Genealogy Merry-go-Round
Rules for our ancestors-or-how to confuse your descendants
1) Thou shalt name your male children: James, Joseph, John, William, George, Thomas, Richard and Josiah
2) Thou shalt name your female children: Elizabeth, Mary, Sarah, Virginia, Betsy and Mollie
3) Thou shalt leave no trace of your female children.
4) Thou shalt, after naming your children from the above lists, call them by strange nicknames suchas Polly, Molly, Sukey, Lizzie, Jennie...making them difficult to trace.
5) Thou shalt NOT use any middle names on any legal documents or census reports, and only when necessary you may use only initials on legal documents.
6) Thou shalt learn to sign all documents illegibly so that your surname can be spelled, or misspelled in various ways.
7) Thou shalt, after no more than 3 generations, make sure that all family records are lost, misplace, burned in a court house fire, or buried so that NO future trace of them can be found.
8) Thou shalt propagate misleading legends, rumors, and vague innuendos regarding your place of origin.
 | a. you may have come from: England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales...or Iran! |
| b. you may have American Native ancestry of the___tribe___. |
| c. you may have descended from one of 3 brothers that came over from__. |
9) Thou shalt leave NO cemetery records, or headstone with legible stones.
10) Thou shalt leave NO family bibles with records of births, marriages or deaths.
11) Thou shalt ALWAYS flip thy name around. If born James William, thou must make all the rest of thy name the names of William, J.W. JW, Jim, Jimmie, Willy or Bill.
12) Thou must also flip thy parent's names when making references to them, although, UNKNOWN, or acceptable alternative.
13) Thou shalt name at least five generations of males, and dozens of their cousin with IDENTIAL NAMES TOTALLY CONFUSING RESEARCHERS!!
And remember this is a relaxing hobby to be enjoyed by all!