Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Gustave Anjou is on Facebook

I'm really surprised more people haven't blogged about this (Randy did on his Geneaholic blog): Gustave Anjou is on Facebook! For those of you who are saying, "Who?", let me educate you a bit. Gustave Anjou, born Gustave Ludwig Jungberg in 1863, was--as Wikipedia states--a "self-proclaimed genealogist who has been accused of fakery." Anjou was hired by many East Coast families to research their heritage, and produced multiple massive volumes of family history, intentionally creating false lineages and connecting families without evidence or citations. Genealogical standards are now such that any books authored by Anjou are not considered credible sources. Sadly, many of his books are still found in libraries around the country and are consulted and used by family historians who are ignorant of his shady dealings.

Of course, since Gustave Anjou died in 1942, the person claiming to be him on Facebook is not the real deal. There is a bit of a buzz among the genealogists at Facebook as we try to figure out who he really is!

Personally, I am wondering if he is the same person as the Ancestry Insider, another mystery person in the online genealogy world!

8 comments:

Midge Frazel said...

The problem with this is that nobody cares who he/she is! People who think that having a secret [online] identity makes them cool are wrong. It is one thing to use a screen name or an avatar name but to purposefully be a fraud is another matter. Most of us who made this person a friend have now "un-friended" him/her.

I suspect this person wants to tell everyone that genealogists are gullible people. Watch out! Danger lurks in the online world. Unfriend this person immediately.

Miriam Robbins said...

I haven't sensed any malice or intent to fraud by this person. I believe he/she is someone with a great sense of humor (Kathyrn Doyle suggested it might be Chris Dunham) having fun with the idea that genealogists like to solve mysteries.

geneabloggers said...

Like Midge, I too unfriended Gustave but I wonder if this is just a person who created this persona as a "warning" to not believe everything you find on The Internets. As is true of genealogy research online or through book research or other means, we need to always have an analytical and skeptical eye towards what we find.

I finally unfriended Gustave when I took a closer look at his Info tab and noticed some affiliations I didn't feel comfortable with.

my Heritage Happens said...

The first thing I received from Gustave, he had something he wanted to see me regarding the River name. I am curious if he tried to sell anyone else anything?

"Gustave Anjou" said...

I made that Gustave Anjou account as a joke, and it was fun while it lasted for a few months, facebook ultimately deleted the account. There was no intent to defraud or anything like that, just some genealogical humor which some people shared and some people didn't!

Anonymous said...

I have heard about about Gustave Anjou from research. Sadly, I see some trees on rootsweb.com with Gustave's fabricated lineages. However, I do the right thing and question sources before I add anything to my family tree. However, I am not perfect and I still continue to make changes on my family tree if I question sources or get conflicting information. In cases of conflicting information, I just delete the person. Yes, Gustave's work in on the LDS family search, which is why I won't use the site. Some of Gustave's can be found on ancestry.com. Be careful of what you add to your family tree and use cautionary measures to insure you are getting accurate information!

Miriam Robbins said...

Good point, Anonymous! And of course, you are talking about the original Gustave Anjou, not the individual who was pretending to be him on Facebook.

"Gustave Anjou" said...

Thanks Miriam, my actual research is very meticulous and documented, the Gustave Anjou facebook profile was entertainment for my fellow genealogists!