This longtime genealogical publisher shares some unusual and often funny anecdotes collected over 30 years of helping genealogists locate, print and preserve their work.
- This note accompanied a brief ancestor chart: “I’m interested in tracing part of my family tree—my mother’s and father’s side only.”
- "Why am I like Texas?" said unmarried Miss Star to a bashful wooer who didn't spark up, as they said then. He was silent. She replied: "Because I am a LONE star." "Then," said Gideon, brightening up, "let me propose annexation." (From the Oakland (MI) Gazette, April 2, 1845)
- Some genealogists will date any old thing!
- A six-month-old boy listed in dwelling 268 of the1860 federal census of Walnut Valley, Sequatchie Co., TN, is named Doctor Bill Hatfield. His family must have had great expectations. “Doctor” was a son of blacksmith John Hatfield, 28, and his wife, Sarah, 27, and grandson of Jonathan Hatfield, 67, and his wife, Jane, 70. All lived in the same household. Jonathan was born in Virginia and the others in Tennessee.
- Overheard at the nursing home: "No, dearie, you've got your roots mixed up. Today you dye your hair. Tomorrow the genealogy club meets."
- Someone wrote and asked: “Why is it that you have not yet found my backward ancestors?”
- McMurphy’s Law: In a key position in every genealogy you will find a John Smith from London.
- Genealogist Marion Damiano of Turlock, CA descends from three generations of men named John Doe. They are John Doe, born ca. 1703 in Durham, NH, his son, John, and his grandson, John, born at Durham in 1764.
- Beware of unknown family trees. Some are the result of grafting!
- Heck of a Tale! Otto Heck married Philomena Heck in Elchesheim, Germany. The witnesses were a Herr Heck and Frau Heck. The pastor was Father Heck. The two mothers-in-law of the bride and groom had Heck as their maiden name, but are not believed to have been closely related to each other. Otto and Philomena came to the United States.
- "I've been in many a deal, but I went in the hole on this one." So says a tombstone inscription in Riverview Cemetery, Monticello, IN
- When you start to examine the family tree you’re bound to be taking chances, not so much on what you’ll find at the roots, as to what’s apt to fly off some branches.(Courtesy of George W. Ladcke, Wisconsin Genealogical Society)
- A new cousin a day keeps the boredom away!
- The first marriage at "The Center" in Mahoning Valley, Ohio (about 1805) was between Samuel Hutchins and Miss Freelove Flowers.
- Families are like fudge--mostly sweet, with a few nuts.
- Your family history shows you've really lived----behind the keyboard, in musty library basements, among rows of courthouse files, and in cemeteries!
- My job was great--until I gave it up for genealogy!
The copyright of the article Isn't Genealogy Fun in Genealogy is owned by Rosemary E. Bachelor. Permission to republish Isn't Genealogy Fun in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
