So all of those genealogical related newspaper ads are/were, well, just bunk anyway. Right?

But ok, have it your way, nobody back in the day gave any mind to 36 newspaper ads promising huge wealth if only somebody could find it. Strange, the single word "authentic" sure hooked you, and thousands more, and you're not even a potential heir. Just saying.....
PS: And with a single word, "gold" an entire nation was stirred to brave everything and risk everything and travel across country, again and again. Yet nobody gave a thought to the promise of a vast fortune just four miles from Bufords?

"Fat chance!" Unless of course, they had good reason to believe otherwise.