Hey folks, because I live in Canada, we are froze up for a few months during winter. I am absolutely OBSESSED with historical research of my local and surrounding areas. The more I know, the better I feel! Overlapping old maps with current ones and Google Earth, walking in the woods and plotting old foundations and cellars, talking with the seniors in my community...it all gets my motor going. Using census and vital records to track down family members of founding settlers, and looking at any evidence they have of their ancestors in my area. This helps to establish where old homesteads and settlements were. I found a rock wall in the middle of the woods, miles from any road, and by the time I was done researching it, I found that it separated two plots which were both owned by local ship builders, and that one fell off a ladder and died in the house...no one ever lived in it after, and that was in 1826. I love the hard work and paper trail. That is my hobby, and my wife calls me a big geek!!