Thank you John and Jillaine for your feedback. I'll answer both of your posts here.
On Nov. 1, 2016, I made a point of respectfully focusing on the names of each grandparent, great-grandparent and great-great-grandparent. Then I started listening, focusing on each great-great-grandparent, starting at the top of my 5-generation chart and working haphazardly down the list. When I got to my mother's side of the family, I talked to my Stickler great-grandparents, and then had to end because I was getting overwhelmed; I followed up the following day.
Here are my notes (abridged to remove bits that ancestors would prefer not to share):
"Gottlieb [Schmeeckle] regretted that he had been unable to provide a comfortable widowhood for Barbara, but he had failed to prosper after coming to Nebraska in his elder years. Jacob Zimmerman said that he had been unable to prevent his daughter from marrying outside the Amish church, and then had been unable to shun her after she did so, and so the congregation ended up shunning their minister. Prince Tobey talked about being unable to work on the trip through California (because he was so old), but he had skillfully directed the others, who benefited from his direction. And then back in Nebraska, he was well-received by his children as he lived out his years, once again because of his practical wisdom. I had mistakenly called “Sarah Hunt,” and Prince’s wife Esther talked after him, saying that because of her hips, she was unable to work properly, and mentioned losing six of her children. Her mother Sarah later spoke up, wondering why I had called her. I first said that she was the only ancestor who had been born in Vermont where I grew up, and then explained the mistake, that I had meant to name her daughter Esther. Sarah said that Esther, although unable to work well, had been good at building a loving home environment for her family. She said that there had never quite been enough in the town she lived in, but the community supported each other and together managed to make ends meet. James Gilliland Stickler [I heard him pronounce “Jilliland,” not “Guilliland,” as I had always imagined the pronunciation] said that he had been unable to give good educations to all his children, so he focused his resources on his son Ralph, with the idea that Ralph would pay for the educations of his brothers’ children; and so he did. James said that Ralph’s wife had never been satisfied, and made it impossible for James to enjoy a relationship with his son as an adult. James’s wife Mercy Ann Singley said that she had been a simple woman, and was surprised that anyone had remembered her. And that was when it first occurred to me that I could have extended conversations with these people."
I "heard" all of these conversations in plain English as I am used to speaking. It occurred to me that my great-great-grandfather Gottlieb Schmeeckle spoke little if any English when alive. When I recently talked to distant German ancestors, I also "heard" their thoughts in plain English. However, at times there was confusion about the proper choice of a word, and I indicated that in my first "Ancestral Memories" free space page by putting the word in question in parentheses. In each of these cases, the ancestor and I agreed on the particular word to use, and then the ancestor moved on with his/her story. I don't have any explanation for how I hear their words; it's part of the mystery of what is going on.
Jillaine, you wrote, "However anyone may think about whether or not it’s possible to communicate with long-deceased ancestors, providing information on a profile that you obtained through such a communication fails to meet the second purpose of a citation. I cannot independently access or verify that data."
I agree in general, and I have not added any of this information to any profile, and I am not inclined to do so, beyond "see also..." notes that I have placed in the Sources section of several profiles, with links to the relevant free space page.
Regarding independent access to my data, this depends on (1) whether you are also a descendant of the ancestor in question, and (2) whether you have developed the ability to communicate with ancestors (which appears to be much more common than many people realize), and (3) whether the ancestor in question wants to talk to you. Once again, we should always be respectful when communicating with ancestors, and not treat them like source documents whose sole purpose is to satisfy our curiosity.
For example Jillaine, Nathaniel Fish--father of our common ancestor Ambrose Fish--told me that the father of his first wife (also our ancestor) was Mr. Henry Feake of Sandwich. I present this to you as a hypothesis worth testing, although the lack of records in that time and place will probably continue to be an insurmountable brick wall.