Saturday, March 19, 2011

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Genealogisms!

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Contribute to the Genealogisms Dictionary

It's Saturday Night - time for more Genealogy Fun!!!
Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings is at it again...

Your mission, should you decide to accept it (and, really folks, turnout has been pretty light these last two weeks) - is to:
1)  Recall that some genealogists love to make up new words to define what we do or where we are... we want to make a"Genealogisms Dictionary" so that we all understand what we're writing about.
2)  Make up one or more words that deal with some aspect of genealogy - they could start with genea- or ancest- or end with -ology (we don't care), and then define the word for us.  
3)  Submit your genealogisms(s) as a Comment to this blog post, or write a blog post of your own, or in a Facebook status or comment (please let me know if you do this in a comment here).
This is an assignment in fun that would seem tailor made for me!  However, I must admit, I've never indulged myself in this manner in anything related to genealogy.  That said, I'll have a go and see what I can come up with.  You can let me know what you think in the comments below, or add your own.
  • Genea-phantom - those people in your tree who you know existed, family history has always treated as a given, but when you go looking, you cannot find a shred of evidence they ever existed.  Also known as Census-dodgers.
  • Ancestanchor - that one person in your tree that EVERYTHING seems to point back to, or revolve around, or in some other way involve.
  • Divinecestor - an ancestor that appears to have been created out of thin air, no parents or other family involved or existing
  • Halfcestor - an ancestor who is a half-sibling to one of your direct ancestors, for which plenty of documentation exists, when you can find nothing on your direct ancestor. Even better if the half-sibling is female!  Related: Stepcestor, for when the sibling is adopted.
  • Geneapiphany - That moment when you realize that despite a total lack of results for years or decades, you've just stumbled across convincing evidence in your files for one of your brick walls that you've had forever.  Usually accompanied by facepalming.
I think that's enough.  If I try for any more, it's just going to get silly.  Contribute your own!

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