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WARNING: Falsified Waldensian Pedigrees

A few decades ago, at least one researcher provided falsified Waldensian family history reports. These reports were initially accepted as correct and were widely distributed. The false reports covered so many families you may well encounter them.

Family group records produced from that researcher give a statement like this for the source of information: "Research in the notarial records by Brian Leese, predating the parish registers." Information on such a family group record is not reliable. Even when he reported a specific date of a notary record, attempts to verify the information has shown either that (a) there was no record of that date, or (b) that a record on that date referred to other people, not to those he claimed. You must not accept work by this man unless you personally view the microfilmed original records and they agree with the family group records produced from his reports.

Unless you have careful documentation, you will be unable to distinguish between the correct line and the false claims.

A typical illustration is the same Paul Gardiol used elsewhere on this site as an example. In your search, you could easily find this Paul given as the son of a Barthelemy Gardiol and his wife Susanna Roncaglia. Some of the records don’t provide evidence one way or the other.

But as noted above, the Notary Records provide firm evidence of the correct parentage.

We'll explore these matters in greater detail at the appropriate place on this site. For now, the key point is that if you wish to identify your Waldensian ancestors correctly, you need to be methodical and you need to make the effort to obtain and scrutinize all possible documents so you have all possible clues to assist you.

Don't let the fact that there are falsified lines discourage you. This site will help you tell the difference. In the meantime, move ahead and find the correct lineages.

Our Waldensian ancestors, yours and mine, rose above greater adversity than this. We owe them our best, sustained efforts.

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