Alleged Arms and Wills of Akins of That Ilk 1669-Date

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Part 2: Wills | Part 1: Arms

In addition to the websites mentioned Steven Akins still maintains an additional site at http://www.genealogy.com/genealogy/users/a/k/i/Steven-L-Akins-of-that-ilk/index.html which contains images of wills and other alleged family documents of various dates. Attention has been drawn to similarities in the handwriting of these supposedly varied documents, as demonstrated by the letter 'A' in the following samples from a 1669 will and an 1872 family memoir:

Alas, the suspicion that outright forgery is involved has now been confirmed following enquiries to the Maryland State Archives. There follows firstly a copy of the alleged will of Archibald Akins of Cecil County dated 1764, as presented by Steven Akins:

Maryland State Archives could not locate this will among its records, but did find the following strikingly similar document, being a will of Archibald Aiken of Baltimore County dated 1768:

By using the same page number, 488, repeating the names of the three witnesses and borrowing some of the text, the forger gave himself away, showing that he had adapted a real will to his own purposes. The elements which had aroused such scepticism, namely the references to County Monaghan in Ireland and to Scotland, and the transmission of the family 'patent of arms', are now shown to be fabrications. The presence at the bottom of the pages of the alleged 1764 will of impressions of an official seal, which when reversed appear to read 'Probate Court, Cecil County', gives rise to the most serious questions. There is a further transcript of the concocted will at http://www.rootsweb.com/~mdbaltim/wills/will200.htm, where it is said to have been 'transcribed from the original copy in the Maryland State Archives by Mr. J. Barrentine'. As to other alleged wills, those of Alexander Akins 'of That Ilk' 1669, Robert Akins 1728 and Alexander Akins 1748, the Maryland State Archives cannot locate these either, so that it would appear that these are concoctions as well.

There are similarities between the Akins case and the Irish MacCarthy Mór Hoax, in that both involve distortion and fabrication of documents in support of an unfounded claim to Chiefship. However, there is one important difference, as the Court of Lord Lyon in Edinburgh was sufficiently vigilant and attendant to warnings to afford no credence whatsoever to the Akins fantasy, whereas the Office of the Chief Herald of Ireland ignored warnings and issued documents validating MacCarthy and other bogus and questionable Chiefs.

Both the Akins and MacCarthy cases show that while the Internet may be of great utility to genealogists, it can also be abused as a medium to propagate false genealogy and heraldry, something which requires constant vigilance on the part of serious practicioners of these disciplines. Websites containing false documents, arms and pedigrees spread misinformation and confusion, mislead the unwary, strengthen the hand of those who desire more cyber-censorship and generally undermine the value of the medium. Finally, it should be said that exposing the falsity of the claims of Steven Akins was a long and diffcult process, involving the pooling of knowledge of many individuals internationally, particularly in the Internet forums rec.heraldry and soc.culture.scottish.

Sean Murphy, Irish Chiefs
Last revised 23 April 2004