It's interesting to look into family history, I agree. My uncle (on my other's side) is obsessed with it and has traced our family tree back several hundred years all over Europe. He's written several books with his findings. My parent's house in the states has an entire bookshelf shelf dedicated to his books. Unfortunately no one on my father's side has ever cared so much, so I can only follow it back to my grandparents in Sicily.
I should sign up for one of those sites one day. ancestry.com is about the biggest, right? I have the interest but I just don't have the time right now. But I figure the historic data will just become more and more available, so it will be there waiting for me in the future.
It can be time consuming for sure; paths diverge and split off again and before long one has spent three hours delving into one single aspect. Do that every day and yep, it eats into ones time. I enjoyed it though, and feel I have gotten a lot from it, personally.
Maybe you'll get to it at some point, I think a person needs to be in the right frame of mind to do so, that's when they get the best returns from it, the most enjoyment.