Exclusive: Mark Zuckerberg’s Proud Dentist Father Markets Himself As ‘Father of Facebook!’

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Maybe Facebook was started in Edward Zuckerberg's Harvard dorm.

Which presumably means that William Henry Gates, Sr., started Microsoft and Samuel Edison popularized the electric light bulb.

Zuckerberg’s father, Edward J. Zuckerberg (see the complete Zuckerberg family album), is a dentist located about 30 miles outside of New York City. Like any good pillar of the community, he wants people who just moved to town to feel welcome, especially prospective new clients.

So what’s a tried and true way to get those clients? Grandiose, good-hearted claims about inventing your son’s social networking site! (Follow the link below to view the letter in full.)

In a letter to new residents in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., Zuckerberg D.D.S., claims that, “Indeed, I am literally the Father of Facebook!” Literally? Literally?! NewsFeed thinks of this more as a rhetorical flourish.

(See Photos: A Behind-The-Scenes Tour of Facebook Headquarters)

Literally, he is the father of the man who first coded Facebook. But it loses something in the literal translation, we’ll give you that.

All this being said, NewsFeed gets what the good dentist was trying to say. But the letter, which does not mention his son or anything else about the social networking site, comes off like one of those hilarious e-mails with wild claims of being the deposed king of Nigeria who just needs a little money to get back on his feet.

(Read TIME’s Person of the Year profile of Mark Zuckerberg.)

We don’t know if Mark, fresh off his SNL appearance, is aware of his father’s public celebration of his success. But we seriously doubt that the true father of Facebook would’ve typed up a letter and sent it to new clients via snail mail.

Like any good Facebook junkie, he would’ve poked them.

For a look at the letter, click here.