The thrill of the chase
I am a teacher by day, and a keen genealogist and family historian by night. I have been researching my own family for well over twenty years, and know that this bug, when it bites, is fatal. There is always something else to be investigated - a small side story, an interesting piece of social history, and sometimes something very significant indeed.
There is no telling what you may find - even if your ancestors were 'only' agricultural labourers, they had full lives with pleasures and cares much as we do. Be prepared to find family skeletons - we all have them, and whilst we may not like what our ancestors got up to, they did!
My father's side of the family is entirely Scottish (from Moray and the Hebrides), whilst my mother's is completely English (Somerset, Norfolk & Lincolnshire). Most of my wife's ancestry is Northern Irish, and I have lived and worked in the north-east of England for over two decades, and so my expertise is greatest within the confines of the United Kingdom.
