Family Helping Family

I was recently contacted by a distant cousin who had seen the family work I've done at ancestry.com. Now a LOT of my family has been dispersed through early parental deaths, loss of records, etc. etc. So many family members don't know much about the ancestral roots, old family stories and connections, and so forth. My distant cousin has really helped me "collect" a "narrative" by asking about specific family members long passed. Sometimes, you have so much "data" that it seems overwhelming to keep it in mind until you asked "How are we related to so-and-so?" When you answer back, you think about all the connections and try to weave it into a manageable format and -- if you're lucky -- you can pinpoint the data sources to verify, such as census records, court records, and so on. Then it really becomes "history" not just old family stories that may or may not be true.

Have any of you experienced this "helpful by ignorance" effect?