The following was forwarded to my Family site, so I'm passing it on for the good humor of it: 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, Sukey, --making them difficult to trace. 5. Thou shalt NOT use any middle names on any legal documents or census reports, and, only when 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 Robertson, Robinson, Roberson, Robuson, Robson, Dobson. 7. Thou shalt, after no more than 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 innuendo regarding your place of 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 who came over from ____. 9. Thou shalt leave NO cemetery records, or headstones with legible names. 10. Thou shalt leave NO family Bibles with records of birth, marriages or deaths. 11. Thou shalt ALWAYS flip thy name around. If born John Albert, thou must make all the rest of the records in the name of Albert, AJ, JA, AL, Bert, Bart or Alfred. 12. Thou must also flip thy parents names when making references 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. Cheers, Gary in Berkeley

Thank-you, Gary. This sounds so much like my research! Debbie Jobes Eighty-Four, PA Researching the following names in Hunterdon County-Jobs, Yawger, Kuhl, Hommer, Staad, -----Original Message----- From: Gary Smith [mailto:garymarian@comcast.net] Sent: Friday, February 25, 2005 6:37 PM To: NJHUNTER-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [NJHUNTER] The Thirteen Commandments of Family History The following was forwarded to my Family site, so I'm passing it on for the good humor of it: 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, Sukey, --making them difficult to trace. 5. Thou shalt NOT use any middle names on any legal documents or census reports, and, only when 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 Robertson, Robinson, Roberson, Robuson, Robson, Dobson. 7. Thou shalt, after no more than 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 innuendo regarding your place of 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 who came over from ____. 9. Thou shalt leave NO cemetery records, or headstones with legible names. 10. Thou shalt leave NO family Bibles with records of birth, marriages or deaths. 11. Thou shalt ALWAYS flip thy name around. If born John Albert, thou must make all the rest of the records in the name of Albert, AJ, JA, AL, Bert, Bart or Alfred. 12. Thou must also flip thy parents names when making references 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. Cheers, Gary in Berkeley ==== NJHUNTER Mailing List ==== This mail list is archived at: http://newsarch.rootsweb.com/th/index/NJHUNTER ============================== Jumpstart your genealogy with OneWorldTree. Search not only for ancestors, but entire generations. Learn more: http://www.ancestry.com/s13972/rd.ashx