My great great grandfather, that is.
Until eight years ago, I didn't know the name of my forebears. (I mentioned once on another thread that I am adopted) Anyway, my half-sister contacted me and all was revealed.

Doing a little research, I have discovered that he was born in Edinburgh. His father was a solicitor before the Supreme Court there. - and for some reason in 1853 he came all the way over the sea to Sydney.
Remarkably, through Trove (online) at the National Library site, I have been able to piece together a little of the fabric of his life.
He was the Sydney manager of Goodlet and Smith. He married a lady who had emigrated from Worcestershire. I read the death notice for their first son who died at six from bronchitis, and for their second son who died at twenty and for their infant daughter who died at four months..."Dearly beloved child"....
I read of births as well, and house sales. I gained clues as to their origins. Four of their seven children survived, and as they were from a certain class, great great grandfather had " Esq" written after his name.
The thing that struck me was how real this story seemed - I could almost feel mid-nineteenth century Sydney bustling about as I tracked their progress through the newsprint years.

Just wondering if anyone else has had the same feeling of "connection" when learning of the lives of their ancestors.

yes Poirot, it does. I researched my family tree and got many pleasant surprises. Most notably was how romantic fiction was woven through the thread of facts and where certain behavioural traits came from. It gives me a much better idea of my composite make up as the sum of my history, allowing me to sort the wheat from the chaff.

Dear Poirot,

Tracing family history is fascinating and
definitely puts things into perspective.
We recently received a book from Lithuania
which was sent to my husband. It's his family
tree, that a family member there had researched and
published. My husband was fascinated with what
he learned and he can now pass it onto our
children. I intend to research my family history
some day soon. It would be interesting to connect
the dots. My brother is doing his, and so is his
English wife. We're a varied mix in our family
from Lithuanians, British, Swedish, Germans, Russians, and
of course - Aussies.

Pitot, it should be fun, as long as you don't mind what you find.

About 50 years ago an aunt of mine started the same thing. We all knew that my great grand father was a gentleman. An officer in some corps, that had come out with one of the early governors. This suited her inclinations to snobbery.

However, when she discovered that he had married one of those dreadful convicts he was supposed to be guarding she lost interest in the whole process.

Dear Hasbeen,

That is a good aunt story...very funny.
Many people actually hope to find a convict in their lineage.

However, it's true that you do seem to gravitate toward the more notable figures...even for a bit of a leftie like me. I've had loads of fun because my forebears were of a certain class - which also makes them easier to track because as we know, that class was the one that did all the recording, so they tended for the most part to write about themselves.
I've found a transcript of my great great great grandfather at the trial of the man who killed James Boswell's son in a duel. It was great to be able to read my ancestor's words. His cousin carried out the autopsy on Napoleon on St Helena... I've also found Kirk records stating that several of these notables had illegitimate children - for which they were admonished and then absolved.
It's interesting to see the different mechanisms in place to oversee conduct in society back then. Government interference was much less than it is now because the churches had much of the responsibility for that sort of thing.

For me, it is very gratifying because up until I learned the names of my forebears I felt like I'd just landed on the planet from nowhere like the opening frames of Mr Bean.

Foxy,

My half-sister is half Estonian - her father was an engineer who came out to work on the Snowy Scheme.

Poirot
There is something quite primal about tracing one's family tree. My Aussie Grandfather did quite a bit of research on family, going back to a convict who I believe stole a bit of rope (why anyone would want to steal rope is anyone's guess). Grandad traced his family back to Nottingham, and the Irish in the family on my Grandmother's side came from Eniskillen.

There is a creek named after my Grandmother's Irish ancestors in NSW where they were well known in and around the gold fields and then farming. Oddly when I visit that area I also feel a strange sense of belonging (could be completely pyschological of course).

There was that simplistic sense of standing on ground that one's ancestors stood on. After researching those international locations, there is also an odd attachment to places I have never seen.

It says something about the human psyche that we reach out to the past to know more about who we are and about those we come from.