NEWS FLASH 1852 NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS SOLVE 
GENEALOGICAL MYSTERIES.

It is New Year's Eve 1852 and Henry HYDENWELL sits 
at his desk by candlelight. He dips his quill pen 
in ink and begins to write his New Year's 
resolutions.

1. No man is truly well-educated unless he learns 
to spell his family name at least three different 
ways within the same document. I resolve to give 
the appearance of being extremely well-educated in 
the coming year.

2. I resolve to see to it that all of my children 
will have the same proper names that my ancestors 
have used for at least six generations in a row.

3. My age is no one's business but my own. I 
hereby resolve to never list the same age or birth 
year twice on any document.

4. I resolve to have each of my children baptized 
in a different church -- either in a different 
faith or in a different parish. Every third child 
will not be baptized at all or will be baptized by 
an itinerant minister who keeps no records.

5. I resolve to move to a new town, new county, or 
new state at least once every 10 years -- just 
before those pesky enumerators come around asking 
silly questions.

6. I will make every attempt to reside in counties 
and towns where no vital records are maintained or 
where the courthouse burns down every few years.

7. I resolve to join an obscure religious cult 
that does not believe in record keeping or in 
participating in military service.

8. When the tax collector comes to my door, I'll 
loan him my pen, which has been dipped in rapidly 
fading blue ink.

9. I resolve that if my beloved wife Mary should 
die, I will marry another Mary and again make no 
mention of her family name.

10. I resolve not to make a will. Who needs to 
spend money on a lawyer?

11. I resolve to leave lots of family photographs, 
but never to inscribe the names or relationships 
of those in the pictures.

12. In the above manner, I will enshrine myself 
and my progeny to the whims of all those 
descendants who wish me to be more like they 
believe they are.

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