What are some common problems in researching genealogy?
• The public ceremony in which your distinguished ancestor participated and at which the platform collapsed under him turned out to be a hanging. • When at last after much hard work you have solved the mystery that you have been working on for two years, your aunt says, “I could have told you that.” • You search ten years for your grandmother’s maiden name to eventually find it on a letter in a box in the attic. • You never asked your father about his family when he was alive because you weren’t interested in genealogy then. • The will you need is in the safe on board the Titanic. • Copies of old newspapers have holes occurring only on the surnames. • John, son of Thomas the immigrant whom your relatives claim as the family progenitor, died on board ship at the age of 10. • Your great grandfather’s newspaper obituary states that he died leaving no issue of record. • Another genealogist has just insulted the keeper of the vital records you need. • The relative who had all the family pho
