I did the same thing and now have over 24,000 names in my FTM. I have tried to get more sources for my info and have done so in many cases. Genealogy is a fascinating hobby. I was bored one night and decided to trace the ancestors of someone who married into my mom’s side of the family. To my amazement, it went back to 410 to King Clovis the Riparian of Cologne whoever he was. It went further back but I thought that was enough. Wish I could find some descendants to pass it along to.
I have boxes, too, from genealogical digs. Last bit of info I discovered came from a small parish in sw Germany. We had gone there to see the village where my great-grandfather hailed from. Went to the larger parish, where the priest was kind enough to fill in some of my records back to 1650s from his church records. It was like a Gold Rush find. It’s a wonderful and compelling hobby/obsession.
“To my amazement, it went back to 410 to King Clovis the Riparian of Cologne whoever he was.”
If you can trace your family line back to royalty, you typically can go back hundreds of years (royalty, after all, being the individuals most likely to have such records). Having traced my family back to some English kings, I then found a book that took my lineage all the way back to Julius Caesar.