Same with me about too much stuff going on and, I to, just read Ellen Goodman's article. I understood about how these ancestors become people to us. I seem to transport myself into their time period every time I work on genealogy. Ellen wasn't the only one with a little surprise. I had two of them. I could not understand why I couldn't find any record of my grandparents marriage to the point I questioned them being married at all until my great aunt told me they had to get married. So instead of looking in April, 1918 records (which was written in several places) I looked under April, 1919. FOUNT IT!! My father was born in Dec. 1919. Obviously, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree as the same grandfather's parents had to get married in 1885 in Buffalo. For some reason we picture that generation of ladies to be lady like and modest. Made me kind-of giggle. The story of my great-grandparents goes like this: He immigrated in 1883, met an 18 year old lady about 1884 (living with her parents), went back to Germany but missed her so much that he came back to America Sept. 1885, got married Nov. 1885 and had their first healthy baby June 1886. If you count on your fingers, you can tell he really missed her. But no movie stars or royalty in my family, just plain people who love to love.