The 13 Commandments of genealogy

[SRD]

Genealogy Commandments
1 Thou shalt name your male children: James, John, Joseph, Josiah, Abel, Richard, Thomas, Stephen or William.
2 Thou shalt name your female children: Elizabeth, Mary, Martha, Sarah or Phoebe.
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, Sukey or Lizzie, thereby making them difficult to trace.
5 Thou shalt not use any middle names on any legal documents or census reports and only where necessary, may you use [ONLY] initials on legal documents.
6 Thou shalt learn to sign all legal documents illegibly so that your surname can be spelled. or misspelled, in various ways: Keech, Keach, Keechee, Ketch, etc.
7 Thou shalt, after no more than three 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, rumours, vague innuendo regarding your place of origination: England, Scotland, Wales or Netherlands. Descended from one of the three brothers that came from...
9 Thou shalt leave no cemetery records or headstones with legible names.
10 Thou shalt leave no family bible with records of births, marriages or deaths.
11 Thou shalt ALWAYS flip thy name around. If born "James Albert" thou must make all the rest of your records in the names of Albert, AJ, JA, AL, Bert, Bart, or Alfred.
12 Thou shalt also flip thy parents names when making reference to them, although "UNKNOWN" or a blank is an acceptable alternative.
13 Thou shalt name at least five generations of males, and dozens of their cousins, with identical names in order to totally confuse researchers!!
Happy Hunting!
The 1837 online team

[Northern Lass]

Excellent!

[grangers14]

[mallosa]

Very good!!