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Below is an excerpt from the current Rootsweb Review
(newsletter). It seems genealogists studying their Anglo American
ancestors encounter the same peculiarities that we encounter. Take note of
Number 9.
Emilie
* * *
NEWS FLASH. 1852 NEW
YEAR RESOLUTIONS SOLVE GENEALOGICAL MYSTERIES.
It is New Year's Eve 1852 and
Henry HYDENWELL sits at his desk by
candlelight. He dips his quill pen in ink
and begins to writes his New
Year's resolutions.
1. No man is truly
well-educated unless he learns to spell his name at
least three different
ways within the same document. I resolve to give
the appearance of being
extremely well-educated in the coming year.
2. I resolve to see to it
that all of my children will have the same
names that my ancestors have used
for six generations in a row.
3. My age is no one's business but my own.
I hereby resolve to never
list the same age or birth year twice on any
document.
4. I resolve to have each of my children baptized in a
different
church -- either in a different faith or in a different parish.
Every
third child will not be baptized at all or will be baptized by
an
itinerant minister who keeps no records.
5. I resolve to move to a
new town, new county, or new state at least
once every 10 years -- just
before those pesky enumerators come around
asking silly questions.
6.
I will make every attempt to reside in counties and towns where no
vital
records are maintained or where the courthouse burns down every
few
years.
7. I resolve to join an obscure religious cult that does not
believe in
record keeping or in participating in military service.
8.
When the tax collector comes to my door, I'll loan him my pen, which
has been
dipped in rapidly fading blue ink.
9. I resolve that if my beloved wife
Mary should die, I will marry
another Mary.
10. I resolve not to make
a will. Who needs to spend money on a lawyer?
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