Uncle John Had Seven Wives

What's that nursery rhyme about "When I was going to St. Ives"?

My husband is a fifth-generation Latter-day Saint on every single line of his family tree (more than five on some lines). All of his 2nd-great grandparents were born in places like Tennessee, New York, Denmark, England, Missouri - and ended up in Utah. In his Rowley line, an uncle named John Rowley was the husband of seven wives, including a widowed mother and two of her daughters - and he had children with all three women, along with the other wives. (The mom and daughters are Emma James, Emma Ozella Johnson and Orissa Jane Johnson - wives 3, 4, and 5.)

This is fascinating to me, coming from my LDS-convert background. The most exciting thing going on in my family tree is first cousins marrying each other (and yes, some of them were my grandparents - I know that was your next question).

On a completely unrelated topic: I hope we're all good about sharing our stuff and helping each other, when it comes to our family history records.

A friend I sometimes help with her genealogy has had her hands tied because of one rather bratty cousin who at one point, told my friend to just "forget" about one line because SHE was doing all the research. Now that it's done, instead of sharing it with my friend (making copies, emailing a GEDCOM, etc.), she tells her, "Oh, it's all online now - go look for it there," without any further instruction or help. My friend isn't too computer-literate and has a hard time knowing where to go or what to do. Everytime I talk to her, I can feel her frustration and sadness caused by her cousin's behavior, and I feel like calling up this woman myself and giving her an earful. Who acts like that? It's like having Ancestry.com for a cousin.

I can't imagine what would possess people to act this way. It's like people who won't share recipes. What exactly is the point of that? So no one else can take credit for making a certain dessert? Who cares? If we're all trying to find out more about our families, why on earth would anyone try to impede another's progress?

The best genealogists are the ones who share.