Genealogy Chat

I know this is a Topics Board, but has anyone stopped to wonder what makes a normal/healthy person turn into a 'Crazed Maniac'..
One moment you're walking around, quite happy and content, then someone hands you a piece of paper with a date on it, a name, another date, then a blank and another date and blank. Then they tell you "I think that's your Grandfather in 1810".. Suddenly your brain starts to work overtime, then it's not long before your hair starts to fall out, you get the shakes when you manage to fill in one of the blanks, just to find another blank. Two years later you are still filling in more blanks, then you find that you have been searching the wrong name, you start all over again, but this time you don't have to worry about hair loss or shakes they are all part of the "Geneology Make-Up" now. But you still get excited that Uncle Joe fits the date you now have. And so it goes on and on. The more you find the more you need to find, even tho' theres nothing left to find... Still, It's GREAT Fun...and I wouldn't change it for all the money in the world.. I'm happy being in my little padded cell, and the wardens are kind, they keep giving me little pieces of paper with dates on, blanks, names..... All the best. John

I have nudged up a thread regarding the very serious disease you are talking about.

Krystyna x

I am afflicted!

John - yes, can sympathise fully with you!

You might appreciate this little poem I wrote a few years back which ended up printed in Family Tree mag and a genealogy year book:

MY GENEALOGY

I have this newfound hobby –
Called genealogy –
Finding dead and long lost relatives
To build a family tree.

My daughter thinks I'm crazy
For raking up the dead
She says I should leave well alone
And have some fun instead.

But this is my obsession!
I love it to the core
I spend hours on my research
Until my eyes are sore.

Hidden skeletons abound
Long kept secrets, saving grace
They fall out of the cupboard
And smack you in the face!

It's like playing at detectives
Solving mysteries galore
And discovering brand new cousins
That you never knew before.

I've caught the family history bug!
It's in my veins for sure.
So, no, I won't be giving up just yet…
There truly is no cure!

---------

Seems like once we've been bitten by "the G bug" it stays in the system for a very long time!

Athena

I like that Athena - absolutely brilliant !! John

sometimes this bug gets so bad

that i have to lie down in a darken room

lol

I'm a terminal case.

:)))

Sue

Athena , love the poem !
As for us hopeless cases a famous line from a film seems to apply
" I see dead people " .... :)))))
Kim

I'm new to it but my hubby has already got the kids into 'mom's looking for dead people'.
can I ask 2 questions?
what does nudge mean and do? (told you I was new)
how do I point out an error on a census, the surname of some of the family have been transcribed incorrectly?

My grand daughter told her teacher my hobby is digging up dead relatives - a too literal interpretation of my saying I had managed to unearth some more.

Hi John,

As they say 'welcome to my world'!

I was suddenly struck down by the bug a year ago, and I'm still hoping for a period of remission at some stage. No point in waiting for a cure - the only release is when you find yourself shaking hands with deceased rellies 'on the other side'!

It's a bit like a cross between a cryptic crossword and sudoku: making sense of clues - sometimes garbled by mistranscripions or slightly deaf enumerators - and adding the figures up to fit with the 'evidence'.

Happy Hunting!

Bee.

Trust me on this one, eight years down the line and you'll still be as enthused though the relatives tend to take a lot longer to reveal themselves now.

HA HA HA JOHN I KNOW WHERE YOUR AT ha ha ( more hysterical laughter) I am driving my partner mad . He once spent a whole saturday with me at a records office. he is not into ( dragging up old , turned to dust relies) as he calls my research. He said we are all sad , and the day spent with me that saturday , he has it marked down as the worst day of his life. Even though he did help alot. I am obsessed , i text my family or phone them with cries of " guess who i have found" bless em they try to sound as excited as i am. I have got back to the end of the 1600s on my fathers side. He has a german name and i was hoping to find whereabouts they originated from, but at the date above they are in this country. As an early teenager my friend and I loved looking around old graveyards, it has proved an excellent training ground for my research. The very best of luck to you John with your quest.

And the very best of luck to you Julie. I've got all the Fam Tree (if only) - the trouble is - I don't know who I am now.... Best wishes, take care... John

I hope you are right Janet, but eight more years !!!!!
I can't find my out of the house let alone find all those dead relatives- they're never around when you want them ! Take care and best of luck with your searches.. John

I like your interpretation of Fam Tree searches Bee,
"A cryptoc crossword/soduku !.. I wonder if it easier or more difficult doing the searches "Up There".. Best wishes... John

I just cried with laughter reading all this........what a sad bunch we are "mocked" by others with no interest in Gen....... and all made to feel like we`re the crazy ones....... but I tell you what.... I wouldn`t have missed this compelling hobby for the world... I just wish I`d started sooner.

Good luck to all in your searching

Nicky

Thanks godness I'm not the only obsessed one!! For the last couple of weeks I have just been looking at the same thing over and over again thinking mmmmm, I am stuck! PC on first thing in the morning and then when I get home from work...

Loved the poem

Marcelle