I have been spending a lot of time working on ancestry trees this week; after normal work hours. However, domestic land (home responsibilities) required some special attention and it has become necessary to come up for air and cleanse the pallet.

I don’t want to keep those who have asked for my help waiting, but grinding through a thousand people a week, on average (genealogically), can numb my senses. There are at least two cases where I feel close to making a discovery, but gluing together the family trees has become a challenge.

Distancing myself from the genealogy for a day or two will allow my mind to let the names settle into my subconscious so I can start to see the connections more clearly. No one is pressuring me to produce results quickly, but I do feel a responsibility to be there to assist whenever possible.

I am not complaining by any means, as I revel in challenges. Yet, if I want to stay on top of my game I need to emerge myself into diversions occasionally so that I can come back refreshed, eliminating the noise that can sometimes interfere with my thoughts.

I came across a name tonight that I swore I saw earlier in another tree for an adoptee. I spent two hours looking for this name, only to realize I had become too hazy assembling the ancestry tree to clearly identify the ghost in the machine. Call it what you like, but I had hit a personal brick wall and needed a break to allow some of what I built throughout the week to sink in.