THE 13 COMMANDMENTS OF THE GOODENOUGH FAMILY
 

1.  Thou shalt name thy male children: James, John, Edmund, Robert, Arthur or William
2.  Thou shalt name thy female children: Elizabeth, Mary or Louisa
3.  Thou shalt leave no trace of thy female children
4.  Thou shalt, after naming thy children from the above lists, never refer to them by those names again; instead thou shalt call them by strange nicknames such as: Sunny, Minnie, Bobsie
5.  Thou shalt not use any middle names on ANY legal documents or census reports; and wherever possible, use only initials on legal documents
6.  Thou shalt learn to sign all documents illegibly so that thy surname can be spelt or misspelt in various ways: Goodenuff, Godenogh, Goodenaugh
7.  Thou shalt, after no more than 3 generations, make certain that all family records are lost, misplaced, burnt, lost at sea or buried so that no trace of them shall be found
8.  Thou shalt propagate misleading legends, rumours or vague innuendo regarding the place of family origin:-
a.  Thou may have cometh from England, Ireland or....Iran
b.  Although thy ancestors originated from Oxfordshire, thou shalt somehow  have American Indian Ancestry from the Chippewa tribe
c.  Thou has descended from one of 3 brothers who came over from Prague
9.  Thou shalt leave no cemetery records, headstones or headstones with legible names; nor will any of the dates thereon match those in public records
10. Thou shall leave no family bible with records of birth, marriage or death
11. Thou shalt always move they names around. If born James Arthur, thou must make the rest of thy records in the name of Arthur, AJ, JA, AL, Artie, Art or even if needs be....Fred
12. Thou must also change thy parents name around when making reference to them, although 'unknown' is an acceptable alternative
13. Thou shalt name all generations of children with identical first names, as will all of thy brothers, so that all cousins are named the same. This is to ensure that the family names remain in the family for generations to come, but also to confuse Taxation departments and other government organisations

TOP 10 FAMILY TREE QUOTES

1.    My family coat of arms ties at the back...is that a problem?

2.    Shake your family tree and watch the nuts fall out.

3.    How can one ancestor cause so much TROUBLE??

4.    I should have asked them BEFORE they died!

5.    Only a genealogist regards a step backwards as progress.

6.    Many a family tree needs pruning.

7.    A family tree is like an orchard, some lemons, a few nuts and one or two bad apples.

8.    That's strange, half my ancestors are women!

9.    That's the problem with the gene pool: no lifeguards.

10a.   "So...Luke has a sister!" - Darth Vader

10b.  "Luke...I am your father." - Darth Vader