I think that I was about 16 when I really started looking into my family history. I still find the word 'geneology' interesting because you are trying to trace back your genes. It was during a trip to Sacramento to visit my grandmother and grandfather (the Hennessy's) when I mentioned it to them. Grandpa sat down with me and gave me a slew of names from his side (from which I made a chart.) Grandma did the same although she added "You do know that you are related to Roald Amundsen, right?" It gave me an interesting name to look up when I got back from the visit. It wasn't much later that a letter came for me with a detailed list of the family history going back to Sweden and Ireland. Well, those documents wound up filed away in a box until nearly 20 years later.
Someone asked me if I had looked at the Geni.com Web site. Curious as always, I looked. It was pretty interesting as you can put photos and detailed information in each step of your family tree. Hours went by too quickly as I started playing with it and when I remembered seeing a folder I had discovered when I moved into the house that said "family history" on it.
The interesting thing about the site was that you can also add email addresses and invite others to edit and add family to the tree. I did that for my sister Michelle who I know has an interest in geneology. Suddenly there are another 27 names on her husband's side that she added off the top of her head. Heck, I haven't even added much on my mother's side of the family, yet. But I do know it is going to be interesting to have all this information in one place that I can just go to at anytime for free when I have questions about or need to add branches to our family. As I've mentioned before, we seem to be getting many leaves during the last few years.