Genealogy Essays

Most of these are not hints or methods of work. "Shortcuts" is a warning and "Estimating dates" has suggestions. The rest are musings on the general subject of genealogy. They are all short - less than a thousand words. I put them in chronological order, for want of a better scheme. Plato said man was the creature that sought order. My wife said I sought it more than most men, after she saw me hanging my shirts in the closet in order of color and material.

Eben J. Cady (22 February 2000)
Genealogy is history. A tombstone moved me to speculate on a 17-year old soldier who died at Fredricksburg.

Hardboiled (21 July 2000)
A minor success written up as a parody of hard-boiled detective stories.

Family (26 May 2001)
Multiple marriages and step children, which leads to reflections on the meaning of Family.

The Grand Chase (31 March 2002)
A lady asked if all my individuals were connected. They are, more or less.

Shortcuts (9 June 2002)
You can collect a lot of ancestors, if little things like accuracy and reasonability don't slow you down.

Count Your Blessings (26 May 2002)
On-line genealogy in 1988 and now.

Estimating Dates (23 June 2002)
A lady on GenForum asked if "circa" was better than "about" when estimating dates. I said neither and suggested a range and a note.

Suspicion Meters (7 July 2004)
Your genealogy program doesn't have a suspicion meter, but you do.

Who's Your Daddy? (8 September 2004)
A reflection on the debate between genealogy versus family history.

The Joys of Inveterate Button Pushing (1 December 2004)
Push some unfamiliar buttons in your genealogy program or in your favorite web site. You may find a helpful feature.