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- A Visit to Bath, Ohio

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 normally carry a local return address withhin 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:

Halbert'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 very 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 at his residence in Auburn, Maine despite the fact that he sold that house more than ten years ago and then died about seven years ago.

While planning my route to last week's Federation of Genealogical Societies' conference in Cincinnati, Ohio, I noticed that I would be driving within 5 miles of Bath, Ohio. So I said to myself, "Maybe I'll stop at Halbert's and ask to see Doris Eastman, i.a.."

I found Bath easily. It is a rather picturesque little town that consists primarily of two streets: Ira Road runs east-west, and the North Cleveland - Massillon Road runs north-south. The address of 3687 Ira Road is within a couple hundred feet of the intersection of these two roads. But there is no sign there for Halbert's. In fact, I couldn't find any trace of them at all. The address of 3687 Ira Road should have been alongside Rurs-Puel Real Estate or Bech & Tabeling Architects. But there was no hint of Halbert's there. This seems to confirm what I had been told earlier: the name and address shown in the Halbert's ads is only a mail drop.

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. That address is a few miles from Bath, Ohio, but it seemed rather pointless to check out Numa's location. Besides, I doubt if I could find Doris Eastman, i.a., there, either.

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?"

PERSONAL NOTE: I subscribe (free) to this newsletter and have gotten many "tips" and valuable information on genealogy.

Jean

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