Many years ago I purchased a small sign proclaiming the title of today's blog, "Bad spellers of the world, untie!"

My mother made every effort to raise children who were good spellers. Starting when I was about 10 years old, she spent at least an hour every evening quizzing me from the True Blue Speller. I vividly recall words that caused me to lose or win spelling contests, i.e., "reveille" in seventh grade and "ptomaine" in eighth grade, respectively.

So I was much amused to read Dick Eastman's blog posting about "Genealogy's Often-Misspelled Words," as well as his readers' perceptive comments about both spelling and usage. Eastman is right: when a person's spelling is incorrect, it's like shouting, "I don't know what I'm doing!"

One of my genealogy-spelling pet peeves is improper use of the words descendant vs. decedent, which can really mess up the meaning of a statement. And apostrophes! Many people apparently missed school the day teachers were addressing contractions and possessives.