No apologies needed Cas, it's a very thought-provoking topic.
Like others here, I sometimes sense a 'rightness' about a potential
ancestor and it is very satisfying when that feeling is confirmed.
I don't know if it's genetic or not, but I love to do puzzles, and
to me family history is the ultimate puzzle because it never ends -
once one person is found, there are two more hiding behind them.
Apart from learning the nuts and bolts of researching, and trying
to pick up related skills such as other languages, deciphering
documents, and so on, I have learned a little about how my mind
works, and to guard against my own shortcomings, in particular,
my tendency to create my own brick walls out of assumptions.
Always a keen reader, I now read on a much broader range of
subjects than ever I did, and regret that I came to them so
late in life.
vv.