We just started a little over two years on our family histories. I'd thought about researching the families but I suspected that it would be addictive and I just didn't have the time. Then a little over 2 years ago to entertain my daughter who was ill and recovering from surgery I told family stories--most she'd heard--including the one about my grandfather being an inventor that she didn't know. She decided to look online and sure enough some of his patent applications had been digitized and she found them. This lead her to discovering my grandmother's maiden name and that she was descended from a Revolutionary War patriot. And the rest, as they say, is history.
It is addictive. I've roped my daughter, my brother and now my mother-in-law into researching family. From what I've found we've had family serving in every war or conflict since the French & Indian War, both sides of the Civil War on down to today.
It's funny to see people's reactions to talking about genealogy. My daughter and I love to hear other's stories. My mother is only interested in her family history which has been pretty funny sharing with her. It took us a year to get her to understand who she was related to. Her great grandmother married 3 times and her grandfather remarried also. So she grew up with all these people who were in and out of her life and she didn't know how they were related to her until we told her. We've discovered some very nice people online willing to share any information and others who are "don't bother me, this is my information" type people.
It's been fun. I feel like we've learned so much and we haven't been at it all that long. I've met people doing this for 30+ years. It's wonderful to have the internet to do some of this!