Down the genealogy rabbit hole

This picture was taken at Maroon Lake in Colorado while I was there for my nephew's wedding in June of 2011.

Family.

Seems I have a lot of it. I got bit by the genealogy bug when I saw a free tree-building website. Who knew it was going to result in so many hours in lists and census pages? I am totally sucked in by the search.

My mother's side of the family came from Ireland, 1851, I think. They settled in upstate NY. Luckily they all stayed put and the local paper took note of everything - births, deaths and marriages. Now I need to jump over to Ireland and see if I can trace the family there. I think I have found the great-great-grandfather that came over. Luckily he was a mason, because his last name is insanely common.

My father's side is both harder and easier. He was born in Hungary. I know the village and my grandmother's maiden name. The big problem is that I don't speak Hungarian. And wow is that a hard language. The other problem, their village is tiny. I have doubts about finding any census information. Many records were lost in the wars over there. And I have lost touch with relatives, which were all my grandmother's siblings. Most likely all dead now.

But it is a merry chase trying to find this aunt or that great-uncle and they did what for a living? Amazing. I have had to limit my time because once I start digging, I lose hours!