Here is an interesting story about why it is so hard to trace your family.
The following is a real note sent from a census taker in the 1800's to the government. This may explain why a lot of us have variations in the spelling of our names!
"Centsus rekurds. I am a cencus taker for the city of Bufflow. Our city has groan very fast in resent years and now, in 1865, it has becum a hard and time consooming job to count all the peephill. Thare is not meny that can do this werk, as it is necesarie to have a ejucashun, which a lot of pursons still do not have. Another atribeart needed for this job is good speling, for meny of the peephill to be caounted can hardly speek inglish -let alone spel there name."
YOU KNOW YOU'RE AN ADDICTED GENEALOGIST
When you brake for libraries.
If you get locked in a library overnight and you never even notice.
When you hyperventilate at the sight of an old cemetery.
If you'd rather browse in a cemetery than a shopping mall.
When you think every home should have a microfilm reader.
If you'd rather read census schedules than a good book.
When you know every town clerk in your state by name.
If town clerks lock the doors when they see you coming.
When you're more interested in what happened in 1698 than 1998 .
If you store your clothes under the bed and your closet is carefully stacked with notebooks and journals.
When Owens, Burrass & Parker are household names, but you can't remember what you call the dog.
If you can pinpoint Harrietsham, Hawkhurst and Kent on a map of England, but can't locate Topeka, Kansas.
Contributed by Dee March
Charlotte
Curlee Ramsey
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~cramsey/index.html