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General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: jillruss on Tuesday 02 February 16 13:20 GMT (UK)
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Total trivia, but - are there any surnames associated with people you have a strong aversion to, that you most certainly wouldn't want to find in your tree?
Top of my list would be Thatcher! I'd have to go to the ends of the earth to prove she wasn't related!
Closely followed by: Trump, Price and Clarkson....
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Bush & Saville.
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No, although I sigh a little whenever I find out that Joe Bloggs married Ann Smith, which is most of my tree really. I'd like a few more unusual surnames around the place...
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Top of my list would be Thatcher! I'd have to go to the ends of the earth to prove she wasn't related!
Sadly, you probably are - do some googling and you'll find that a great deal of us descended from the Plantagenets offsprung .... :P
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Me neither, can't be held responsible for our forefathers ::) ;D
But like Ayashi I would like some more unboring names............
Too many Henry William, William Henry, William etc sometimes brothers named their kids like this very confusing makes my head spin :o :o ;D
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I don't mind having a villain or two in the distant past but I wouldn't want recent villains so would hate to find Brady, Hindley, Nielsen, Sutcliffe etc.
Rishile
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Trump, Trump and Trump! I was going to write what I think of him, but I might get banned!
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De Ath
Freak
A Male Chicken
I have a Trump family. The father killed at Gallipoli
Numerous Freaks and variants all from County Durham.
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None whatsoever!
I never judge people by what they are called ;D
For every person of a surname you don't like, there are sure to be others you do like?
E.G. Thatcher to me means a cider producer of Somerset!
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None whatsoever!
I never judge people by what they are called ;D
For every person of a surname you don't like, there are sure to be others you do like?
E.G. Thatcher to me means a cider producer of Somerset!
How charitable you are!
I know its very, very silly of me but I wouldn't even buy Thatchers cider! And I do like a glass of cider in the summer...
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None whatsoever!
I never judge people by what they are called ;D
For every person of a surname you don't like, there are sure to be others you do like?
E.G. Thatcher to me means a cider producer of Somerset!
How charitable you are!
I know its very, very silly of me but I wouldn't even buy Thatchers cider! And I do like a glass of cider in the summer...
To be honest - that's just plain silly!
The Thatcher family of Sandford, have been making cider for over 100 years.
As far as I know there is no link to the family of a grocer's daughter - who was born a Roberts anyway.
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For every person of a surname you don't like, there are sure to be others you do like?
E.G. Thatcher to me means a cider producer of Somerset!
Indeed! My Brady family is one of my favourite sides of my tree, I've never even mentally linked it to the murderer beyond "that person has the same surname". I'd happily have a Thatcher or a Saville or a Trump, because whatever else they are, they are my ancestors, not some modern unpopular individual. I'd even have a Hitler without judging them, because they were more than likely some poor labourer or coal miner or farmer without any thoughts of genocide whatsoever. That's not to say I wouldn't make jokes about it though.
That said, I do wonder how many of my ancestors were raving bigots, racists, misogynistic etc... Bound to be a few, eh? Nobody's tree is going to be 100% angel.
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No, although I sigh a little whenever I find out that Joe Bloggs married Ann Smith, which is most of my tree really. I'd like a few more unusual surnames around the place...
Me too, I have Brown on both sides and all with the same few christian names to boot. Thomas, John, William, Elizabeth, Mary, Ann etc, it gets very confusing at times. ???; I almost did a cartwheel when I found a Caroline Blanch the other day ;D
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None whatsoever!
I never judge people by what they are called ;D
For every person of a surname you don't like, there are sure to be others you do like?
E.G. Thatcher to me means a cider producer of Somerset!
How charitable you are!
I know its very, very silly of me but I wouldn't even buy Thatchers cider! And I do like a glass of cider in the summer...
To be honest - that's just plain silly!
The Thatcher family of Sandford, have been making cider for over 100 years.
As far as I know there is no link to the family of a grocer's daughter - who was born a Roberts anyway.
Oh, for goodness sake, this was supposed to be fun!
I did own up to it being trivial and silly - and other similar adjectives! ::) All this 'don't judge' stuff is a bit misplaced, if you don't mind me saying so....its a bit like not calling one of your children a name you associate with someone you dislike.
I have Saviles centuries back in W Yorks - tentatively linked - and it had honestly never crossed my mind.
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This is the lighter side folks.
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The problem arises when someone's name is one that everyone seems to have an aversion to,
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No, although I sigh a little whenever I find out that Joe Bloggs married Ann Smith, which is most of my tree really. I'd like a few more unusual surnames around the place...
Me too, I have Brown on both sides and all with the same few christian names to boot. Thomas, John, William, Elizabeth, Mary, Ann etc, it gets very confusing at times. ???; I almost did a cartwheel when I found a Caroline Blanch the other day ;D
Doesn't it make your head spin, I get myself so confused at times I don't know who's who. It's almost like they had a list that they could choose from................... ::) ;D
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Doesn't it make your head spin, I get myself so confused at times I don't know who's who. It's almost like they had a list that they could choose from................... ::) ;D
Well, they had a list, unless they were very strong-minded!
They had to please two sets of parents, and probably some god-parenting siblings as well.
Not to mention the rest of the families saying "what sort of a name is BLANCHE?" "what do you mean - you're calling him Michael - never been a Michael in our family".
And in Catholic families, it had to be a saint's name until the 1960s - so you had priests saying "you can't just call her Deirdre, I'll baptise her Mary after your mother"
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i found Saville in my tree and i have to admit i was a little uneasy, especially when i found that they were yorkshire way. however on further research i discover we may be connected to the saville foljambe moore family in yorkshire. the history is fantastic so i forget totally that somewhere we may have a rotton egg in the family (this seems like such a trivial name for a evil man)
i never knew that about catholic names! that might explain a mystery in my tree!
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Doesn't it make your head spin, I get myself so confused at times I don't know who's who. It's almost like they had a list that they could choose from................... ::) ;D
Well, they had a list, unless they were very strong-minded!
They had to please two sets of parents, and probably some god-parenting siblings as well.
Not to mention the rest of the families saying "what sort of a name is BLANCHE?" "what do you mean - you're calling him Michael - never been a Michael in our family".
And in Catholic families, it had to be a saint's name until the 1960s - so you had priests saying "you can't just call her Deirdre, I'll baptise her Mary after your mother"
Never looked at it that way, it would explain why brothers' and sisters' children all seemed to have the same names ???
Must have been fun at family gatherings with all these Henry's and William's and Elizabeths and Sarah's running around :o :o ;D ;D
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Any surname that I can prove the link would do me. No aversion to any name you have listed (possible some of the people though.)
The repetition of first names down the generations can be helpful or a pain in the posterior.
My own maiden name is SMALL - Got the mickey taken out of me at school.
Dorrie
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Hitler.
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Smellie? Daft? Smelt? Slowleigh?
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I don't mind having a villain or two in the distant past but I wouldn't want recent villains so would hate to find Brady, Hindley, Nielsen, Sutcliffe etc.
Rishile
Me too....or Shipman and Huntley.
Carol
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Not at all sure I'd want an actual LINK with any politician - of any party. The name however, can't be held responsible for the man - or woman!
I really don't want to find another Jones, Williams, Roberts, Smith, Brown, Anderson, Green or White - unless they are very well-documented, with an entire, well-researched family tree tied round their necks! They give the biggest headaches, especially when they don't seem to know where they came from!
I think I'd not really want a name connected with people like Shipman, Brady, Hindley, etc - especially as I recently found a link, albeit distant, to Pierrpoint the hangman family!
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Any surname that I can prove the link would do me. No aversion to any name you have listed (possible some of the people though.)
The repetition of first names down the generations can be helpful or a pain in the posterior.
My own maiden name is SMALL - Got the mickey taken out of me at school.
Dorrie
On Oh's side, there was John, Henry, John, Henry for about 8-10 generations. Most confusing :-X :-X
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I'm hoping Farage doesn't show up in my family
Aside from that, I hope Smith stays away. I've got a Jones ancestor and haven't been able to pin down anything about her pre-marriage. I'm lucky that I've got so many rare surnames to play with.
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I have a JONES family from a village on the west side of Cheshire, alongside the welsh border. Luckily it is a VERY small village, with only room for one Jones family. Researching them was easier than I expected, once I got used to the illegitimacy. Unfortunately, Margaret never named the father, though I bet everybody in the village knew who it was!
When I found out that one of my gggggg grandfathers was a John SMITH, I realised I had a problem, especially as there were 3 John Smiths having children baptised in the 1750s in a small Lancashire village, and two of them were shoemakers. It put me off researching them for a while, and then I realised that I had not followed up John's wife. Within an hour I had traced her ancestors back to a marriage in 1588!
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No, although I sigh a little whenever I find out that Joe Bloggs married Ann Smith, which is most of my tree really. I'd like a few more unusual surnames around the place...
This is every genealogist's wish, Ayashi ... but there's a little fable behind it, too.
You see, once upon a time, Smith, Jones, Brown et al were VERY uncommon names. Whereas Kincardine, Timberlake, Venner, Marshalsea and Dufton were ten a penny. And it was much the same with given names, too ... the world was overrun with Ebeneezers, Nathaniels and Veronicas and had very very few Marys, Elizabeths and Johns.
Well, one day Nebuchadnezzar Whitesail was wringing his hands in despair at the never-ending list of Whitesail baptisms he had to trawl through, and in frustration he tapped his pencil on the microfiche reader three times. There was a blinding flash ... the fiche FINALLY came into proper focus ... and there before his eyes was the Genii of the Muniments.
"I am empowered to grant one wish to ever Genealogist," said the Genii, "But only one. Now, be very careful what you wish for ... you may want to think about it for a bit."
"Oh no," said Nebuchadnezzar, "I don't need to think at all. I know exactly what I need. I wish that all of my ancestors had rare names, and none of them had common names".
"Yes," said the Genii. "That's what they all wish for. IT IS DONE"
And the Genii disappeared.
So did all of Nebuchadnezzar's Whitesail and Venner and Timberlake and Huffington ancestors ... to be replaces by Browns and Smiths and Joneses and Thompsons ...
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Change of name! No wonder I can't find them! ;D
Referring to the topic, there are no surnames that I wouldn't want in my tree; connections to individuals is another matter. I would not feel comfortable finding a connection to some of the individuals named in this thread. Having said that, we all tend to agree that we take our ancestors as they are/were, the good the bad and the ugly.
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Well, if I find another William Hawkins in my tree, I think I'll go drown myself ;D ;D
I've got 9 so far, over 2 generations, with 4 born within 2 years, all in the same village :(
Actually, I'd quite welcome a Smith or a Jones - make a nice change .......
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Similar to andrewalston, I had problems with Turnbulls in Cumberland. Joseph married Mary, and Joseph married Mary. Sorting them out was rather interesting :o :o :-X :-X
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Must have been fun at family gatherings with all these Henry's and William's and Elizabeths and Sarah's running around :o :o ;D ;D
Well there was Harry and Hal , also Little Bill and Big Bill with Willy and William. Not forgetting Bess , Betsy and Lizzie Lilibeth if you were special. And Sarah and Sally with the occasional Sary for good measure. Why I know who they are :D
Oi William Henry you leave your little brother Big Bill alone
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Actually, I'd quite welcome a Smith or a Jones - make a nice change .......
I don't know about that - I've got a William Smith marrying another Smith in a town of Smiths. At this point it seems hopeless - but I guess that's part of the fun ;)
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Two of my cousins, sisters, married a Smith and Jones respectively. ::)
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We've all had moments like these..... you're tracing a female relative, you find a likely marriage for her, check the names on the same page, "Uh-oh, there's a John Smith, I hope she didn't marry him".... unless the other guy on the page is William Jones ;D
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One of my family names is Vanstone. You might think that would be an easy name to work with?
Wrong!
On the 1841 census, there are 611 Vanstone or Vanston people.
57 of them are John; 43 are William; 35 are James.
76 are Mary; 41 are Elizabeth; 39 are Ann(e); and 31 are Jane.
7 forenames cover 322 people - that's over half of them!! :o
It's so hard trying to figure out who is directly related to who! ::)
And mostly from a small area of North Devon.
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Schleswig-Holstien Sonderburg-Glucksburg! ;D
Skoosh.
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Mine would be "Li" or "Wang". Try sorting that lot out :P :P :P
Regards
Malky
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One of my family names is Vanstone. You might think that would be an easy name to work with?
Wrong!
On the 1841 census, there are 611 Vanstone or Vanston people.
57 of them are John; 43 are William; 35 are James.
76 are Mary; 41 are Elizabeth; 39 are Ann(e); and 31 are Jane.
7 forenames cover 322 people - that's over half of them!! :o
It's so hard trying to figure out who is directly related to who! ::)
And mostly from a small area of North Devon.
You can have Amanda as well ;)
http://www.rootschat.com/links/01h0s/
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One of my family names is Vanstone. You might think that would be an easy name to work with?
Wrong!
On the 1841 census, there are 611 Vanstone or Vanston people.
57 of them are John; 43 are William; 35 are James.
76 are Mary; 41 are Elizabeth; 39 are Ann(e); and 31 are Jane.
7 forenames cover 322 people - that's over half of them!! :o
It's so hard trying to figure out who is directly related to who! ::)
And mostly from a small area of North Devon.
You can have Amanda as well ;)
http://www.rootschat.com/links/01h0s/
Nee O'Brien! So not a true Vanstone!! ;D ;D
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Many Years ago, I read (in a genealogy book) that there are 48 different ways of spelling 'Hughes'.
I hope I never find that in My family tree. ::)
P.S.
The other name I don't want to find in my tree is 'Hitler' (for obvious reasons) :o :(
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The other name I don't want to find in my tree is 'Hitler' (for obvious reasons) :o :(
Unlikely. His surname (taken from his stepfather) was Hiedler until it was mis-scribed by a clerk. The rest, as they say, is history.
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No, makes no difference to me what people are called.
In some ways a frequently occuring name is better as it presents more of a challenge, therefore is more rewarding to research.
Cheers
Guy
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The other name I don't want to find in my tree is 'Hitler' (for obvious reasons) :o :(
Unlikely. His surname (taken from his stepfather) was Hiedler until it was mis-scribed by a clerk. The rest, as they say, is history.
His brother and wife allegedly lived in Liverpool for some time, mother and son emigrated to the USA. This is a really interesting article by Liverpool historian Mike Royden.
http://www.roydenhistory.co.uk/mrlhp/local/hitlerinliverpool/hitlerinliverpool.htm
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One name I can think of is "Hoodie".
Regards
Malky
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One name I can think of is "Hoodie".
Regards
Malky
Even if his first name was Robin? ;)
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Before I was bribed to depart from work, I tried once to email my supervisor. I could not, as his name was Alistair. He told me, when I spoke to him personally, that there were 22 spelling for his name :o :o :o :o
No wonder I could not email him.
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I don't think there are any name that I would be bothered about having in my tree because even if there is a bad person with that name, they weren't/aren't me and I'm not responsible for what they do or have done.
I have decided however that it should be law to give middle names and perhaps 2 middle names if you have a surname like Smith ;)
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In some ways a frequently occuring name is better as it presents more of a challenge, therefore is more rewarding to research.
And (of course) easier to go up blind alleys ... :)
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In some ways a frequently occuring name is better as it presents more of a challenge, therefore is more rewarding to research.
And (of course) easier to go up blind alleys ... :)
You'd think so but I have an unusual name in my tree and it's caused me as much confusion as my Smiths have. When (if) I eventually untangle them I will be very satisfied.
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In some ways a frequently occuring name is better as it presents more of a challenge, therefore is more rewarding to research.
And (of course) easier to go up blind alleys ... :)
You'd think so but I have an unusual name in my tree and it's caused me as much confusion as my Smiths have. When (if) I eventually untangle them I will be very satisfied.
Same here, with the never-ending variations of spelling of the name "Moul".... it's a fun challenge though :)
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In some ways a frequently occuring name is better as it presents more of a challenge, therefore is more rewarding to research.
And (of course) easier to go up blind alleys ... :)
You'd think so but I have an unusual name in my tree and it's caused me as much confusion as my Smiths have. When (if) I eventually untangle them I will be very satisfied.
Same here, with the never-ending variations of spelling of the name "Moul".... it's a fun challenge though :)
I do like an unusual name as it gives more variety. Yeah my Maul clan have thrown up a variety of variants as well but that's part of the fun! ;D Where did yours come from?
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Mine are from Essex, particularly Tillingham and Burnham on Crouch. So far they've used Moul / Moule / Moull / Mowl / Mowls / Mole... and probably more!
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Mine are from Essex, particularly Tillingham and Burnham on Crouch. So far they've used Moul / Moule / Moull / Mowl / Mowls / Mole... and probably more!
Ah! Mine are from Taunton, Somerset so probably not a close connection (if any) they have also had many variants but my lot are mainly spelled Maul - probably the dialects! :)
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Ah! Mine are from Taunton, Somerset so probably not a close connection (if any) they have also had many variants but my lot are mainly spelled Maul - probably the dialects! :)
Well I lose track of mine before the 1780s so who knows.... maybe there's a connection to your Somerset lot, a long way back.
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I wouldn't like to see anonymous hehe!
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I have a distant connection to Peter Dupas a serial murderer, a descendant of a gt. gt. Aunt, ::)
glad I haven't met him. >:(
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I have a distant connection to Peter Dupas a serial murderer, a descendant of a gt. gt. Aunt, ::)
glad I haven't met him. >:(
The thought makes you wary of contacting distant cousins doesn't it.
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Genocide surnames have to be the worst Hitler, Pol Pot - I'll stick to my boring lot. I hope to never find something like that in my tree. I'm sure some people have these surnames and are nothing like either of them though
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I have a distant connection to Peter Dupas a serial murderer, a descendant of a gt. gt. Aunt, ::)
glad I haven't met him. >:(
The thought makes you wary of contacting distant cousins doesn't it.
Sure does, his poor parents had to move interstate, they were devastated. :(
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Osborne. ;D
Skoosh.
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I wouldn't like to see anonymous hehe!
or "Unknown" for that matter ;D ;D ;D
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Illegitimate's not good either....... :-X :-[ :'(
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A FH program I used to use (can't remember which one) had a match facility with the surnames. The only problem was it kept asking me if this "Unknown" was related to that "Unknown". ::)
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A FH program I used to use (can't remember which one) had a match facility with the surnames. The only problem was it kept asking me if this "Unknown" was related to that "Unknown". ::)
Maybe Ancestry's hints will start doing this....... Aaargh, no, I'd better not tempt fate ::) ;D
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Good evening,
I definitely wouldn't want to put in a Russian name. ;D ;D ;D
John915
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Good evening,
I definitely wouldn't want to put in a Russian name. ;D ;D ;D
John915
Ofkorsukansky ;)