My mother was French Canadian and I could trace those lines back to the 1500's in France.
I also read basic document French and could translate family documents back to that time.
My Irish lines are a brick wall since the British outlawed so much for the Irish in terms of literacy and record keeping.
I had a knack for genealogy since I was trained as an academic researcher and scientist, so when I was done with my family tree I started tracing family trees for other people. Then the use of DNA for genealogy was just coming out and I loved it. I learned everything I could and found out I had a knack for using DNA to find people. It is a combination of DNA science, genealogy and plain old detective work which I love too. Many people are good at one of these skill sets, but I just happened to be good at all three. Just a case of skill sets matching up in a functional way.
I was really hooked on DNA testing. We found out through my brother's YDNA which goes back thousands of years that my Irish male line is a rare group, going back to ancient Ireland, pre-Celtic and pre-Druid.
Any way in terms of DNA searches, I did it on my own for awhile, and then joined a not for profit group. People who do this work are called Search Angels, which is a bit much, but that is what they are called.
I agree, the older people in my building are not at all cantankerous types. They are lovely people. I think the young people keep us balanced. We can see how hard young people work every day, and raise a child. I think we feel grateful for what we have. We are retired, get to swan around and do what we want. While the young people are working. We know how very lucky we are.
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