"The greatest responsibility in this world that God has laid upon us is to seek after our dead. Those Saints who neglect it... do it at the peril of their own salvation."

-- Joseph Smith, TPJS, p 193

 

"Sometime ago I got a CD for my then 3 year old. It is called "Silly Songs" and the song "I am my own Grandpa" is on it. It is a silly song, but imagine the horror of an amateur genealogist trying to untangle the weave of something that happened 150-200 years ago.... and even now it happens....." from Sean

I Am My Own Grandpa
1947 song

Many, many years ago
When I was twenty-three,
I got married to a widow,
Pretty as could be.

This widow had a grown-up daughter
With flowing hair of red.
My father fell in love with her,
And soon the two were wed.

This made my dad my son-in-law
And changed my very life.

Now my daughter was my mother,
For she was my father's wife.

To complicate the matters worse,
Although it brought me joy.

I soon became the father
Of a bouncing baby boy.

My little baby then became
A brother-in-law to dad.

And so became my uncle,
Though it made me very sad.

For if he was my uncle,
Then that also made him brother

To the widow's grown-up-daughter
Who, of course, was my stepmother.

Father's wife then had a son,
Who kept them on the run.
And he became my grandson,
For he was my daughter's son,

My wife is now my mother's mother
And it makes me blue.
Because, although she is my wife,
She's my grandma too.

If my wife is my grandmother,
Then I am her grandchild.

And every time I think of it,
It simply drives me wild.

For now I have become
The strangest case you ever saw.
As the husband of my grandmother,
I am my own grandpa!