Saturday, May 14, 2005

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder?

So, what is it with genealogy, anyway?

Sure, some people just dabble in it. They start with Grandpa and work back; they may sit down and do a Google search on a rainy day; and eventually, when they hit a dead end, they give up and watch "The Apprentice."

And then there are the rest of us. The ones who live, breathe, and dream it. The ones who wake up at 3 a.m. wondering, "Did I ever check 19th century Kentucky land records for him?" The ones who see a request for volunteers & say, "I can fit in one more project!" (at least, until the dust bunnies start mutating).
Like Glenda, who types up old Rochester, New York newspaper articles at an amazing rate, & sends them to the Monroe County list so the rest of us can find our ancestors (or just read fun stories about life in the "old days").
Like the Smiths, who took Microsoft Access as a base and developed an entire software program just for the small subset of genealogists who do one-name studies.
Like Julia, maintaining a whole inter-related series of webpages for the Cornwall OPC project, while still looking for volunteers for the 'orphan' parishes.

You laugh?

My current projects:
The general family history, of course. Working backward and sideways in all directions. Currently featuring 3,751 persons in the database, with more contributions from distant cousins sitting here awaiting input. Not to mention the two books of Ohio records that should be arriving in a couple of weeks (have to find ggg/grandma Fannie Strickland's maiden name, you know -- how else will I trace her family back?).

The One-Name-Study for Samble and variants (Sambel, Sambell). Why? The earliest-known ancestor (in an English-speaking country so I can actually do the research) is a Samble. Not that common a name, so quite possibly all related.
And the earliest Samble record (currently) is found in the little parish of Landulph, in Cornwall, which brings us to --

The Landulph OPC project. Cornwall genealogists started the Online Parish Clerk project in the 1990's, with the goal of every parish having an OPC to collect and transcribe parish records. (The project is now catching on in some other areas of England). So, I have here a set of scans of Landulph's parish records, going back to 1540. Of course, I wimped out and started with the most recent and most legible, but eventually, it's Latin, here I come!

Transcribing the 1870 Wilson County (TX) census for Rootsweb. Why? Just for grins, I guess; I've got no ancestors here.
Actually, there is a reason. I have found so much info on my ancestors that would not have been available to me if someone hadn't transcribed it and put it on the internet -- it just seemed like I should do something for the home county. And I should be done in a couple of months, so I can strike this one off the list (of course, I already have my eye on another project to replace it . . .).

And speaking of Rootsweb, I belong to the legion of volunteers who administer the mailing lists and message boards; our main duties being to keep the spammers and other idiots away. If you have small, quiet lists & boards, like I do, it takes very little time.

Last but not least, currently on hold but not forgotten, The Lamberts of Southern Illinois. Which I am very much afraid will someday branch out into The Lamberts of Tennessee. Because I AM going to find more of Hezekiah's family someday. Whether they like it or not!!

OCD?
You decide. I don't have time. There's some faded 16th-century handwriting to be deciphered . . .