A personal story:
A couple of years ago we were digging into our family tree, and discovered, we thought, that we were direct descendants of Sir Thomas More. It was an awesome thought.
Unfortunately, further study showed us that a wrong turn had been taken at an earlier fork in the lineage, and it just wasn’t true. We were quite disappointed. :-)
Yeah, that must’ve been exciting if that had proven true. My father did some research on some of our lines, though all he was able to get through was the late 1600s, his direct paternal line going back to humble Welsh farmers. More foggy were the other lines, such as maternal, where we still haven’t gone back prior to the 1860s (when they were still in Scotland, although apparently a cousin in the line is now the current lady head of the Scottish Tories. I haven’t contacted her yet to confirm the common ancestor, but the name is obscure enough that most of us are related).
The French and German lines are a bit interesting, though only marginally researched. The French line apparently was Huguenot that fled during all that Inquisition unpleasantness. One German (Hessian) line was apparently a mercenary hired by the British for the Revolutionary War (who more amazingly stayed afterwards, despite the fact a lot of angry Patriots got revenge on them). I haven’t been able to uncover any actual English ancestry.
Of course, as they say, not everyone can be descended from Kings or Presidents (and just because you are isn’t an indicator you yourself will be anything special — Ron Reagan, Jr. being a good example of that). Better to try to achieve greatness even if you are from mere humble lineage, instead of resting on laurels of distant greatness. ;-)