I'm with you on that, Jackie: I LOVE the "detective" side. What, when, but also WHY?

I started my tree back in 1985 (Pre-internet days!) Days on end at record offices around the country...Joy-of-joys!

I prefer Ancestry to the other sites, although I only upload a limited, straight line ancestry line, without too much detail.

Comes about from a clown who decided that it pretty much "matched" some of his ancestors, so "adopted" (stole) the details as his own, then added a LOAD of fictitious rubbish!!

After that, I am wary of uploading details, but always respond to enquiries from people, who see a link to their tree. So it HAS been useful, up to a point.

As to paperwork, I have BOX Fulls..... literally!

But when you find an ancestor who was arrested, and convicted of murdering a policeman, and then pardoned at the 11th hour......now THAT's worth looking into, and amazing how much of the "so-called" evidence is still accessible. And subsequently featured on the BBC series "Murder, Mystery & My Family."