A Rude Awakening

by Michael Lehman

My e-mail address is mflehman@erols.com
and I live in MD.

I was working in a county historical society. Because we had a good library and the county is one through which many passed on the way west, we had many genealogy researchers. The vast majority were earnest, decent folk looking for their ancestors.

One particular lady who came in one afternoon though had a special mission: she was going to get into the DAR and justify her (apparent) wealth and status. She treated the Society staff as if we were her servants and she had already gained admission to the DAR pantheon.

She knew the name of the ancestor in question, and there was the usual "old family story" that he had been involved in the Revolution in our town. Through an entire afternoon of getting down books for her (while running off to show visitors the exhibits) and explaining the basics of historical research as patiently as I could through her persistent rudeness, we searched through source after source.

Finally, as her rudeness brought me to the brink of telling her to do her own damned research like everyone else, we found the ancestor in question: hanged as a traitor to the Revolution in the public square for recruiting for the British.

She stormed out, and, of course, left no contribution. It made it all worthwhile.

Submitted:  Fri Jan 2 20:57:53 1998

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