From
the opening slides with really funny (and strange) names in vital
records, to gravestone epitaphs, then several funny obituaries and
wills, census records (names and occupations), and finally American
and English place names, the audience could hardly believe what they
were seeing and hearing. Randy showed some cartoon genealogy
funnies, then T-shirt designs (and taking his shirt off to catcalls,
revealing his “Genealogy is Like Sex” shirt), and introduced Chris Dunham's genealogy satire site, The Genealogue
(www.genealogue.com). After
several Top 10 lists, genealogisms and tag lines, he covered possible
genealogy TV show themes, rejected conference topics, and a Genea-Man
comic book.
Finally,
Randy played the song “I Am My Own Grandpa” and demonstrated the
relationships on a pedigree chart, ending in a sing-along for the
ending chorus. He finished with reasons why he thinks genealogy
is fun – citing on-site research, conferences, geneablogger
meetups, genealogy cruises, teaching and working in local societies as fun
experiences.
Before
the presentation, Randy passed out Genealogy Bingo cards to the
participants, and during the talk the attendees crossed off words in
the categories of Names, Places, Relationships, Terms and Random
words as they were said, or read on the screen. Attendees were
encouraged to shout “Bingo” when they completed their first line,
but nobody completely filled their card (it was close, Shirley Becker
fell one square short – the place was “Salt Lake City.”) Who
knew that genealogy could be so much fun?
Randy
also had a handout with genealogy humor sites (including poems, tag
lines, stories, videos) and a list of recommended free and commercial
online genealogy sites to help attendees with their research.
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