Saul drove Helga down the east coast, couch surfing. The inspired creation:

Anneke Jans Scam

I've been doing a little work in genealogy.

Charlie Hollander worked up Linda's genealogy, tracing her ancestry back to one Anneke Jans, the focus of a scam that was perpetrated around the turn of the 20th century. Anneke supposedly was heir to vast tracts in Manhattan, on which Trinity Church is now sited. Charlie is also related to Anneke Jans, and so is a 12th cousin to Linda.

Since there are so many relatives (350,000 ~~) the scam had lots of potential marks.

Here is some material related to the business:
http://www.archive.org/stream/annekejansbogard00nash/annekejansbogard00nash_djvu.txt

(MetaFilter has nothing to say about Anneke Jans.)

Some discussion on RootsWeb: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nozell/GEN-NYS-L/archives/1997/04/0044.html

Even the photo that I copied from another genealogist is probably a fraud:

Hinesburg Jerusalem Bristol Monkton Ridge Vermont Ride

On Sunday I went on a lovely fall bike ride with Bunky, Carol, and Brian. New to me were Steve and Vicky. It turns out Vicky went to Bowdoin with Mark Wanner.

Burlington Bike Path From the South