Remembering Research Then and Now

I have been thinking a lot about how it is when you first get started doing genealogy.  It is so different now than many years ago.  I have spent many long hours in a local library/repository scrolling through microfilm, thinking at times that I was going blind.  The machines made terrible copies and it took hours just to find a few things, if you found anything at all.  I spent several hours looking through books and indexes hoping to find a few crumbs of information.
Now documents are at your disposal on sites like Ancestry, FamilySearch, Fold3, etc.  We have gotten so used to using the computer to quickly find documents that we have forgotten that there is still a treasure trove of documents not on the internet.  Sometimes the fun in family research is not, I found it on the computer in 20 minutes, but in finding the undiscovered document hidden in the basement at the local courthouse that has not been digitized and placed on a website. Yes, I use the websites above and many more, but nothing replaces the hands on experience.  You cannot create a true family history without these local documents that cannot be found on the internet.  So don't be afraid to take a road trip.  If you can't take a road trip, consider having a genealogist in the area do the leg work for you.  They are always willing to help.