Dejavu, working on my familytree was/is one of my hobbies too. I have worked on it off and on through the years. I started on it when I was about 23. It was fascinating to learn about one's ancestors....good and bad. The internet has made it so much easier to research these days. The early years I did it the old fashion way, writing letters, digging through court records, church records, library sources, etc. I remember writing letters and making phone calls to people, and would try to explain what I was doing. People would get very suspicious when you ask them about their family line, LOL! It was and is a long process that never ends. I finally made a book for myself, and then made one for each of my family members. Some of the things that I put in the book were pictures that I accumulated over the years.....putting a face to some of the names.I also added short stories about some of the ancestors that my grandparents or great uncles/aunts told me about, or different things I read about them. I took a copy of the book to the local historical society too. I would like to send a book to historical society to the country where my ancestors came from also, but haven't done that yet.

And yes, the families were huge...10-13 kids! Can you image! What was more confusing to me was the names. In my family, everybody seemed to be named Henrich, Fredrick,or Dorthea.