Collection of Genealogical Articles Written by Society Members For Weekly Publication in the Sun Herald Newspapers, 2001

              Wednesday, August 29, 2001
The /m^ Sun
Punta Gorda Herald Page 13
The humor of genealogy — laughter in the past
While Mary Wilson is on vacation, Englewood's John Blocker shares more of his adventures in genealogy.
~ ' enealogy is not a funny •subject. Says who? While president of a local genealogical society in Illinois, my wife received a let¬ ter from a gentleman who begged her for help. He was a farmer, living and farming in rural southern Illinois, and he wrote her that he had tried sev¬ eral agencies and farm bureaus without receiving any help. Now, he said, he was turning to her as he had spotted her name as president of an agency while looking through information at his library. He just knew his entire farm was going to go up in flames because when he walked out into his fields he was certain that he could smell gas coming from the pipeline that crossed his jfields. Genealogy — geology. Why not? The corresponding secre¬ tary of the society I was presi¬ dent of 20 years ago handed me a letter she had received. She was laughing, blushing, and she told me, "You'll have to answer this, John, I can't deal with it," A gentieman in Japan, finding our society list¬ ed in a book in the library.
lary Wilson
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wrote to us asking for informa¬ tion on urinary tract infections. Urology?  Why   not?   I   was researching land records in the Recorder of Deeds Office in McHenry County, III., and the room was packed with parale¬ gals   and   other   individuals doing   exactly   what   I   was doing. A genealogy pair, moth¬ er and daughter, had several land record books open on the tops of desks and filing cabi¬ nets and the daughter insisted, "Mother, Grandpa is just not here, I can't find him, he is not in these books recording any deed." And her mother replied, "Oh, well, just skip him entire¬ ly. I never liked the man any¬ way." That's not the way to do genealogy, folks. Like him or not, find him or not, he counts.
I remember a very nice little lady, now,deceased, who had a last name that could, indeed, be turned into something resembling the word or name, "Robinhood." She had the Hood part anyway. No amount of logic could convince her that, in fact, Robinhood was a fictional character and no one is descended from him. She was. My mom was invited to a speech I gave in Chicago. She bought a new dress and
teased me a great deal about throwing eggs or tomatoes at me if the speech were long and boring. Midway through my long and boring speech, she opened her purse and out came two tomatoes. Of course, it broke me up.
My wife, often the one responsible for putting on con¬ ferences for several different societies, put one on years ago in Bloomington, III. She was harassed from beginning to end of the two-day conference by a very sweet little lady who was satisfied with nothing. And I mean nothing! She com¬ plained about everything — loudly. Her room was cold, the
food was terrible, the books were too expensive, the speak¬ ers v/ere boring, etc. My wife was, needless to say, in a blue funk by the time she could finally go home. As I left the conference I met the woman in the hallway and I said to her,
"Well, Mrs. —, I'm happy you had such a wonderful time." (That kept me in the doghouse for days.) I struggled with the very Dutch name of Eeningenburg. They are cousins. Hey, I'm an American. Let's see you say it. Finally, I actually met some¬ one with that last name, and he told me, "Don't fight it. Say, Mn again burg.'" It works. I spent several hours in a church in Alkmaar, the Netherlands. When I came out, there was a parking ticket on my car. The ticket was signed,
Willem Blokker. That's my great-grandpa. The police sta¬ tion was two blocks away and I went there outraged. I went to the front desk and I shouted at the top of my lungs, "Who and where is Willem Blokker? I didn't come any 4,000 miles to get a ticket from my great grandpa." They were astound¬ ed, but Willem Blokker came to the front desk. He did not believe my assertion and so we went  out  to  my  car and  I
retrieved my notebook and I showed him my family natnes. He tore up the ticket and we went and had a beer. Nice guy. He sure thought it was funny. I had a letter written to my grandpa in America, from a saloon owner in Amsterdam, a friend, in the late 1890s. My cousin Japik Blokker helped me find this saloon in Amsterdam and the current owner was a grandson of the letter writer. Grandson to grandson. We thought that was
great and we celebrated our new friendship and the old one. The evening ended at 3 a.m. Japik and 1 were taken back to my hotel by a barge¬ man on the canals. Japik had to stay with me as the hotel night manager would not let him leave. Happily there were twin beds in my room, and we found our way to them. When 1 looked at Japik and said, "Call your wife and tell her you will come home tomorrow," he looked me right in the eye and he said, "What wife?"
Genealogy can be a lot of fun. Try it.
John Blocker is a member of the Charlotte County Genealogical    Society.