As many of you may know, I’m sometimes pretty liberal with my definition of GenTraveling (as demonstrated in this post…and this post, and…okay, I’ll stop!)

I think we ALL know that while doing genealogy research, we can easily “travel” off-topic and end up, well who knows where! Occasionally the term used to describe this common divergence  is “I went down a rabbit hole”, or other similar genealogical-relevant verbiage.  Today, I want to make light of this unproductive tenancy – which I’m sure is familiar to genealogists everywhere!

So here is my version of the popular six degrees of separation meme:

#1. Death Certificate:  Today I was analyzing a death record that had very little useful information on it (lots of “Not Known” in the boxes!). The informant (if you could really call him that) was the Lowville NY County Home “keeper”. So, I went Googling…

that search connected me to #2. Poorhouse History where I saw an old postcard with a picture of the institution of where the fellow I was researching apparently died:

{source}

A related search sent me to the #3. National Archives where a web page explained a great project that will make almshouse ledgers available:

“In October 2015, under a grant generously funded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, the New York City Municipal Archives embarked upon a large and exciting new project: processing, preserving and cataloging the Almshouse Ledger Collection. This historic collection contains over 400 handwritten volumes pertaining to city-run institutions including the Almshouses, Workhouses, Lunatic Asylum, Penitentiary and various hospitals, which all found their home on Blackwell’s Island, now Roosevelt Island. The span covers the years 1758-1952. This important project will ensure that the Almshouse Ledgers are preserved for future generations of researchers, scholars, genealogists, educators and anyone interested in social, cultural and medical histories during this period of great change and growth in New York City.”

(http://www.archives.nyc/almshouse)

At the bottom of the National Archives page, there was this:

which sent me Googling about #4 Nellie Bly because I’ve never heard of Nellie – (have any of you???)  Apparently, she was a journalist who went undercover in a New York state asylum to investigate reports of brutality and neglect of its patients.  She wrote articles about it, which turned into a book entitled “Ten Days in a Mad-House“, then a movie, etc. etc.{find info about Nellie HERE}.

Another version of the movie just came out in January of 2019 called “Escaping the Madhouse: The Nellie Bly Story” and the character Nellie Bly was played by actress…

#5 Christina Ricci

and speaking of Christina Ricci…did you know that in 2006 she was on #6 PETA’s worst-dressed list, so after that we stopped wearing fur!  {HERE’s that 2006 list}

That, my fellow GenTravelers is how you go traveling WAY off topic! Those are the 6 degrees of separation – or aka unproductive genealogical researching! Haha!

If you want to participate in this meme, write up your own blog post about your 6 degrees of separation and be sure to send me a link!

Now, get busy and do some REAL research! :o)