Other people's trees - interesting?

Are other people's family trees interesting? Or is the lure of family history the fact it all relates to 'me' - a real ego boost?

Over the past few days I have been researching the family tree of a work colleague - she wants to present an older relative with their genealogy as a birthday gift.

I've found the process as enthralling as doing my own tree - deciphering the family's journey from a rural life through the Industrial Revolution to Lancashire mill towns. And then bingo - they turn up in 1901 in the same street that my grandmother now lives on in Blackburn. I call my friend:

'The family home still stands...'
'Really?'

'Yes, every time I visit my grandma I pass it on the way to the corner shop - it's a two up, two down red brick terrace with a small flagged yard and a red door.'

I am not sure I can deliver such 'personal service' every time, but the precedent has been set!

And now I have got the decorator hooked: she's always wanted to know where her great grandparents came from before they emigrated to South Africa...another project!