I recently found a geneology page on my paternal grandmother's family

[Nikia]

It is a page off of my Father's cousin's webpage (my grandmother's brother's son). In the interests of anonymity, I am not going to link it.
I found it interesting though to learn more about my ancestors and to see how some of them are like me or my cousins. It is also interesting to note how all their decisions and life courses worked together to produce me: such as my grandmother's great granmother leaving her husband in Kansas to go back to her Michigan home, several of my ancestors immigrating to Michigan from New York, ancestors immigrating to New Amsterdam from their home countres. More recently, my grandmother meeting my grandfather when his friend took him to Michigan to meet his girlfriend, who was friends with my grandmother.
For some reason, I also find it interesting to know that I had an ancestor from Overijssel, which I cannot even pronounce.

[Cybergata]

1. Ah, the Joy of genealogy!

Just what you have written is why I became a genealogy addict. I started out reading web pages that other people had put on the web of shared ancestors, and two years later, I'm just as addicted.

About a year ago, I started working on my father's ancestry, which can be traced back to the first colonists who came to New Mexico in 1598. At that time there was very little online to help me, so I joined two local groups here in New Mexico. I've read everything I have able to find.

I've taught Seventh Grade New Mexico History for a couple of decades and thought I really knew my New Mexican History. I had taken about every New Mexico History, Culture, etc class the University here has. I was very close to my father, and he shared his knowledge, memory and family stories of being a Hispanic New Mexican. After my genealogical research, I realize that there was a whole aspect of understanding this History I had left out. I also realized that the family stories I thought were "wishful thinking" were indeed true. My father's oral history of our family matches the written records I've uncovered.

When I'm researching at the local Genealogy Library, I can find a roomful of distant cousins. Most Hispanic New Mexicans can find some distant ancestor in common. Sometimes they are not that distant. I found a 4th cousin recently whom I never would have known to be a relative if I hadn't been researching my family. I had my seventh grade students ask their parents and grandparents about their parents and grandparents to undercover their family history. Almost immediately I found cousins in my classroom. It is such a great feeling to be connected to other people in this way.