Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-02-17
GENEAL OGICAL BUG
How It Fastens Upon the An
ceStor Hunters.
TRACING FAMILY TREES
Becomes Most Absorbing Occupation
for Some Folks.
DEVELOPS INTO SN0BBERY
Types of Men and Women Infected
DEVELOPS INTO sNoBBERY
Types of Men and Women Infected
With the "Bugensis Genealogicus"
Even School Children Catch 1t.


The bugensis geneaIogieus Is gaining a
| stronger and stronger clutch in Washington
| all the time" observed a man who has
| something to do with a library In Wash
| ington 4 meet UP with about a dozen vic
| tims-but they would fercely resent being
called victims-of the genealogical bug every
day. Take il from me. they would be the
| sad, the pathetic ones. If they were not so
funny l refer to the lineage tracers
That's how 1 come In contact with them
| through their lineage tracing or chasing IN
books IT'S a credulous world. I know a
woman who has her ancestry charted out
| as far back as Agamemnon., Now she's try
ing to get # beyond and back of old Troy
Perhaps she'll be content when she traces
her ancestry back to the eocene period. l
know d squash-nosed man who has rugged
| his ancestral line in straight path back
to the Crusades. He will find, presently,
that he is lineai descendant of one of the
Meroving ian kings. i suppose, and then he
will want to bark him back to Phoenecla
| for q still more ancient parent stock. More
| over. he will he able To do II.
Given a credulous mind and an absorbent
| temperament and any old so-called genoa
| logical work and in time you can come to
| believe anything. The genealogical bug frst
| attacks those nerve cells of the brain whefe-
| in repose Judgment and the power of analy-
! sis and the sense of humor-most parucu-
| larry the sense of humor. Then the bug
| rapidly muliplies and permeates the whole
| physical and mental system OF It's N.ctlin.
! The victim becomes obsessed with an lnNui-
nerabie ineXpungable and ineradfcable be-
lief in his or her marvellous ancestry. Don't
| tell me that the Chinese are the only Wor-
shippers of ancestors. l know different
| The basic strength of the Chinese ancestor
| - ls.x4-
| infaIlibly know just who their ancestors
| were. The average occidental ancestor wor-
| shipper doesn't know He just THINKS lie
| just fools himself He is so credulous that
| he could sell himself a gold brick or n pack
age of green goods When he strikes gen
ealogical snags he just gldes over them
| Please do not ask me TO laugh, for my lips
| are chapped.
One of the Victims.
1T is not only at the library. but
! in the highways and byways of Washing
| ton in general. that l meet up with the
! victims-the voluntary and wholly willing
victims I should qualify-0f the genealog-
ical bug There's one Of them at the
boarding house where / live. She's huge,
/ beefy woman of the most execrable man
| ners who came 10 Washington from one
| of the Missouri river states and got JOB
! in the government employ. Bourgeois Is
| placarded all over her like posters on n
| dead wall. y couple of years ago she made
| one OF those thrty-day Cooke tours Of
| England. She possesses n surname that.
by some twisting and distorting, can be
made 20 remotely resemble the family
| name of a famous English bunch possess
ing nObiliary titles and estates. This fact
struck the woman from the Missouri river
state all IF a heap while she was taking
a hurried peek at the ancient castle of the
aforesaid English family.
From the hour that she first cl2pped
! eye on that castle she began to believe
| that she was a straigbt-out descendant
of that English family. She hadn't been
back in Washington twenty-four hours be
| fore she began to dig up the genealogical
records Of that English family she had
one OF the most Yirulent attacks of the
bugensis genealogicus that l ever saw or
heard of. She pored over the volumes
most of the night. She devoted consider
able chunk of her salary to buying eXpen-
| sive books on the subject that could not be
had at any Washington library. The more
she studied that subject the more she
swelled up.
She wrote abject letters TO the surviving
members OF her ancestral family in Eng
land, telling them Of how she had traced
her lire back to theirs Nobody would
ever have known that she had written
these letters had she not herself displayed
them, out Of pure foolish swell-uppiness
before mailing them: But she never dis
played the replies 10 them-5tcause she
never got any replies. They ignored her
serytle epistolary efforts. But this did not
daunt her. She wrote letters 10 every MEM
Der OF her family on the 'paternal side
down TO the last hanky-pank fourteenth
cousin, announcing her discovery Of her
and their relationship to the English
crowd. She made an Intellectual effort TO
get her crew of relatives to hold a meeting
| III Washington, but the meeting didn't
come off, because, probably the descend
ants of the ancient English family living
out in the Missouri river bottoms didn't
have the price of the journey to this town
and-let US hope and believe-didn't take
much stock in the lneage-chasing game
any way.
nayalored into a N,,seo,oo