Genealogy Grins & Giggles

This page is dedicated to Thoughts for the Day, Poems and Words of Wisdom,
To enlighten our moods during our Quests for Genealogy and History.

When you feel like your eyes are crossing from all the long hours of research,
Take a break and relax your mind!

Humorous Genealogy Links

Joe Dewald's World of Genealogy Cartoons

Gene Toons

The Happiest People Are Those Who Have Invested Their Time In Others. - Billy J. Baker

We Are the Chosen
My feelings are in each family we are called to find the ancestors.
To put flesh on their bones and make them live again,
To tell the family story and to feel that somehow they know and approve.
To me, doing genealogy is not a cold gathering of facts but, instead,
breathing life into all who have gone before.
We are the storytellers of the tribe.
We have been called as it were by our genes.
Those who have gone before cry out to us: Tell our story. So, we do.
In finding them, we somehow find ourselves.
How many graves have I stood before now and cried? I have lost count.
How many times have I told the ancestors you have a wonderful family, you would be proud of us?
How many times have I walked up to a grave and felt somehow there was love there for me?

I cannot say.
It goes beyond just documenting facts. It goes to who am I and why do I do the things I do?
It goes to seeing a cemetery about to be lost forever to weeds and indifference
And saying I can't let this happen.
The bones here are bones of my bone and flesh of my flesh.
It goes to doing something about it.
It goes to pride in what our ancestors were able to accomplish.
How they contributed to what we are today.
It goes to respecting their hardships and losses, their never giving in or giving up.
Their resoluteness to go on and build a life for their family.
It goes to deep pride that they fought to make and keep us a Nation.
It goes to a deep and immense understanding that they were doing it for us.
That we might be born who we are.
That we might remember them. So we do.
With love and caring and scribing each fact of their existence,
Because we are them and they are us.
So, as a scribe called, I tell the story of my family.
It is up to that one called in the next generation,
To answer the call and take their place in the long line of family storytellers.
That is why I do my family genealogy,
And that is what calls those young and old to step up, And put flesh on the bones.
[Author Unknown]
Contributed By: Shirley Pearson

To Forget One's Ancestors Is To Be A Brook Without A Source, A Tree Without A Root -
Chinese Proverb

Love Is The Only Thing That Multiplies When You Divide It! - Doris L. Wolfe

Don't Judge People By Their Relatives! - Austin Cox

Shared Joy Is Doubled Joy, And Shared Sorrow Is Half Sorrow -
C.A. Tiedge
Contributed By: Doris L. Wolfe

Genealogy - Where You Irritate The Living, And Confuse The Dead!

Don't Count The Years, ...Count The Memories ! - Austin Cox

A Conclusion Is Simply The Place Where You Got Tired Of Thinking - Shirley Pearson

How Old Would You Be If You Didn't Know How Old You Were? - Sachel Paige
Contributed By: Billy J. Baker

Genealogist Evening Prayer
Every evening, as I'm laying here in bed,
This tiny little prayer, Keeps running through my head,

God bless my mom and dad, And bless my little pup,
And look out for my brother, When things aren't looking up.

And God, there's one more thing, I wish that you could do,
Hope you don't mind me asking, But please bless my computer too?

Now I know that's not normal, To bless a mother board,
But just listen a second, While I explain to you 'My Lord'.

You see, that little metal box, Holds more to me than odds and ends,
Inside those small compartments, Rest a hundred of my 'Best Friends'.

Some it's true I've never seen, And most I've never met,
We've never exchanged hugs, Or shared a meal as yet...

I know for sure they like me, By the kindness that they give,
And this little scrap of metal, Is how I travel to where they live.

By faith is how I know them, much the same as You,
I share in what life brings them, from that our friendship grew.

Please! Take an extra minute, from your duties up above,
To bless this scrap of metal, That's filled with so much love!

Don't Miss Out On A Blessing Because It Isn't Packaged The Way That You Expect!
- Shirley Pearson

Are you ONE?????

By Beth Maltbie Uyehara

Hi. My name is Beth M.U., and I'm a geneaholic. My story's not a pretty one. I am sharing it here in the hope that it may help others avoid my pitiful fate. If you, too, are addicted to genealogy, I want you to know that you are not alone. There are thousands of us worldwide struggling in the daily battle against this cunning, baffling and powerful addiction.

There was something "different" about me from the get-go. Looking back, the signs were there for all to see. Even as a child, when relatives threw old Daguerreotypes in the trash, I would fish around among the coffee grounds and egg shells and pull them out. When old letters or diaries were discovered in musty trunks, I stayed up all night reading them. Obits, report cards, discharge papers, photos of unknown people: I hoarded them all. I didn't care what kind of document it was, or who it concerned -- if it was remotely connected to "family," I had to have it.

I'm making no excuses. I had a good upbringing. Genealogy certainly doesn't run in my family -- I come from a long line of people who could take their ancestors or leave them alone. Yes, there were rumors of an aunt on my father's side who "did a little research on weekends," but she covered her tracks well, and I have never been able to prove for certain that she was a geneaholic. Aside from that one suspect, my relatives were all what we call "social genealogists." For them, a colorful forebear or two were good for party conversations, to be chuckled over at family gatherings, and that was it.

Not me. Right from the beginning, I was out of control. I could never stop with just one or two ancestors. Every ancestor I found triggered an insatiable craving in me for two more, and four more after that, and eight more after that. I could not stop once I got started.

Eventually, genealogy took over my life. Bouts of compulsive research would leave me babbling incoherently, slumped exhausted, sometimes barely conscious, at a microfilm reader in some darkened room, surrounded by other addicts satisfying their own shameful cravings for genealogical kicks. Many are the times I've been thrown out of a library at closing time, kicking and screaming, begging for just five minutes more, just "one more ancestor for the road." It was humiliating.

As the years went by, things went from bad to worse. It was an endless downward spiral. I found myself sneaking from library to library in distant parts of town, even in other cities and states, searching for the ultimate high -- that mysterious immigrant ancestor, whose identity would make everything fall into place. I hit bottom one hot August day in a cemetery in a far-off state. How I got there doesn't matter. Let's just say that after much research, I had located the grave of an ancestor who -- according to family legend -- had died in some kind of accident. As I stared at the weathered, old tombstone, wondering how I could find out how he had died, the thought occurred to me: "I could dig him up and see." Immediately, I recoiled, aghast. "Eeeeeuuuuuuu," I cried, "yuk! That's gross."

That's when I knew I needed help. Since that moment of clarity, I've joined numerous genealogy support groups where we offer each other strength and hope, along with research tips and potluck dinners. And I have finally admitted, to myself and to other human beings, that I am powerless over genealogy and my research has become unmanageable.

It may be too late for me. But, science has found that young family historians -- those who are, as yet, only potential geneaholics -- can sometimes stop in time.

Answer these questions to see if you are in the early stages of addiction.

* Home: Has genealogical paperwork taken over any room in your house?

* Friends: Is genealogy interfering with your social life? Do people edge away from you at parties when you burst into tears over the 1890 U. S. census?

* Family: Do your relatives' eyes glaze over when you explain your latest research? Do you find dead people more fun than live ones?

* Work: Is genealogy interfering with your job? How many hours of each workday do you spend on the Internet, or checking your RootsWeb e-mails?

* Marriage: Has your spouse ever asked you, "Aren't you done yet? How far back are you planning to go?"

* Health: Are you starting to show the physical and mental signs of geneaholic deterioration, such as red-rimmed eyes, a loss of interest in current events, a shortened attention span for non-ancestral topics, excessive viewing of the History Channel?

If you answered yes to even one of these questions, you are on the road to genealogical addiction. You must not research even one more ancestor! You must stop NOW, before it's too late! When you feel an overwhelming urge to research, repeat the following until the urge goes away: "My mother found me in a cabbage patch. My mother found me in a cabbage patch. My mother found me in a cabbage patch." Good luck and God help you.

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