My 10-year anniversary...

I started researching my family history in Oct. 1998. It's now Oct. 2008.

It's been a wild ride and a quite enjoyable experiencing learning about my family's past and being able to connect with so many relatives - both immediate and distant.

The Internet has lent itself perfectly to such a hobby. There's no question about it. This is where I've made the majority of my people-to-people connections. While some people joke that genealogy is all about "dead people," I think it's the exchange between living people - and learning more about their lives - that makes it so special.

As a wise man from Connecticut, John Payne, commented in my first blog entry - we're all related if you go back far enough. It couldn't be more true. And when you have two people as different as, say, Barack Obama and my girlfriend Nicole - and they're distantly related - and you're able to prove that - it's just so much fun to trace your family's past to see who you might be related to and where your ancestors fit into history.

For now, I celebrate. But once you catch the bug, there's no going back. There's no question about it; this will be a lifelong hobby for me. I look forward to what discoveries and links the future will bring!