Last name books?

Question

You know those books that you could buy that have like your last name history. My last name is unique. Its Hryniewicki. I was wondering like are these kingds of books real or just made up for curious people to buy.

Answer 1

These books are greeted with great suspicion by genealogists. (Head On --- apply directly to forehead!) Even if they have a basis in fact, it may not apply to you at all.

I personally think they're contrived.

Try this link, roll up your sleeves, and get ready for the search:

http://books.google.com/books?q=Hryniewi...

The "full-vew" books are public domain and can be downloaded for free. They might point you in a direction where you can obtain genealogically valid documents.

Happy hunting!

Answer 2

I don't think those books are very good, they might have a bit of information and lists of other people with the same name but personally I wouldn't waste my money on one.

You are lucky if you have an unusual name it makes your family history easier to research. Watch out for unusual spellings, in the  past people often weren't literate and you may get a lot of variations.

Answer 3

I just Googled your surname and found 24,000+ entries, including two doctors and a Bishop. Your surname is rare but not unknown.

The books are real in the sense they have real people in them. Whether or not you are related to any of them, and how, is another question.

For example, if someone had all the telephone books for the USA (UK, Australia, France . . .) on a data base, they could (or their computer program could) list everyone with the "xyz" surname and say "These might be your cousins. Call and ask!"

That would be honest in one way - the names and telephone numbers would be real (as of a year or two ago, and there wouldn't be any cell phone numbers.) It would be dishonest in the sense many of those people would not be related to you, if "xyz" was a common surname.

I don't know what Ancestry is using as their data base; probably more than a telephone book. At $29.99, you are going to get a computer-generated list of some sort.

Your surname isn’t common, so you would probably be related to a number of the people on any sort of list, so it might help you a little bit.

Most of the books of that type I've seen also have a list of famous people in history named "xyz"; members of congress, flag officers, actors, painters, sports stars, etc.

The books are bad two ways. First, they don't tell you how you are related to the people listed. Relations are the heart  of genealogy; who married who, who each person's parents, children and siblings were.

Second, 15 out of 16 of your great great grandparents were not named "xyz". So the book would just give you lists of people with your father's father's father's father's surname.