"The Laws Of
Genealogy"
author unknown
Yours is the ONLY last name not found among the three billion in the world famous Mormon archives in Salt Lake City.
The will you need is in the safe on board the "Titanic".
The 37 volume, 16,000 page history of your county of origin isn't indexed.
The critical link in your family tree is named "Smith".
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".
The spelling of your European ancestor's name bears no relationship to its current spelling or pronuciation.
The keeper of the vital records you need will just have been insulted by another genealogist.
You spend an eternity looking for your grandmother's maiden name, and when you find it, your mother tells you she already knew that but you never asked her........
You go through this huge roll of micro film census, and the only page that is illegible is the ONE you need! Or.... the census taker was lazy and wrote in only initials for everyone's first name? Or....he wrote this beautiful script and practiced his little curly-ques to the extent that you couldn't tell an S from a D?
You find your family is "prominent" in the area, ie: names in all the newspapers, court records, have lots of land and leave these long detailed wills that we genealogists love. Ahem....all of them except yours, that is; Your direct connection to the family didn't have anything! In fact wasn't heir to anything either! The family "black sheep" ? Or what?
The ancestors of all your genealogy
friends kept diaries, old 
's full of old letters, and this little wonder...
"THE FAMILY BIBLE". But......If your family even owned
a bible no one knows what happened to it.
And I love this one: You discover a large published volume written ....oh, say 1880.... on your family and all their 40,000 descendants, but your line ends ten generations back from you.....Reason for this is simple.....your ancestor packed up his wagon, left the area, and took his line with him!
The document you need to prove your missing link dates April and the courthouse burned in May?
Your gggrandfather died in the winter of 49, just missing the 1850 census by 4 months?
Your ggrandfather died in a large
city with three 
spapers
and didn't even make the obits?
The information you desperately need could be found only on the 1890 census?
The marriage record you need to prove your link is early South Carolina.
Your immigrant ancestor was a stow-a-way.
The box of old photos you fell heir too are a bunch of strange faces, with no names!
Credits: The Laws of Genealogy: from the "The Sunny Side Of Genealogy", by Fonda Baselt
Now that i have a 
for my genealogical records, i find that
my records are just as confused
as before, however, now my confusion is better organized....Jack
W. Briscoe
