The Tackett Family Assn. would like to advise all descendants that we have no affiliation with a national mail order business which has, for several years, marketed "Coats of Arms" & "Family Heritage books" on family surnames, books that, in fact, contain no specific genealogical information on the family. According to reports by The International Genealogy Consumer Organization, these books have been the subject of numerous complaints by individuals & Postal officials over the years. Solicitations come in various forms & names but seem to be operated by only one or two companies. Mailings most often come out of Bath, OH, Midvale, UT and Scranton, PA.

Also beware of a new Internet company, a.k.a. roots.com [not to be confused with "RootsWeb.com"], .a.k.a. Hall of Names International. As their promo material, and product, is very similar, if not the same, we would not be at all surprised to find that they are one and the same as the above noted company with headquarters in Bath, OH. This firm also does not provide an email or business address; only a fax or telephone number. Remember, there is no such thing as a "Family Coat of Arms;" only an arms awarded at some time to a specific individual. [See "Heraldry for United States Citizens," by the Board for Certification of Genealogist, which notes that there "is clear evidence that there is no such thing as 'arms of your family name.'"]

We also advise extreme caution when dealing with such companies as the new subscription genealogy search venture called "FamilyDiscovery.com," out of Cedar Rapids, IA. An overview of their site gives virtually nothing about their company or who their "genealogists" are. . . . . . . . . . . . . Also be wary of a new site by an unidentified "Angie," [http://65.10.15.149/FreeGen/Home.html] who purports to have available, on a subscription basis, "31 million names" with an additional 1.5 billion names to be added. "Angie" does not provide a surname, mailing address or any references or educational/professional background.

We also have no affiliation with a commercial firm which sells, under the name of Eastern Digital Resources, a printout called Tackett Family Index. This being just one of many such "Indices" this firm sells. The persons, or persons, providing this index do not identify themselves on their website, nor do they do so on the AOL Member Profiles.

Please be very cautious about accepting the validity of family data found in GEDCOMS and on the numerous lineages & HTML charts you find on the Internet . . . and in the "Ancestral Files" available in the Mormon Family History Centers.  In our rather extensive "surfing" of numerous pages giving Tackett data, as well as data on allied lines, we have found extensive errors, and these, in our opinion, often do more harm that good. Some of this has been gradually creeping into the genealogy databases of many researchers from incorrect data submitted for merging into the LDS (Mormon) "Ancestral Files" and commercially available GEDCOMs via Broderbund's Family Tree Maker, Kindred Konnections & RootsWeb files and the Ancestry.com files. Also be wary of the validity of data given in many of the QUERIES found on the commercial sites. Queries found on "FamilyHistory.com," in particular, do not even give an email address for the person placing the query ; As one cannot personally contact the person placing the query, this site seems to be of little value to the serious researcher. We have found RootsWeb to have the most productive sites. The Mormon Family Search files, to their credit, are prefaced by a caution that:

   A problem for all of us, is that we often just cannot contact the person who submitted the data, and we too often find that if we are able to make contact, we are just led on a "dog chasing the tail" search with the original "source" being "unavailable." A major problem with Internet queries & charts is that, unlike the written media where the name and mailing address is always given, this is rarely so on the net where only an email address is given, if that. Unfortunately email addresses are very transitory and have virtually no long term value. We can often trace a person down years later if we know their name and last mailing address. Ever try tracing down "hotlips@aol.com?"

I personally feel it would be a tremendous service to all genealogists if designers of genealogy related pages would require that all those who submit queries, charts, photos & GEDCOMS for inclusion on their pages append their correct name & USPS mailing address, in addition to their email address, to their material.

"The information in this document may contain numerous mistakes or data that is questionable or only proven to a surety level that may require more notation than can be written here to explain. Therefore, this data is unsuitable for re-print or general publication. It is strongly advised by the compiler that researchers only use this data as a beginning reference. This information is periodically updated, edited, corrected, and changed."