I do contact living relatives here and there (matching with them on Anc etc) but usually only so we can discuss mutual confusion or to get more information, I don't actually want a cousin relationship with them. I'm not a fan of people in general, to be honest. Most of my ancestors are too dead to be bothered by me poking around in their private records, asking awkward questions, making possibly insulting theories etc... Most of what I've enjoyed about family history is the detective work and the exhilaration of solving something or getting a solid theory. Getting "as far back as possible" for me is how successful one can get on a line that you can prove to some extent. There's a difference between getting far back with evidence and getting far back with name collecting. I think I've had as much success as I'm going to with the paper records (although happy to be proven wrong!) but DNA has some potential to link me up in certain areas. I think I have a solid chance of narrowing down the unknown father of one illegitimate ancestor through DNA, that's far more interesting to me than finding living relatives.
