My mother every year for the last 8 years or so, makes me and my sister a special gift.  One year it was a family cookbook with all the family recipes, another year it was random thoughts that reminisced and was stocked with photos of days and things gone by like A & P stamps, and life without air conditioners, etc.  and what it was like for her growing up.  Then a book of letters my grandfather had written home during WWII and the letters he wrote to my grandmother, which has since been published! 

And then what started my absolute obsession in genealogy, a book of what we thought we knew on the family which was skeletal until the last 3 years.  What started out as kind of a dry outline of what we knew with a few comments about some of the people in a one in binder has turned now into 2 massive binders and a 8 gallon tupperware full of files now.  It is a non-stop obsession.  Every time I turn on the computer, I'm gone for hours upon hours. 

It took 3 years for my husband to finally not despise my passion, but it also required me to do some digging and find out that William Wallace is one of his great uncles, and that Abraham Lincoln defended his gr-gr-gr grandfather in a historic lawsuit in Illinois before he was president, and getting a rare signed copy of a book by his gr-gr aunt who was a broadway playright.

In my discoveries, I have had the wonderful opportunity to meet 3 cousins in person from my lines and correspond with many others and expand the information in my trees and see pictures of relatives, I'd never seen photos of before.  I discovered that the one branch of my family had been here since the 1600's, I'm eligible for DAR, bought my lost cousins WWII military book from Nazi Germany which had genealogical info and his photo, found out I'm eligible for Italian dual citizenship, and much more. 

I can NEVER get enough.  I do have two last brick walls I'm looking to break through and that pertains to the Haas family and the Fenske family of Prussia, Germany.  Not that makes my work complete, but it will certainly fill in the gaps. 

I must also add I am a documentation junkie!!!!! 

I look forward to connecting with others and sharing ideas and such on research.  I live in Chicago so if I can also help someone researching this area or Illinois, I will.