I hope everyone had a great holiday! While I had a great holiday, the cold weather in the Chicagoland area led me to learn about ice damming. Hopefully you all don't have the misfortune of learning about it. Fortunately I have replaced the insulation and as of yesterday, I have a new roof. But enough about me...let's get on to what has been happening with the family genealogy.

Santa was very good to me this year. I received family history books on the Wheelers as well as the Tolles families. While I still have a lot of work (mostly data entry), we now have over 13,500 people in the family tree. While it is great having books that provide birth dates, children, marriage dates, etc. about various family members it is better when the books provide details about how they lived, what they did, when and where the migrated to and other details. These new books have some of those details and I have added them to the notes when I find them.

Unfortunately I haven't heard anything back on my DNA submission. The delay is most likely caused by the fact that I submitted my samples before the holiday. They have been received at the DNA sequencing facility (06 JAN 2006) so hopefully I will hear something soon.

While I will continue to work on the family tree, I have started work again on my Masters Degree at DePaul University which will occupy most of my free time. However, if you have questions or need any information, please send me an email and I will get back to you as soon as possible.

Happy New Year!
Bill