Heh. Not 16 years straight though and I didn't have clue what I was doing when I was 15. I just talked to relatves, collected certificates off them and wandered around cemeteries with my Mum. It was 7 years later before I so much as looked at a census entry!

Maybe you should find a friendly forum to keep you going (if you don't already)? I hang around here and we all help each other and talk about everything else under the sun, too. (It's a magazine forum, but we have a fair mix of people.) :-D