We all have the same problems

[wini]

GENEALOGICAL MYSTERIES.
It is New Year's Eve 1852 and Jimmy Mackay 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 country 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?

[Ina]

Hi Wini,

Good going, you finally made the post. You did great!!

Ina
Current AG Chair

[marilyn morning]

Hello Wini

Sounds just like my family.

Thanks for sharing this with us.

Regards
Marilyn

P.S. I especially enjoyed the part about the courthouse burning down every few years....

[wini]

Thanks Ina
Now I will bombard you with rubbish.

Only Joking

wini

[DavidWW]

I like it =D> =D>

I was doing some research y'day, looking for the location of 4 known relatives of a person who died recently in Australia, - I'll come back to them in a minute.

I was also given some information on 4 other people in the same family, along with locations in order to assist. Slight problem in that it turns out most of this information was wrong, - given names, surnames, locations, relationships,- so that I spent a couple of hours going round in ever decreasing circles, so maybe we need to add to the above resolutions something like "I resolve never to check any notes that I make about my relatives"

The 4 known relations?, - no trace after 4 hours, until one turned up as the informant on a death register entry, shown as son, but he couldn't be because I'd exhaustively searched the birth indexes. Yes I had, but I hadn't taken into account that such a normal search of the birth indexes wouldn't pick up an adoption, - as was the case with his sister, one of the four Lesson learnt

(In case anyone is interested, all that is shown in the birth indexes for an adoption is the name of the child as adopted, the reference "NRH", and an AR {Adoption Register} reference, - i.e. no location {other than "NRH"} and no info on the mother's maiden name. The problem with this is the time that would be required to check every NRH AR reference if the year is unknown, somewhat complicated by the fact that a researcher is limited to ordering a maximum of 5 AR fiches in a day !!)

David

[wini]

David,

It is heartening to know that even you with all your knowledge and experience still encounter problems.

wini

[joette]

David I was at NRH last week when a young girl & her Adoptive Mum arrived.She was looking for her original Birth Certificate which she located & then she was obviously trying to locate her Birth Mum via Birth & Marriage.
Now this was a very private,emotional time for these two people yet it was being carried out in a busy search room & I was aware of what was happening & for my own personal reasons was listening BUT the point is I was able too!! Isn't there somewhere more discreet for this to take place.
I hope she finds her Birth Mother & they have a happy reunion.I have been thinking of all involved all week.

[DavidWW]

David,

It is heartening to know that even you with all your knowledge and experience still encounter problems.

wini

Hi wini

I long ago gave up saying that "I've seen it all", and that there aren't any new situations that will surprise me in terms of the consequences

This situation was an absolute "classic" in that context

David

[DavidWW]

David I was at NRH last week when a young girl & her Adoptive Mum arrived.She was looking for her original Birth Certificate which she located & then she was obviously trying to locate her Birth Mum via Birth & Marriage.
Now this was a very private,emotional time for these two people yet it was being carried out in a busy search room & I was aware of what was happening & for my own personal reasons was listening BUT the point is I was able too!! Isn't there somewhere more discreet for this to take place.
I hope she finds her Birth Mother & they have a happy reunion.I have been thinking of all involved all week.

Hi Joette

Hmmm..... Had they made NRH staff aware of the subject of their visit, it's quite possible that they'd have been given a more discreet and less public search position, - the problem just at the moment could well be the temporary reduction in the number of search places at NRH following the temporary closure of the NRH East Search Room, in connection with the building alterations in connection with the new Family History Research Centre.

David

[Scottishlass]

WOW this sounds just like a member of my family come census time.