I enjoy reading autobiographies, but only if they're really, really short. So The Six-Word Memoir Contest is just what I've been looking for.
Everyone has a story. Can you tell yours in six words? Sure you can. Enter The Six-Word Memoir Contest—and you could win an iPod Nano.As genealogists, we might try applying this concept to our ancestors. Some examples:
Send us your short, short life story using the form below and sign up for a cool, new free service from Twitter. Then you'll get to read one great six-word memoir every day, sent straight to your cell phone.
- "Kicked off Mayflower for counting cards."
- "Eighteen children, none of them attractive."
- "Thought he was a girl. Whoops!"
- "Killed by Indians. Probably deserved it."
- "Never could spell his name correctly."
- "Lived a virtuous life until executed."
- "Outlived three husbands. Was never convicted."
- "Accidentally shot by brother. Seven times."
- "Really, he was just following orders!"
- "Was born, married, died. Nothing else."
Feel free to offer your own ancestor bios in a comment below.

He lived, he died, he gone.
Norman Seaver (1734-1787) of Westminster MA: Son, husband, father, carpenter, soldier, citizen.
Here's one for my own great-great-grandfather, Lemuel Dunham: "Gadabout, poet, but a lousy farmer."
My gg grandmother: twenty-five children, excessive laundry, thoroughly exhausted.