You know you're a genealogist when...
... you are more interested in the credits at the end of a TV show than in the show itself
...you're reading a family saga-type book and you look for a pedigree chart at the front. And if there isn't one, you draw one as you go along.
...a dear friend announces they are going to have a romantic wedding on a tropical island, and before congratulating them you make sure they know about lodging a copy of their marriage certificate with the GRO.
...Who Do You Think You Are? is on TV so you have Ancestry, Findmypast, FamilySearch etc open on separate tabs on your laptop, to check the research while you watch.
...it's your birthday soon so you ask for a couple of death certificates, some ScotlandsPeople credits, acid-free storage boxes and a Flip-Pal scanner.
...you never knew you could use a spreadsheet for financial calculations, you thought it was for indexing parish register transcripts.
...you tell your workmates you'll be spending two weeks in Utah in the middle of winter, and are surprised when they ask if you are going ski-ing.
...the first thing you think of when someone says 1812 isn't Tchaikovsky's overture, or even a war in North America, but Rose's 'Act for the better regulating and preserving Parish and other Registers'.
...you can't read a road map, but you know the Phillimore Atlas and Index of Parish Registers like the back of your hand.
...you get chatting with a telesales person, and at the end of the conversation you've persuaded them they should start tracing their family tree, and they haven't sold you a thing.
How how true!
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely love it!!
ReplyDeleteFantastic!
ReplyDeleteAlso
...your idea of a great day out is a cemetery crawl
Better than Letterman!
ReplyDelete...when you read the BDMs in a town where your family lived with a notebook and pencil for the 'maybe' names, and a laptop with your family history program searching the sequence of family naming patterns .....
ReplyDelete... when you give a family tree as a christening gift, with group sheets to be filled out for those you don't already know ....
... when you take notes during the eulogy of a family member ...
... when you can't resist adding to a comments post...
... you know your hairdresser's maiden name and place of birth...
Definitely better than the Letterman show. We need to start an Audrey Collins show!
ReplyDeleteTHANKS for waking Ol' Myrt up this morning with your usual awesome sense of humor, Audrey. Love this list!
ReplyDeleteThat is so me :}
ReplyDeleteYes, yes, yes and yes! Hilarious.
ReplyDeleteIt was my birthday a couple of weeks ago, and yes, my husband bought me a FlipPal Scanner.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely, I asked for 2 birth certificates for my 15th birthday (way back in the days when you visited Somerset House to get certs!!). You also know you have trained your children well when your son meets you at the airport when you have been away on holiday and his first words are "Here's your death certificate" !!!
ReplyDeleteVery cute! I can certainly identify with converting a telesales person to a genealogist!!
ReplyDeleteI think I've done at least five of these, lol :-) the must recognizable was watching wdytya whole checking the research. In fact, after the first couple of scenes, I'll pause the show to see what I can come up with myself and then watch to see if it matches!
ReplyDeleteWhen you spent a week at Niagra Falls, visiting family and places you've always wanted to visit. You come home to show your kids (adults) your vacation photos, and you have only one of living people and the rest are tombstones (at the places you always wanted to visit.)
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