RootsWeb: AUSSIE-GEN-RESEARCH-L [A.G.R. ] Re: [BRITNAMES] A Thought For You > "CLEANING MOTHER'S HOUSE" by Michael John Neill > ===================================================================== > > It has been nearly a year since fictional genealogist Barbara passed away. > Her daughter, Charlene reflects upon that year in a letter to her friend > Karen. Charlene truly has been busy. Barbara is probably rolling over in > her grave. > > * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * > > Karen, > > As usual, my cards are late. It has been a busy year. > > We spent much of the year settling up Mother's estate. The house sold > well, but cleaning it took longer than we expected. > > You are probably the only person who did not know Mother was a genealogy > buff. She told practically every human she encountered. I'm convinced > that > genealogy 'nut' was the most accurate phrase. The stuff was all over the > house. The inheritance would have been enough to pay for my new Mercedes > had she not insisted on spending money on that blasted hobby. I don't > know > why she couldn't be more like Tom's mother, Nadine spends her day doing > needlepoint and watching reruns of 50s television shows. Tom just does not > realize how lucky he is, but men never do. My mother had to run off to > cemeteries and courthouses! She even went to a conference in Davenport, > Iowa, last year! Can you imagine? Davenport, Iowa! After she got back, > she was so excited about all that she had learned and all the fun she had. > She was planning on going to another one in California this year. Well, > the grim reaper took care of that. > > Because of my promotion to head of knick knack sales at > Garbageforless.com, I had not been home for several years. I was appalled > to learn that Mother had converted my old bedroom into her family history > "headquarters." My shelves of Teen Beat and other magazines documenting > my adolescence had been replaced with old family photographs, copies of > old > documents, and something called family group sheets. She even got rid of > the pants I wore to my first junior high dance. I cried at the thought. > > I could not bear to go in the room and be reminded that my childhood had > been stripped from me and replaced with an obsession with the past. I > told > the children that if they would clean the room and prepare the items for > the garage (should I say "garbage"?) sale they could have the proceeds. I > learned what true entrepreneurs they are. > > Kenny stripped Mother's hard drive in under ten minutes. I kept hearing > him say "Gedcom is GedGone....GedCom is GedGone...." I have no idea what > it meant, but the computer fetched a good price. Before he unplugged the > computer, he erased all Mom's floppy disks and downloaded public domain > games. He sold these at a nominal price. > > Susan took the old photographs to a flea market and was able to sell many > of them. Some special labels had to be taken off and we had to take them > out of protective envelopes. Mother had written the names on the back of > many of them. At least none of those pictures of depressing old dead > people had our last name written on them. I don't want to be associated > with such sour people. > > Mother had some type of old plat book -- whatever that is. Kenny tore out > the pages individually and sold them separately on eBay. It was so > clever. > His dad said he got much more than if he had left the book in one piece. > > Susan didn't tear the bibles apart though. I thought that showed a > tremendously good sense. She's learning that not everything can be > marketed in the same way. The 1790 bible brought her a good penny, but > she > couldn't get the one from 1900 to bring more than fifty cents. She > donated > it to a local church, and here is where I am so proud of her. We can > write > it off as a charitable deduction. Someone had written what they had paid > for the bible on the back cover. Susan converted that to 2001 dollars and > will use that for our tax deduction amount. I've already enrolled Susan > in > tax lawyer summer camp this coming August. > > There was some old large certificate written on heavy paper. The silly > thing wasn't even in English, so why would Mother keep it? Kenny used the > other side to keep track of the things he had sold. Waste not, want not. > When we were finished we put the paper in the recycling bin. > > The kids put an old wedding dress from the 1870s in the washer to get the > stains out. It was terribly filthy. The worthless thing didn't even > survive the extra long cycle and the half-gallon of bleach. It's doubtful > we can even use it for cleaning rags. > > The dress was in some kind of old trunk. I'm not certain what it was for, > but it had a name stenciled on the front in huge letters along with the > name of a town. Susan give it a good coating of red paint and sold it as > a > toy box. > > The filing cabinets were emptied of their contents, as were the three > shelves of binders. Kenny got the bright idea to shred the paper and sell > it in bags as New Year's confetti. The file folders were too heavy to > shred. > > The baby did not react well to any of this. She cried and fussed almost > the entire time. Kenny thought she wanted tea, which made no sense to me > at all. As she cried, it sounded like she was saying "family tee." She > can't even talk yet and I think Kenny was hearing things. The baby does > not look exactly like my mother though, it's the oddest thing. The > fussing > didn't stop until she spit up an entire bottle of strained prunes on my > junior high jeans, which we did find in the basement. They were > ruined -- > it was the one real loss. Now my past has really been taken from me -- > magazines and all. > > Charlene > > * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * > > Whether you have a child like Charlene or not, have you thought about what > might happen to your genealogy collection upon your demise?