Friday, November 4, 2011

A very late GeniaMeme (with apologies to Geniaus)

I've been obsessively researching a gentleman using a false name and have quite neglected this blog.

The Ancestors' Geneameme

The list should be annotated in the following manner:
Things you have already done or found: bold face type
Things you would like to do or find: italicize (colour optional)
Things you haven’t done or found and don’t care to: plain type
You are encouraged to add extra comments in brackets after each item 

  1.  Can name my 16 great-great-grandparents (Unless one of my maternal gt grandmothers rises from the grave and tells us who fathered her children I'll never know)
  2.  Can name over 50 direct ancestors (56 wheee...)
  3.  Have photographs or portraits of my 8 great-grandparents
  4.  Have an ancestor who was married more than three times
  5.  Have an ancestor who was a bigamist
  6.  Met all four of my grandparents (Like Geniaus, this will have to wait for another life or another turn of the wheel. One grandfather died before his son was married)
  7.  Met one or more of my great-grandparents
  8.  Named a child after an ancestor
  9.  Bear an ancestor's given name/s
  10.  Have an ancestor from Great Britain or Ireland.
  11.  Have an ancestor from Asia
  12.  Have an ancestor from Continental Europe (presumably my 3x gt grandfather was French; anyway the name is French or Swiss)
  13.  Have an ancestor from Africa
  14.  Have an ancestor who was an agricultural labourer (Who hasn't?)
  15.  Have an ancestor who had large land holdings
  16.  Have an ancestor who was a holy man - minister, priest, rabbi (does lay preacher count? my grandfather was one)
  17.  Have an ancestor who was a midwife
  18.  Have an ancestor who was an author (we were still signing our names with an X in the early 20th century)
  19.  Have an ancestor with the surname Smith, Murphy or Jones
  20.  Have an ancestor with the surname Wong, Kim, Suzuki or Ng
  21.  Have an ancestor with a surname beginning with X
  22.  Have an ancestor with a forename beginnining with Z (Zacariah, Zachary, Zarah, Zillah, Zonaier)
  23.  Have an ancestor born on 25th December (not yet)
  24. Have an ancestor born on New Year's Day (not yet)
  25.  Have blue blood in your family lines
  26.  Have a parent who was born in a country different from my country of birth (my mother was born in England)
  27.  Have a grandparent who was born in a country different from my country of birth (my maternal grandparents were born in Norfolk)
  28.  Can trace a direct family line back to the eighteenth century
  29.  Can trace a direct family line back to the seventeenth century or earlier
  30.  Have seen copies of the signatures of some of my great-grandparents
  31.  Have ancestors who signed their marriage certificate with an X (Lots)
  32.  Have a grandparent or earlier ancestor who went to university
  33.  Have an ancestor who was convicted of a criminal offence (4 convicts in my father's line)
  34.  Have an ancestor who was a victim of crime
  35.  Have shared an ancestor's story online or in a magazine
  36.  Have published a family history online or in print
  37.  Have visited an ancestor's home from the 19th or earlier centuries (In Australia, England, Ireland,  Scotland)
  38.  Still have an ancestor's home from the 19th or earlier centuries in the family
  39.  Have a  family bible from the 19th Century (Paternal great-grandparents)
  40.  Have a pre-19th century family bible