Do we see any of these people in ourselves? I do....read on......
"Meticulous Mel" loves to research and will go anytime anywhere to find
anything. He's so meticulous that
it's intimidating to correspond with him. He never lets a typo get past
him, never writes in the margins.
He promptly answers letters the same day he gets them and gently reminds
you that you asked the same
question he answered for you six months earlier. His findings are
superbly filed in plastic page
protectors within color coordinated notebooks, with supporting documents
in numbered folders in neat
file cabinets. His conclusions are yet to be published, but he has
included in his will that he leaves his
marvelous collection to local historical society.
"Listen To Me Lollie" enthralls librarians and drop in patrons with
genealogical wonder tales. Yet, she
answers her genealogical correspondence six months later than you
expected, telling you all of the family
troubles on three long-hand pages, but she hasn't gotten around to doing
any genealogical research but
hopes you will send her all that you have done. If you do, don't hold
your breath for a reply.
"Defensive Dan" published a genealogy of the family. He assigned some
ancestors a wee bit loosely with
little or no verifiable proof. If you ask him what his evidence was, he
can't tell you, so he just keeps
repeating the unproven assertion, hoping you'll tire from asking.
"Scattershot Sal" asks so many questions that it would be a 2 day job to
answer them all ... and expects
$33 of info for 33 cent stamp. She reads queries from sixty people with
the surname she's looking for
and sends every one of them a photocopied letter asking them to fill in a
family group sheet. She totally
ignores the fact that she's looking for Smiths in Kentucky in 1870 and
your query was for Smith in
Massachusetts in 1750.
"Promising Paul" answers your every letter with a promise to photocopy
those missing pages which will, you
think, complete your ancestry in one line back to the 1600's. He writes
each time: "I know I"ve got it, if
I can just find time to send it to you. I'll be doing it soon for sure."
But, of course, he never does.
"Gap-jumper Gert" loves to make charts climb. She has her ancestors on
one line back to a man in Virginia
in 1850. She can't identify his father, but she's sure he's a
great-grandson of the family of the same
name she's read about in a published genealogy, so she promptly claims
those people as ancestors and
wants to correspond about them. The gap between her generations means
little to her, and the longer it
exists, the more likely she is to forget about it entirely.
"Brusque Brutus", the Know It All, has all the answers and will not
listen to any suggestions of items to
check. Brusque Brutus has been a genealogist for 30 years and has no
patience whatsover. If he gets a
letter without a self-addressed stamped envelope (even from a beginner
who obviously didn't realize he
was being discourteous by failing to include one), it goes right into the
wastebasket. If someone dares to
question any of Brutus' findings, the inquiry will be summarily
dismissed, because Brutus is sure he's
right and won't consider any other possibility.
"Naive Nancy" is a newcomer to genealogy. She's heard that her ancestors
were kidnapped by Indians but
later rescued and that she is related to a former President of the United
States. She's also heard that a
maiden aunt "finished all of our family's history on all lines all the
way back," and she wants your help in
locating the book "that tells it all." Will believe the first thing heard
or seen in print and never believe
anything else.
"Publication Prudence" instructs all correspondents to send her
completely filled out group sheets for her
upcoming publication which will be "upcoming" for 20 years. By that time,
everyone, including Prudence,
will have long forgotten it. If only Prudence could get together with her
cousin Rushing Rusty.
"Rushing Rusty" is in and out of the courthouse in 5 minutes. Rushing
Rusty announces he's going to publish
a family genealogy in six months and sets a specific day as a deadline.
Amazingly, he does it. Laggards
complain that their lines are left out, but at least Rusty has made a
contribution to genealogical
literature, which too few of us ever get around to doing.
The Balanced Researcher will take the time necessary to do the job right;
will know the rules of the
places where they are researching and will abide by them. They will seek
to help a library and make
their visit remembered with joy. They will record their findings and
publish quality works from time to
time.
Which one of these correspondents is most like you? . . . I'm sure, to
one degree or another, most of
us have some of their failings. We hope we have some of their good points
too. The fact that we're all
different is part of what makes corresponding about our ancestors so much
fun.
Adapted from "Familiar Genealogy Pen Pals," J. Wright, The Genealogical
Helper, Nov-Dec 1986.
Michael O. Reck - 2434 Forest Home Ave - Riverside, Oh. -45404-2410
E-mail: moreck(a)juno.com - moreck(a)netzero.net
Researching:
BAIR-BIRT-BOYD-BRANDON-CURTIS-DAVIDSON-FLETCHER-FRANTZ-HENNING-KOHR-LESHE
R-MILLER-MUNCY-PEARSON-RECK-REIGLE-SHOOK-STOEVER-URMEY-ZELLER