Friday, April 27, 2007

Early signs of Geneaholism

I found this list of early signs of Geneaholism at http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Hills/1416/geneaholic.htm. The full article is reprinted from The Missing Link newsletter, Volume 7, Number 7, 17 February 2002.

"Answer these questions to see if you are in the early stages of addiction.

* Home: Has genealogical paperwork taken over any room in your house?

* Friends: Is genealogy interfering with your social life? Do people edge away from you at parties when you burst into tears over the 1890 U. S. census?

* Family: Do your relatives' eyes glaze over when you explain your latest research? Do you find dead people more fun than live ones?

* Work: Is genealogy interfering with your job? How many hours of each workday do you spend on the Internet, or checking your RootsWeb e-mails?

* Marriage: Has your spouse ever asked you, "Aren't you done yet? How far back are you planning to go?"

* Health: Are you starting to show the physical and mental signs of geneaholic deterioration, such as red-rimmed eyes, a loss of interest in current events, a shortened attention span for non-ancestral topics, excessive viewing of the History Channel?"

That's a pretty good list. The "cure" prescribed for this is scary though -

"If you answered yes to even one of these questions, you are on the road to genealogical addiction. You must not research even one more ancestor! You must stop NOW, before it's too late! When you feel an overwhelming urge to research, repeat the following until the urge goes away: "My mother found me in a cabbage patch. My mother found me in a cabbage patch. My mother found me in a cabbage patch." Good luck and God help you."

Not me. Yet. I'm still having too much fun.

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