I’ve been researching my family since the 8th grade in 1958 (64 years ago); I’m not sure how, but I got hooked on genealogy and I’ve been chasing ancestors ever since.
On dad’s side of the tree, my ethnic heritage is French (Canadian) and Irish. My paternal grandmother’s family originated in France and came to Quebec as far back as the early 1600s. My paternal grandfather’s clan is a mix of Irish (his own paternal grandmother came from Ireland) and English. My maternal grandmother is primarily German (speaking) including Swiss-German, or Prussian. I’ve chased them back to the 1600s also. At the same time, mom’s mitochondrial DNA is Irish (who’d a thunk it). My maternal grandfather is predominately English but at the same time, there are also some German or Swiss-German ancestors in his lineage also.
I started using the DOS version of Family Origins over 30 years ago. This allowed me to take scribbled notes, copies of census records, and volumes of family notes and put them into my computer for eas(ier) access. It also helped me sort out who was who and from where we begin.
After years with the Windows version of Family Origins, Bruce announced he was recreating the program as RootsMagic. I made the obvious transition and have been with RM ever since.
I just switched from a painfully slow DSL service which afforded me “up to” (you have to love those qualifier statements) 5 mbps (after 5 years, they have never lied – I never got the full 5, but since they limited their liability by saying “up to” I had no leg to stand on at 4.38 mbps (especially when the service tech said my service was better than that of my neighbor across the street).
I am now using a 1 gb fiber optic service which makes my research so very much faster it is such a joy to be able to download high-quality graphic files (photos and scans) without hanging up my computer.