When Your Ox Is in the Ditch

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Genealogical How-to Letters
By Vera McDowell
A book review by MaryLynn Strickland


“That’s a very good book,” someone said, pointing to a bright orange and yellow volume on the book sales table.

“Hmmm,” I thought, “I’ll have to remember that.  Someday I’ll buy it.”  A few years later I did just that.  Then, from time to time, I glanced at pages as the book was moved from coffee table to bookshelf.  I can’t say that I ever fulfilled my intention to read all of it.

Recently, when I was looking for reading material in the middle of the night, the book literally fell off the shelf and opened to page 54 where I read:

“To understand the four nationalities that make up the United Kingdom, we must recognize that:
“SCOTS: Keep the Sabbath and everything else they can get their hands on.
“IRISH:  Don’t believe in anything and will fight like hell to defend it.
“WELSH:  Pray on their knees and everybody else.
“ENGLISH:  Feel like they were born to rule the world and relieve the Almighty of any responsibility.”

This was in a newsy, instructive letter from the experienced family researcher Vera to the novice Bette about keeping a sense of humor while climbing her family tree.  The whole book is written in that format, each letter addressing another lesson in genealogical procedure.

Begun as a series of articles for the Augusta Genealogical Society Southern Echoes newsletter in 1982, the book was published in 1992 with subsequent printings up to 1997.  Vera gives instructions about organizing, planning research procedure, sourcing and all the other aspects of genealogical research.  Vera’s procedures involve 3 x 5 cards in recipe boxes and on page 5 she introduces Bette to top-loading, poly sheet protectors for storing important documents and letters so they can be put into 3 ring binders without punching holes in them.

These letters were written before Ancestry.com, My Heritage.com, genetic genealogy and popular software.  Use of computers is only briefly mentioned twice.  Yet the basic lessons remain the same and are delivered in a warm encouraging manner.

Recently I had a conversation with another member regarding the “double dating” that resulted when the world shifted from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian and Quaker method of referring to dates.  Vera addresses both of these topics quite well.  She just doesn’t tell us how to put the information into Legacy or Family Tree Maker!

Title of the book, When Your Ox Is in the Ditch, is an old expression with Biblical roots referring to the point in your research when no matter where you turn, you cannot find the answer to a problem, a stone wall.  Vera is making suggestions about ways to pull that ox out of the ditch.

Personally I think the Ox in this matter is usually me, myself, and the ditch is the rut I have dug myself into.  Vera reminds Bette that “A CLOSED MIND IS A CLOSED LINE” and that she should keep an “open mind and let it wander”.

A small portion of the book is available at books.google.com and there is one reference copy at the Bellevue branch of the King County Library System.  Both Barnes & Noble and Half Price Books list the book for purchase.  Watch for it on the sales tables at genealogical seminars and conventions.  Owning a copy and re-reading it from time to time is sure to help you get that ox moving on level ground again.



MaryLynn Strickland

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