Light dusting of snow

There is a light dusting of snow early this morning. Slowly but surely we march onwards towards my favourite season - Winter. The long nights and short days gives me more time to work on my genealogy. Am I interested in genealogy? I sometimes stop and contemplate that one. I do not enjoy it the same way as my husband who has been deeply immersed in his genealogy for our entire marriage (reaching towards 54 and one half years now). He has enjoyed the hunt and the time spent with those who think in a similar fashion. I do not think that I belong to that particular type of genealogist. When my cousin persuaded me to do a profile on my Pincombe family I had not really thought much beyond that to be honest but as I searched to put that together and took my 42 courses at the National Institute for Genealogical Studies, I found that I liked the methodical tracing back. Retiring during that same time period, I switched from how I thought my retirement days would go to a much more rigorous time schedule of completing my courses and producing a family tree that included DNA information. The DNA information for sure drew me in and continues to do so. I can really prove these people are my ancestors and for me that is the most interesting part. All those years in science not wasted at all!

My husband on the other hand has used his DNA results to link his male line (Kipp) back to the 1630s emigrants to New Amsterdam/New Holland and has been most successful. The paper trail is lost in Dutchess County and may or may not be found. Time will tell. His DNA results at Ancestry have proven his fifty years of research to be rigorous which is a plus for any genealogist. For him too, the science aspect has been rather interesting and in his case he has his PhD in Chemistry plus a MLS in Library Science which certainly was a plus as he worked his way through the holdings of many repositories in a systematic and rigorous fashion. 

So that light dusting of snow is very welcomed. It tells us of time becoming much more available to work away on this never ending task. Always around the corner there are new discoveries and some discards as we progress ever so steadily backwards.