I've been researching my family's history for over 40 years, starting when I was 18. I'm currently trying to break through a brick wall in my husband's family (Brownson) which is leading me into learning more about using DNA to help open new leads. In my own family, I was able to find my Dad's half sister and introduce them 72 years after my Dad was given up for adoption. Definitely the highlight in all my years of doing genealogy. Lately, I have also been concentrating on filling out more of the maternal lines in my history.
One thing is that although "Waters" is my maiden name, my paternal line is "Britton" of which I have found very little research.