have no knowledge of the firm mentioned so do not want to give anyone the wrong impression about them but I do know that when my married sister's in-laws were offered the chance to buy their surname book they accepted and were surprised to find my sister listed in there, but not themselves or their son, my sister's husband. One wonders how thorough the research had been.

I would be wary too. Check with your local family history society. They will probably have knowledge of any scams.

I have emailed the Bershire Family History Society, to see if they have heard of Halberts. I will post here when I get a reply.

I remember somebody having one of these for my maiden name GEDEN. From what we could make it, it was as though the company had just gone through phone books all over the place and included them. Before I started researching I went to Lands End one year and bought a surname certificate(?) from a shop there. They had thousands of names in their databank. Mine being fairly rare I was quite pleased to have something with it on. All they had really done was gather a few parish register entries from suffolk I believe and printed it on there. All the information on it does not tie up with anything I have since found out about the name. A complete waste of money.

Thankyou everyone for your messages and information. I will be very careful about jumping in at the deep end. Sarah

sarah a few yrs ago(approx5) my husband contacted Burkes Peerage to see if there was a book on the name "manterfield".their reply was "no"! about 2mths later his brother had a letter from them offering him the chance to buy a copy of the book that they had said they didn't have! he passed the letter on to my husband who bought 5 copies for one each of his cousins and one for himself.only to find that when they arrived HE wasnt in it!!! his brother was entered twice and several other people were entered numerous times,but not hubby!!!! it couldn't have been that hard to get it right,surely,as the book only had 102 manterfields in it!!!! and most of them were duplicated. all the best susie

Iam wondering if this is a good idea. I thought the books would be a nice thing to have. As ive been informed they have loads of useful information on your SURNAME . Also it should help you to contact others. I know that does not mean you are related to them. So besides that, is the information that they give on your surname of any help or use? Also does this company have a website? Thanks Sarah

As from the experience I had with the genealogy surname certificate I got I wouldn't trust information about the surname being correct. Unless an awful lot of research has been done you cannot guarantee they have given you the correct information. The one I got gave places that I have never found anything from on that name.

I received a book years ago from Burkes peerage.If we liked it we could keep it for £20.00.this was about 10 years ago.On checking through the book I felt they just put our surname in and next door would probably got the same with their surname.That was how it looked.It gave me addresses at the back that I could contact.Two were my husbands old addresses and they hadn't put his new one in.They had his parents 3 previous addresses.I wrote and complained that none of the information was up to date and could they advise me.I'm still awaiting their reply. Mary