Annoying Questions

< rant >
One of my least favorite reference questions are the geneological digging types: "My uncle graduated from your school, do you have any info on him?"

I HATE them. The answer I want to give is "No, I don't have any information on your uncle who graduate in 1853. Does your college have your papers? Of course not. Only if you're famous or something."

I generally say something like "Unfortunately, we do not keep any former students papers unless they specifically deposit them here at the time of their death."

But then there's always a comeback. "Well, how about a yearbook? Pictures of his class?"

This stuff sounds simple but it is REALLY time consuming and involves a lot of flipping and digging and snooping in the archives because you often trying to prove a negative: No, we DON'T have a picture of your uncle.