To hear my grandfather tell it, Aunt Mary was so mad at my father that if she would have caught him she would have maimed him for life. Grandpa had hundreds of family stories like that and he told them with a great flourish. One of the tragedies of my life was that I was too young to understand the value of family lore. When my grandfather died, his stories went with him. Today I can remember only bits and pieces.
Genealogists preach the gospel of begets, of noting the birth and death dates of each family member.
Vital information like marriage dates, number of children, their birth dates, and so forth, should also be duly recorded. But these are only the hard, cold facts. A family can be compared to the human body. The genealogical information is like a person s skeleton, vital organs and skin. Without these, a person dies.