Why now?

So, ever since I decided to start doing this at about ten o'clock last night, I keep asking myself that question and I've come up with a few answers that seem to make sense:

1) It seems like whenever I talk to other people about the research that I've done into all of my dead relatives, I get a mixture of confused stare and awkward silence, especially from people who are also related to all those dead relatives. So, I thought this would be a good way to ensure that other people who might only be passively interested in what's become sort of an obsession for me, to take what they want and not have to feel obliged to make small talk. And, on the off chance that someone else that I happen to start chatting with has also done some research into their family's past, I won't either.

2) Since blogging is basically talking to yourself, only in a way that you can refer back to, I thought this might be a good way to organize the research that I'm doing as I'm doing it. And who knows maybe someone out there will read it and find it interesting as well.

3) It seems like other people out there who are really into researching their dead relatives are either a) really old, or b) act like they are really old. Perhaps I fall into category "b" more than I'd like to admit but I'd also like to think that genealogical research can be something other than what librarians and retirees do in their spare time. So, with that in mind, I hope that I can make this kinda fun without offending all of the people in categories "a" and "b".

4) In the multitude of Googlings that I've done of the various branches of my family, it seems like most everyone that publishes their family tree online basically finds someone else that has published their family tree online, copies, pastes and then hits the publish button on their tree. Which is great and I'm guilty of it as well but ever since I read about the Springer hoax and started finding things that didn't add up in some of the pastings that I'd done, I've started to be a bit more careful and have tried to at least find some sort of real source material other than someone else's tree. So, I thought this would be a good way to start sorting out some of the materials that I've stumbled across and maybe relieve someone else's headache down the road.

5) My kids.

6) And, after 2 years of researching, I have rarely lost momentum so I guess I'm pretty convinced that I can keep this up (unlike a lot of things that I start)

If you've gotten this far, you're probably my mom, really bored or trying to distract yourself until you can leave work so, thanks. I hope this is fun.