Membership makes us strong, increases the odds that we will find help and family in our club, and our membership teaches us things we might not learn elsewhere. I would like to thank all of the people who have been here from the start of our club in '97, and to thank all of those members who have posted on the message board and contributed in many ways. Our club has changed and grown from a small group of friends/members to a large group of friends/members.

Most of the time I ask you to welcome new members to our club as it is always nice to see your name in print, but for this anniversary edition I would like to thank those members who have stuck it out with us for the last four years! Give a big round of applause and congrats to the following members! They have stuck it out with us and added to our club in many many ways.

Clubs Go Round UK genealogy

Anniversary Edition Editorial

Thinking back to why this club was founded I can only say that it was a haven from the crazyness that was public forums for genealogy. When I first started doing on line genealogy about 6 years ago, people were much nicer and there were not so many kids playing on line. This was I believe because computers were expensive and parents didn't let their kids play with that much money. Now, you can buy a computer that does 40 times what my first $2500 buck computer did, (I thought a gig of hard drive would last forever) and only pay 450 bucks. While that is not something to sneeze at, it is a far cry from the 2500+ people use to pay. Cheap computers have allowed many good people on line, but also have allowed more kids with time on their hands to get involved to cause trouble.

Since the clubs inception I have struggled to keep the format on a family level. We banned members who swore in the chat room, and tried to start trouble between others. We banned members who only joined to post ads for their products . And finally when we couldn't stop people from joining and posting porn, we moderated the group so nothing offensive would EVER come from our club, only clean family genealogy.

I feel we are very lucky to belong to a group of people who are so willing and happy to help each other. I have had a series of email from a group that is now threatening legal action against one of the members who has been harassing them and causing all sorts of problems. Each side claims that the other is harassing and the entire forum of genealogy has gone by the soap-opera way. What a waste of time and a shame.

I personally thank each and every member here who has asked help from the club with their genealogy. When we look information up for you, we learn more and find more information for ourselves. Helping others helps ourselves in the long run!

I invite all members to post their genealogy on the message board, and take the time to answer a question or ask one. Genealogy is a process by which the more you find the more you end up searching for. Good luck with the hunt.
genzi

~Welcome to the new members of CGC~

260 Strong

If you see any of these people on line, give them a nice CGC welcome.

GENEALOGY HALL OF SHAME

Many people go on line and want to find their family roots or a cousin they remember from childhood. Some of them find them and others look at the computer and think this is some strange type of monster and I need help making it do what I want it to do. the second type of person is more likely to become a victim of internet fraud than the first but everyone needs to remember that there are crooks out there with a slick style of web page design who just wants to take your money and run.

I have said it over and over, don't pay for anything on line until you have searched for it yourself to see if what you want is free for the taking or at least if not free at a reasonable price from a reputable company. There are a wide variety of scams out there including the "inheritance scam", the "buy your family tree already done", some genealogists only "claim" credentials, they just make them up as they go, and there are also the genealogy "companies" who gather "information" for you all in one easy spot so you can view it at your convience.

The most recent scam has come from a company run by genseekers.com and a very bad scam artist named Elias Abodeely. His scam was a genealogy site that promised thousands of links to information all sorted out and listed (kind of like cindi's list). He only charged 59 bucks a year and you could get a free 4 week trial. Catch was you had to sign up for the service, give them your credit card number, AND once signed up you would find that the button to "just say no" and change your mind was disabled, so you were stuck with it. One person even complained when he did a check by phone, they reversed the check numbers and charged him twice. Some deal.

There are several places you can check out if a web site has had people complain about it. This is the first thing to do before you had a stranger YOUR bank information. Do your homework is the first thing you need to do before you every give out your info. Where you might want to start is Gensuck.com sorry their name not mine. They have a nice web page full of current info on the good the bad and the ugly of the web and genealogy. Check them out for more info on the current status of a company. Their message board is pretty easy to navigate. Click message board on the home page then decide what one of the three catagories you want to view. Click that link and you are on your way. There are pages and pages of message topics that let you know how large the thread is and who started it before you ever dive in. Another place to check would be with Dick Eastman, he is a good source of information and has a full article in the archive about the gene scandals from family discovery to the family tree house. I have seen a good deal of these companies on line and like I have always said NEVER NEVER NEVER pay for something you can find for free.

About Genealogy Resource Library, Cyndi's List, and Rootsweb.

~~

Genealogy Jokes ""

THERE ONCE WAS A FARMER A debt collector knocked on the door of a country family. "Is Jack home?" he asked the woman who answered the door. "I'm sorry," the woman replied. "Jack's gone for cotton." A few weeks later the collector tried again. "Is Jack here today?" Once again the answer was "No, sir, I'm afraid he has gone for cotton." When he returned for the third time and Jack was still nowhere to be seen, he complained, "I suppose Jack is gone for cotton again?" "No," the woman answered solemnly, "Jack died yesterday." Suspicious that he was being avoided, the collector decided to wait a week and investigate the cemetery himself. Sure enough, there was poor Jack's tombstone, with this inscription: "Gone, But Not for Cotton."

~Eureka! Lost and Found Treasures~

DO YOU HAVE A LOST OR FOUND TREASURE? Let us know your treasure we can post it here. If you have found family or treasures share you news here in our newsletter send an email to genzoli

It seems to come in bunches, I think that the email is just a pile of junk and when I open it, there are three letters from cousins never before seen. If you have anything good to share that has happened of late, found new family and friends, let us know!