The Commandments of Genealogy

[Forfarian]

Ready for another airing?
1. Thou shalt name thy male children Alexander, James, John, and William.
2. Thou shalt name thy female children Ann(e), Elizabeth, Iso/abel(la), Jane/Jean, Margaret and Mary.
3. Thou shalt leave no trace of your female children.
4. Thou shalt ensure that thy wife's name is omitted from thy children's baptism records.
5. Thou shalt, after naming your children from the above lists, call them by strange nicknames such as Dod, Bunty, Mek and Cissie.
6. Thou shalt not use any middle names on any legal documents or census reports.
7. Thou shalt learn to sign all documents illegibly so that thy surname can be spelled, or misspelled, in as many different ways as possible.
8. Thou shalt, after no more than three generations, make sure that all family records are lost, misplaced, burned in a court house fire, or buried so that NO future trace of them can be found.
9. Thou shalt propagate misleading legends, rumours, vague innuendo regarding your place of origination: England, Scotland, Wales or Ireland.
10. Thou shalt leave no cemetery records or headstones with legible names.
11. Thou shalt leave no family Bible with records of births, marriages or deaths.
12. Thou shalt ALWAYS flip thy name around. If born "James Albert" thou shalt make all the rest of thy records in the names of Albert, AJ, JA, AL, Bert, Bart, or Alfred.
13. Thou shalt also flip thy parents' names when making reference to them, although 'UNKNOWN" or a blank is an acceptable alternative.
14. Thou shalt name at least five Generations of males, and dozens of their cousins, with identical names.
15. Thou shalt not leave a will but if thou canst not avoid doing so ....
16. Thou shalt not name thy children in thy will, or say how many have survived.

[Maiden Stone]

17. Thou shalt marry 2 wives with the same first name or the same surname.
18. Thou shalt invent a father for thyself or thy children.

[andrewalston]

19. Thou shalt use random numbers for thy age. Occasional use of a number in the correct decade is allowed.

[suey]

20. Thou shalt claim to have been born in a different parish/county/country in each and every census.

Vis a vis no.14, thou shouldst have at least three children born in the same or consecutive years all with same name.

[PrawnCocktail]

21. Thou shalt, if not using the recommended Christian names, use such an outlandish one that said child will choose, and be known by, something else.
22. Thou shalt arrange for one child to move a long way away, and change their surname to one of Smith, Brown, Jones or Davis

[GR2]

23. Thou shalt open the family album and burn all the photographs of people you do not recognise.

24. Thou shalt not write identifying names on the backs of those photographs which escape the conflagration.

[coombs]

25. Thou shalt say "not born in county" in the 1841 census but die before the 1851 census which required more info, so as to annoy our busybody descendants, and give them a huge challenge.

[River Tyne Lass]

26Thou shalt have ancestors called McKetterick/McKettrick/McKittrick/Mckiterick/Mackittrick .. which will make searching no straight forward task.

27Thou shalt have ancestors with common names like Ann Young, making searches like looking for a needle in a hay stack at times.

28Thou shalt have an ancestor who gets married under a nickname and in a completely different area away from other family members.

29Thou shalt have ancestors who marry at a Church where no Fathers names are recorded on the register, illegitimate or not. (All Saints, Lanchester 1838)

30Thou shalt have illegitimate ancestors with no trace  of Father - no bastardy orders, no entry on baptism, no baptism.

31Thou shalt have ancestors who don't know/lie about their age.

32Thou shalt have ancestors whose birth is not registered

33Thou shalt have ancestors with accents which will lead to misinterpretation on the census

[mckha489]

23. Thou shalt open the family album and burn all the photographs of people you do not recognise.

24. Thou shalt not write identifying names on the backs of those photographs which escape the conflagration.

23a.  Before setting the fire, write to a relative though knowest is interested in the family history and say thou hast said album and other things that might be interesting.  But in the few days it takes said relative to get there,  “help” said relative by having a preliminary sort though and  burning anything thou either does not recognise or thinks is rubbish.