Whenever I get frustrated with my research (like now, grr!) I reread a newspaper cutting which David found in an English newspaper – I’ll edit it a little (with apologies to “atavist”) –
“Genealogy. It’s a fascinating hobby to attract elderly people to the internet and keep them mentally active. My mother discovered I came from a long line of nobodies back to the 1700s – apart from a bigamist who died of syphilis and the aptly named Walter Damms who died in the Dale Dyke dam disaster. My only objection is the insane cost.”
This always makes me laugh, it seems to sum up my efforts exactly,I can just hear my kids saying the same sort of thing 😀