this was sent on another list I am on, had to pass it on)
NEWS FLASH
1852 NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS SOLVE GENEALOGICAL MYSTERIES.
It is New Year's Eve 1852 and Henry HYDENWELL sits at his desk by
candlelight. He dips his quill pen in ink and begins to writes his New
Year's resolutions.
1. No man is truly well-educated unless he learns to spell his family
name at least three different ways within the same document. I resolve
to give the appearance of being extremely well-educated in the coming
year.
2. I resolve to see to it that all of my children will have the same
proper names that my ancestors have used for at least six generations in
a row.
3. My age is no one's business but my own. I hereby resolve to never
list the same age or birth year twice on any document.
4. I resolve to have each of my children baptized in a different church
-- either in a different faith or in a different parish. Every third
child will not be baptized at all or will be baptized by an itinerant
minister who keeps no records.
5. I resolve to move to a new town, new county, or new state at least
once every 10 years -- just before those pesky enumerators come around
asking silly questions.
6. I will make every attempt to reside in counties and towns where no
vital records are maintained or where the courthouse burns down every
few years.
7. I resolve to join an obscure religious cult that does not believe in
record keeping or in participating in military service.
8. When the tax collector comes to my door, I'll loan him my pen, which
has been dipped in rapidly fading blue ink.
9. I resolve that if my beloved wife Mary should die, I will marry
another Mary and again make no mention of her family name.
10. I resolve not to make a will. Who needs to spend money on a lawyer?
11. I resolve to leave lots of family photographs, but never to inscribe
the names or relationships of those in the pictures.
12. In the above manner, I will enshrine myself and my progeny to the
whims of all those descendants who wish me to be more like they believe
they are.