My cousin Marina spent three years researching in the national archives in Saint Petersburg, spent countless hours interviewing people, and wrote an 800 page book on five centuries of our family history. So there is no question, it can become an obsession with some people. I would not have the energy or the time to do what Marina did. Although I do consider her work a precious gift.
I frankly would get totally bored with just a family tree - names on a sheet of paper, linked in linear, branching patterns.
A total snooze fest to me.
What interests me is not just knowing who these people were, but what the world they lived in was like. The broader historical, social, and cultural context that bound them to their times - and in some small way, to me. That is why I make it an effort to understand the geography, history, and culture through the centuries in the Medieval Kievan Rus principalities, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Imperial Russian Empire, and the Don River Cossack Host. That is where the real action is at, man!