12 January 2008

Only in Genealogy

Terry of Hill Country of Monroe County, Mississippi, gives us this little ditty to kick off the renewal of the Only in Genealogy blog:

Where else but in genealogy would two adults exchange email after email to determine the connotation of the phrase "petered out" in terms of a bloodline ceasing to exist due to the lack of males produced?

So might this exchange have been futile? Or a sign of how precise genealogists try to be? You decide, and keep the funnies coming! Thanks, Terry!

23 April 2006

Only in Genealogy

Do people scream at unknown dead people.

05 February 2006

Only in Genealogy

Do people get more headaches from dead people than living people.

16 January 2006

Only in Genealogy

Can one say "I find dead people" and not be locked up.

Only in Genealogy

Does someone with no children, and no plans to have any, have an internet folder full of baby name resources.

10 January 2006

Only in Genealogy

Will someone decide, just before going to bed, to enter "just one more" search term, find someone who's been giving her fits, scream so loudly that the entire town can hear her, IM whichever of her "buddies" is online at the time, YELL at her when she isn't at the keyboard, and email a cousin, all because she found an ancestor who's been dead for 40 years!

08 January 2006

Only in Genealogy

Well, this one really doesn't fit, but it's so good I had to post it. I was checking the blogs that I have linked on my main page, and got a kick out of today's entry in The Genealogue. Go check it out. It's a good one!

Only in Genealogy

Do people wait in line and pay good money for a document that not only is over 100 years old, but has no bearing whatsoever on their own situation in life .

Linda gave the example of obtaining a probate record for ancestors we never met. The same could be said for the quest to obtain birth, marriage, and death certificates.



06 January 2006

Only in Genealogy

Do people vacation in graveyards!

Linda wrote in and told the following story:

My son, age currently 40, is a bailiff in our local court and does part time security work. One of the recent requests was to "secure" a local cemetery from when the office closed until sun down. He thought it was a piece of cake gig. The owner of the company was thrilled that he wanted to do it as most of the other LEO's were hesitant to drive around a cemetery for hours, son told him that there was no problem, he was use to it. I ran into the fellow who runs the company and he asked me where we use to take our children on vacation when they were young, after several statements such as camping, state parks, etc, he said no, something about grave stones. So I told him that I had been searching for my dead relatives for about 30 years, long before data bases listed anything. I would write the names that we were looking for on paper and the 5 of us would fan out in a cemetery in search of family members. Oh, the excitement of finding a matching name. Then it just got so that where ever we traveled, if we saw a grave yard that looked interesting we would stop and read the inscriptions, try to find the oldest dates, identify the nationality of the people buried there, see how many young children died, find patterns of death dates ( big epidemics). The gentleman just looked at me and said, "Your son was not kidding, he did grow up in cemeteries". Guys, some of those big burly, full armed active and retired cops were afraid of ghosts.

My children learned very young that tombstones are the marker of the last earthly remains of our family and must be cared for and respected. Scrub brush and bucket in hand, they learned to clean the dirt and bird dropping from the family markers

05 January 2006

Only in Genealogy

Does one run head-first into a brick wall at full speed and willingly go back for more.

31 December 2005

Only in Genealogy

Does one enjoy reading obituaries.

Only in Genealogy

Does one get excited about receiving a death certificate.