John Johnson served a mission to Canada, England, and Scotland from 1878-80. To hear a letter written by Elizabeth to John while he was serving check out the podcast on this blog.
Murphy's Laws of Family History The keeper of the vital records you need will just have been insulted by another genealogist. Your great-grandfather's obituary states that he died, leaving no issue of record. The town clerk you wrote to in desperation, and finally convinced to give you the information you need, can't write legibly, and doesn't have a copying machine. That ancient photograph of four relatives, one of whom is your progenitor,carries the names of the other three. Copies of old newspapers have holes which occur only on maiden names. No one in your family tree ever did anything noteworthy, always rented property, was never sued, and was never named in wills. You learned that Great aunt Matilda's executor just sold her life's collection of family genealogical materials to a flea market dealer"somewhere in New York City." Yours is the ONLY last name not found among the three billion in the world famous Mormon archives in Salt Lake City. Ink fades and paper deteriorates at a rate inversely proportional to the value of the data recorded. The critical link in your family tree is named "Smith."
YOU KNOW YOU'RE AN ADDICTED GENEALOGIST
...when you brake for libraries. ...if you get locked in a library overnight and you never even notice. ...when you hyperventilate at the sight of an old cemetery. ...if you'd rather browse in a cemetery than a shopping mall. ...when you think every home should have a microfilm reader. ...if you'd rather read census schedules than a good book. ...when you know every town clerk in your state by name. ...if town clerks lock the doors when they see you coming. ...when you're more interested in what happened in 1697 than 1997. ...if you store your clothes under the bed and your closet is carefully stacked with notebooks and journals. ...if you can pinpoint Harrietsham, Hawkhurst, and Kent on a map of England, but can't locate Topeka, Kansas. ...when all your correspondence begins, "Dear Cousin," ...if you've traced every one of your ancestral lines back to Adam and Eve, have it all fully documented, and still don't want to quit.
Try Genealogy - You can't get fired and you can't quit.
Genealogy - where you confuse the dead and irritate the living.
Whoever said "Seek and ye shall find" was not a genealogist
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