Yes, this is a repeat from an earlier year. “Twenty years” if you look at the date on the picture; “thirty-plus years” if we go back to the beginning of my Frantz-family research. Just like I enjoy revisiting my T@B Teardrop Trailer Travels, I enjoy revisiting some of my earlier blog messages.

“Humor me”?!

• Genealogists are always in a family way!
• Genealogists are family tree huggers!
• Genealogists are forebear hunters!
• Genealogy is not done until the “past lady” sings!
• Genealogy is simply TREEific!
• Genealogy disease: Gensomnia.
• How a genealogist greets a stranger: “Are you sure we aren’t related?”
• How a genealogist greets another genealogist. “Would you like to join my famclub?”
• How a genealogist introduces his children: “I’d like you to meet my descendants!”
• How a genealogist introduces his parents: “Have you met my ancestors?”
• I’m ancestrally challenged!
• If you want to have some fun, say “Who’s your daddy?” to a room full of genealogists and watch the heads turn.
• It’s hard to be humble with ancestors like mine!
• Money doesn’t grow on trees—but ancestors do!
• Murphy’s law of genealogy: After solving a dead end ancestor mystery that consumed your entire adult life, your sister reports, “I could have told you that!”
• Murphy’s law of genealogy: Paying for a vital record and then finding it right under your nose!
• Old genealogists never die. They just haunt archives.
• Organization to help with genealogy addiction: AA (Ancestors Anonymous).
• Popular sign in a cemetery: “Dead End.”
• The best ancestors want to be found!
• The “mother lode” of genealogy is discovering a great grandmother’s maiden name.
• Time and genealogy wait for no man!
• To a genealogist, the expression “Mother Nature” takes on a whole new meaning!
• Transcribers of headstones generally work the graveyard shift!
• True genealogists wonder why the Academy Awards don’t have a category for best microfilm!
• Ultimate success to a genealogist: Proving that Elvis isn’t dead!
• What a genealogist should not say on a blind date: “Isn’t it great? I did your tree and we’re related!”
• You know you’re a genealogist if you find the certainty of ancestral death and tax records exciting. (Paraphrased from Ben Franklin’s “Certainty? In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.”)
• If you think Castle Garden is something out of a fairy tale, you’re probably not a genealogist!
• More  Here is an old epitaph bromide: On an old tombstone was the following quote,
  “Pause stranger, when you pass me by, As you are now so once was I. As I am now, so you will be. So prepare for death and follow me.”  Below that epitaph, someone scratched the following, “To follow you I’m not content, Until I know which way you went.”2) Headstone epitaph: “This is the damndest thing I’ve ever done.”3) “You know you’re a genealogist when you watch a movie that has a scene in a graveyard, and you’re distracted from the plot by trying to transcribe the tombstones.”

Above copied from a website and (shame on me) I failed to record the address.

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As stated earlier (several months ago), I am “paying it forward.”  I’m intentionally expanding documentation (on Ancestry) for “cousins” who shared information decades ago. Those “cousins” are frolicking around Heaven with their ancestors while I lovingly labor here on Earth.

Rosemary has a special place in my heart. About 1987, she provided the connection to my immigrant ancestor Michael Frantz. I had my information back to a great-great-grandfather but it didn’t match documentation of descendants of Michael Frantz. Within days of initial correspondence, a reply saying my documentation was “subsequent marriage.” ~~ Rosemary is an “eighth cousin” because (like a pyramid) we go “way back” to immigrant ancestors who were brothers. In August 2000, Rosemary gave me every scrap of paper, every piece of research, trusting that I would merge it with my data. In 2017, I scanned all her paperwork and published it to the Internet. It can be found on Digitized Library of Family History.

Here’s a blog message from 2017: Inquiring minds want to know.

Below is the comment I found while examinating Rosemary’s material for dates, and individuals, in her extended family.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Compiler comment: In January of 1987, Rosemary provided the
“missing link.” She immediately recognized that the difficulty
I experienced was a “subsequent marriage.” (Specifically the
two marriages of David Frantz [1817-1905], son of Michael
[1791-18601.) This dear lady has provided manilla envelopes
full of information. Every Frantz-family researcher that 1
contact has had correspondence with Rosemary. A BIG BOUQUET to
my ‘seventh cousin one time removed”!!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

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