ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS
Dear Santa:
Don’t bring me new dishes; I don’t need a new kind of game.
Genealogists have peculiar wishes; for Christmas I just want a surname.
A new washing machine would be great, but it’s not the desire of my life.
I’ve just found an ancestor’s birth date; what I need now is the name of his wife.
My heart doesn’t yearn for a ring, that would put a real diamond to shame.
What I want is a much cheaper thing; please give me Mary’s last name.
To see my heart singing with joy, don’t bring me a red leather suitcase.
Bring me a genealogist’s toy: A surname, with dates and place.
Wyoming Co. PA Pioneers via Clark County Genealogical Society, 1984. Reprinted in the November 1985 newsletter (PDF) of the Warren County Genealogical Society. The WCGS archives have been digitized.