Six word memoirs

Several other genealogy bloggers have noted the recently published book titled "Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure" edited by Rachel Fershleiser and Larry Smith.

Lisa A. Alzo on The Accidental Genealogist blog provides her own six-word memoir and then wrote several more as tributes to some of her ancestors. That's a great idea!

I, being the "joiner" that I seem to be, did this back in December 2006 with "Six-word memoir contest." My own six-word memoir is

"Descendant of obscure American colonial ancestors." - Randy Seaver

Naturally, I sent that in, and it is on page 208 right below the obscure Kate Evans ("Loved a man, then a woman") and above the obscure Jennifer Johnson ("Brainy widowed sexpot raises hell, kids"). Hmm, I guess I'm in good company - Jen sounds like fun, eh? I wonder how many of the more than 1,000 entries used the word "obscure?"

I also posted one on Chris' Genealogue blog --

"Son, husband, father, carpenter, soldier, citizen." - Norman Seaver (1734-1787) of Westminster MA, my 5th great-grandfather.

Taking Lisa's idea, here are some tributes to some of my ancestors:

* "Patience, love, grace, beauty, devotion personified." - for Betty (Carringer) Seaver (1919-2002), my mother.

* "Loving family man, clerk, philatelist, adventurer" - for Lyle Lawrence Carringer (1891-1976), my grandfather.

* "Bastard son, Revolutionary matross, crippled hero" - for Isaac Buck (1757-1846), my 4th great-grandfather.

* "Innkeeper, inventor, snake oil salesman, speculator" - Devier J. Smith (1839-1894), my 2nd great-grandfather.

How about you - any six-word memoirs to describe yourself or your ancestors? Try it, it's fun. Either put them in your own blog post or in Comments here.