Genealogy Truths

• Anything that could have burned, did.
• The census taker with the clear handwriting and the good ink never enumerated your ancestors.
• If you find a well-documented, illustrious ancestor, you've probably made a mistake.
• Your folks hated the government and never filled out forms.
• The book you need is never indexed, or if indexed, doesn't include people.
• Your families never had attics, much less boxes with photos or Bibles in them.
• All real library discoveries are made five minutes before closing, when the copier is broken.
• The correctly shelved books and correctly filed forms are never the ones you need.
• The person sitting next to you at the research center is finding ancestors every five minutes --- and telling you about it.
• The e-mail address that bounces is the one from the person who listed your exact names. When you find a working address, you aren't related.
• Your microfilm reader is the one that squeaks, has to be turned backwards, and doesn't quite focus.
• Your cemeteries have no caretaker or records archive.
• Alternate spellings and arcane names were your folks' favorite pastimes.
• Or, your folks only knew three first names and used them over and over in every collateral line.
• Your sister neglects to mention that the data she gave you, which you have researched and sent to other researchers, was just a guess with no foundation and she guessed because she "didn't like leaving that line blank."
• Your mother neglects to mention that, "Oh, yes, we knew they changed their name".
• Blank genealogy forms never have quite the categories or space you need.
• All software packages look good, but immediately have a problem with "your" special case.
• Discussions about how to compute cousin-ship are never resolved.
• And finally --------It's infinitely easy to get sidetracked doing genealogy!!