UNK-IFIED..WITH APOLOGIES TO DR. SEUSS.

I've done some writing elsewhere on my
tree climbing in the past and this is part of
it.

A little background: I was still fairly new at
genealogy and when I stumbled across an
ancestor with the unlikely name of Joanna Unk,
I thought perhaps she was from some other
nationality and this was how the name was recorded
in the town records by someone who didn't know
how it was spelled properly. But the name amused
me and I wrote this poem.

Two weeks later I discovered that Unk is an abrreviated
version of Unknown, used when the maiden name of a
person is unavailable.


Ah, well!


When I started climbing my family tree
I didn't realize what a chore it might be.
I really had nothing much else on my mind
Then to see what else I could possibly find.

I already knew of a number of names
I knew Barker and Dunham and Abbott and Ames.
But never, no never, did I possibly thunk
I would find I'd a relative, Joanna Unk.

It must not have been easy to grow up an Unk.
It's not a name beaus want to carve in tree trunks.
But her story's not tragic, it isn't you see,
Because if it were there would not be a me.

She lived out a typical Puritan life,
Met someone who loved her and became his wife.
And somewhere in heaven she's drinking some hooch
With my distant relative, Mistress Ruth Gooch.