I don't do this very often, but it's just too good to pass up. So forgive ye olde listowner from varying from genealogy ... but, well, it really is. This was forwarded to me by one of our listers. Sandi (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,     and 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 (7) Thou shalt, after no more then 3 generations, make sure that all family  records are lost, misplaced, burned in a fire, or buried so that NO future  trace of them can  be found. (8) Thou shalt propagate misleading legends, rumors, vague innuendo  regarding your place origination.       (A) you may have come from : England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales....or   Iran.       (B) you may have American Indian ancestry 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.