Dutch-Colonies-L Archives

Archiver > Dutch-Colonies > 2002-01 > 1010508800


From: "Leslie Hope" <>
Subject: RE: [D-Col] Re: Every Genealogists Nightmare
Date: Tue, 8 Jan 2002 08:53:50 -0800
In-Reply-To: <002d01c19862$2052d180$0b43a118@rochester.rr.com>


I know it is a *joke* but alas one that is all too real. The obvious answer is to make provisions for your research in your will or trust. It also makes a good case for uploading your research to world connect or donating it to the FHL in Salt Lake City. If there is no relative to leave the pictures, etc to, there is also the local historical society. Family bibles can go to NEHGS where they will be preserved and their contents made available to other researchers.
Leslie Hope

-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Miller [mailto:]
Sent: Tuesday, January 08, 2002 8:33 AM
To:
Subject: Re: [D-Col] Re: Every Genealogists Nightmare


Yes, I would say that it is a rather obvious farce--or, rather, joke--as
the very first line indicates when speaking of "FICTIONAL [emphasis mine]
genealogist Barbara."
Quite amusing! Reminds me of some of my relatives... who I will
hopefully manage to outlive!
-Jim Miller
----- Original Message -----
From: roland elliott <>
To: <>
Sent: Tuesday, January 08, 2002 11:30 AM
Subject: Re: [D-Col] Re: Every Genealogists Nightmare


This is a farces and easy to check before sending out.r
----- Original Message -----
From: <>
To: <>
Sent: Tuesday, January 08, 2002 8:22
Subject: [D-Col] Re: Every Genealogists Nightmare


> Ancestry Daily News
> 1/2/2002 - Archive
>
>
> Cleaning Mother's House
> – Michael John Neill
> It has been nearly a year since fictional genealogist Barbara passed
away.
> Her daughter Charlene reflects upon that year in a letter to her friend
> Karen. Charlene truly has been busy. Barbara is probably rolling over in
her
> grave.
>
> Karen,
>
> As usual, my cards are late. It has been a busy year.
>
> We spent much of the year settling up Mother's estate. The house sold
well,
> but cleaning it took longer than we expected.
>
> You are probably the only person who did not know Mother was a genealogy
> buff. She told practically every human she encountered. I'm convinced that
> genealogy "nut" was the most accurate phrase. The stuff was all over the
> house. The inheritance would have been enough to pay for my new Mercedes
had
> she not insisted on spending money on that blasted hobby. I don't know why
> she couldn't be more like Tom's mother. Nadine spends her day doing
> needlepoint and watching reruns of 50s television shows. Tom just does not
> realize how lucky he is, but men never do. My mother had to run off to
> cemeteries and courthouses. She even went to a conference in Davenport,
Iowa,
> last year! Can you imagine? Davenport, Iowa! After she got back, she was
so
> excited about all that she had learned and all the fun she had. She was
> planning on going to another one in California this year. Well, the grim
> reaper took care of that.
>
> Because of my promotion to head of knick knack sales at
Garbageforless.com,
> I had not been home for several years. I was appalled to learn that Mother
> had converted my old bedroom into her family history "headquarters." My
> shelves of Teen Beat and other magazines documenting my adolescence had
been
> replaced with old family photographs, copies of old documents, and
something
> called family group sheets. She even got rid of the pants I wore to my
first
> junior high dance. I cried at the thought.
>
> I could not bear to go in the room and be reminded that my childhood had
> been stripped from me and replaced with an obsession with the past. I told
> the children that if they would clean the room and prepare the items for
the
> garage (should I say "garbage" ?) sale they could have the proceeds. I
> learned what true entrepreneurs they are.
>
> Kenny stripped Mother's hard drive in under ten minutes. I kept hearing
him
> say "GedCom is GedGone . . . GedCom is GedGone . . ." I have no idea what
it
> meant, but the computer fetched a good price. Before he unplugged the
> computer, he erased all Mom's floppy disks and downloaded public domain
> games. He sold these at a nominal price.
>
> Susan took the old photographs to a flea market and was able to sell
many
> of them. Some special labels had to be taken off and we had to take them
out
> of protective envelopes. Mother had written the names on the back of many
of
> them. At least none of those pictures of depressing old dead people had
our
> last name written on them. I don't want to be associated with such sour
> people.
>
> Mother had some type of old plat book -- whatever that is. Kenny tore
out
> the pages individually and sold them separately on Ebay. It was so clever.
> His dad said he got much more than if he had left the book in one piece.
>
> Susan didn't tear the bibles apart though. I thought that showed
> tremendously good sense. She's learning that not everything can be
marketed
> in the same way. The 1790 bible brought her a good penny, but she couldn't
> get the one from 1900 to bring more than fifty cents. She donated it to a
> local church, and here is where I am so proud of her. We can write if off
as
> a charitable deduction. Someone had written what they had paid for the
bible
> on the back cover. Susan converted that to 2001 dollars and will use that
for
> our tax deduction amount. I've already enrolled Susan in tax lawyer summer
> camp this coming August.
>
> There was some old large certificate of written on heavy paper. The
silly
> thing wasn't even in English, so why would Mother keep it? Kenny used the
> other side to keep track of the things he had sold. Waste not, want not.
When
> we were finished we put the paper in the recycling bin.
>
> The kids put an old wedding dress from the 1870s in the washer to get
the
> stains out. It was terribly filthy. The worthless thing didn't even
survive
> the extra long cycle and the half-gallon of bleach. It's doubtful we can
even
> use it for cleaning rags.
>
> The dress was in some kind of old trunk. I'm not certain what it was
for,
> but it had a name stenciled on the front in huge letters along with the
name
> of a town. Susan gave it a good coating of red paint and sold it as a toy
box.
>
> The filing cabinets were emptied of their contents, as were the three
> shelves of binders. Kenny got the bright idea to shred the paper and sell
it
> in bags as New Year's confetti. The file folders were too heavy to shred.
>
> The baby did not react well to any of this. She cried and fussed almost
the
> entire time. Kenny thought she wanted tea, which made no sense to me at
all.
> As she cried, it sounded like she was saying "family tee." She can't even
> talk yet and I think Kenny was hearing things. The baby does look exactly
> like my mother though, it's the oddest thing. The fussing didn't stop
until
> she spit up an entire bottle of strained prunes on my junior high jeans,
> which we did find in the basement. They were ruined -- it was the one real
> loss. Now my past has really been taken from me -- magazines and all.
>
> Charlene
>
> Whether you have a child like Charlene or not, have you thought about
what
> might happen to your genealogy collection upon your demise?
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
>
> Michael John Neill, is the Course I Coordinator at the Genealogical
> Institute of Mid America (GIMA) held annually in Springfield, Illinois
>
>
>
>
> ==== Dutch-Colonies Mailing List ====
> NOTICE: Posting of virus warnings, test messages, chain letters, political
> announcements, current events, personal messages, flames,
> etc. is NOT ALLOWED and will be grounds for removal
> LIST ARCHIVES: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/dutch-colonies
> and
http://searches2.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl?list=dutch-colonies
> and exclusion from this mailing list.
> For comments or list administration questions,please contact
> Holly Timm
>
> ==============================
> To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records,
go to:
> http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237
>
>


==== Dutch-Colonies Mailing List ====
To Unsubscribe from this mailing list, Send message to:
ONLY Message; unsubscribe
For problems; contact
LIST ARCHIVES: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/dutch-colonies
and http://searches2.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl?list=dutch-colonies

==============================
To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go
to:
http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237



==== Dutch-Colonies Mailing List ====
NOTICE: Posting of virus warnings, test messages, chain letters, political
announcements, current events, personal messages, flames,
etc. is NOT ALLOWED and will be grounds for removal
LIST ARCHIVES: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/dutch-colonies
and http://searches2.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl?list=dutch-colonies
and exclusion from this mailing list.
For comments or list administration questions,please contact
Holly Timm

==============================
To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to:
http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237

This thread: