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And they were SO good at following them!

(1) Thou shalt name your male children: James, John, Joseph, Josiah, Abel, Richard, Thomas, William.

(2) Thou shalt name your female children: Elizabeth, Mary, Martha, Maria, Sarah, Ida, Virginia, May.

(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 such as: Ike, Eli, Polly, Dolly, Sukey.---making them difficult to trace.

(5) Thou shalt NOT use any middle names on any legal documents or census reports, and only where 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: Hicks, Hix, Hixe, Hucks, Kicks or Robinson, Robertson, Robison, Roberson, Robuson, Robson, Dobson.

(7) Thou shalt, after no more then 3 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.

(8) Thou shalt propagate misleading legends, rumors, and vague innuendo regarding your place of origin:
(A) you may have come from : England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales.... or Iran.
(B) you may have Maori ancestry (replace with American Indian...)of the______tribe......
(C) You may have descended from one of three brothers that came over from______

(9) Thou shalt leave NO cemetery records, or headstones with legible names.

(10) Thou shalt leave NO family Bible with records of birth, marriages, or deaths.

(11) Thou shalt ALWAYS flip thy name around. If born James Albert, thou must make all the rest of thy records in the names of Albert, AJ, JA, AL, Bert, Bart, or Alfred.

(12) Thou must also flip thy parent's names when making reference to them, although "Unknown" or a blank line is an acceptable alternative.

(13) Thou shalt name at least 5 generations of males and dozens of their cousins with identical names in order to totally confuse researchers.

(14) If thou wife shall die before you, thou may only be wed again to a woman with the same given name.

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Mel

Searching for lost relatives? Win the Lottery!

Weren't they just

Brilliant---mine abided by the rules then.

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Gloria

I'd be dangerous with a brain.

I was re-reading some old posts when I came across this one & spotted a couple of omission:
(15) Thou shalt emigrate for such period as (if not permanent) shall include at least one UK census.
(16) Thou shalt leave thy wife behind and , notwithstanding this, shalt take to thyself another wife whilst living abroad.
(16) If thou failest to leave thy wife behind, and take her with you, thou shalt not return until she is dead and buried in some foreign land.

(And all these happen on my friend's tree).

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Maureen
If you can't fight, wear a big 'at

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Mel

Searching for lost relatives? Win the Lottery!

Ha ha

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Gloria

I'd be dangerous with a brain.

http://youtu.be/Xblh12XgQ4o

Naming Your Child | David Mitchell's Soapbox

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Mel

Searching for lost relatives? Win the Lottery!