LOL
I hear that! I'm an artist/writer and we get all tangled up with math, numbers - we would never make good bookkeepers - can hardly spell the word!
But here's a good link to a MIT study. It's a good place to start and has lot's of great colored charts on the dispensation/lineage of "all our family" :)
http://tedlab.mit.edu/~dr/Papers/Rohde-MRCA-two.pdf
But I did have the advantage of generations of our family charts and then an aunt who took over and became a well known genealogist/historian. I worked with her on our family charts for 30 years - we have many lines back more than 1600 yrs +. She was the "facts: vital stats" person. I leaned more towards: "What did they do/think/believe,etc." so we made a good team. She died before the birth of the Internet. I often think about how she would've been ecstatic to be able to go online and be able to get a years worth of research done in one session!
One also learns a lot of history when delving back thru' the generations. You also find that your talents/leanings/likes/dislikes also are passed on genetically as well as eye/hair color, etc. (For example, I have many writers/artists/political activists in my lines. (One wrote a book nearly 400 years ago that is in print today. His mentor had a price on his head (England) for writing and printing - in a clandestine shop - tracts against the Church of England. the crown had Pinkerton detectives on his trail for years. He was eventually smuggled aboard a now famous ship and was the spiritual leader of his village until his death just a few weeks shy of 80 - almost 400 years ago. - So, you see, I come by my 'rabble rousing' honestly!)
Genealogy is fascinating - and gives you, not so much pride, as a feeling of obligation to these ancestors for what they endured and accomplished. You feel like you can't drop the ball, as it were. The biggest problem with genealogy is - it's extremely addictive :o)
I've done some geneology research, myself. I'm at a dead end, as far as verifying the information I have. I will probably have to travel to Pennsylvania and see if I can gather documented/written information concerning my family in that state...it's been quite a fun project. Yes, it's also been a great learning of history education, as well.
My sister does geneology. She showed us a family tree going back to Germany in the 1600's.
My grandson was born last Thursday. As I held him this weekend, I thought about all of our ancestors.... Then I got home and read your post and just had to agree that geneology is fascinating.