Except, for me, it was the reverse. In every case, so far, where I have family members (by blood or by marriage, or marriage association (A. Jefferis Turner is that)), I did not know until I went hunting for the sources to back up the handwritten family notes that any of these people could be considered "notable". I always knew about the Judge in the family, but from the way my mother always referred to him as "somewhere up the tree", I didn't realise he was an important man of his times. But he's not qualified to be a wikitree "notable" because he doesn't have a Wikipedia page (his HOUSE does, though). His son, also doesn't have a Wikipedia page, but he was definitely "notable" in his time. Perhaps not to the point of his best friend A. Jefferis Turner, but he was well thought of by his peers and made it into the Who's Who in Australia (as did his father the Judge).
Each and every one of these people on the collateral side have come as an eye-opening, jaw-dropping amazement. "I'm related to HIM?!"
So, essentially, I knew their human, fallible, side long before I discovered their fame.
I'm especially blown away by the heroism of some of them. One who will never be "notable" is my grand-Uncle George who died of smallpox after being on Gallipoli Peninsula 1915. Both his surviving brothers signed up as a result of his being on Gallipoli. That's heroism of the non "notable" kind. As is the brother of my Mother's aunt's husband. He lost TWO brothers, one on Gallipoli Peninsula (26 April 1915) and one who was sent to Egypt for a sore throat that somehow became the meningitis that killed him less than 24 hours after diagnosis in early 1916. (He'd (the brother) been on Gallipoli Peninsula, too, and was Wounded in Action, recovered from the shrapnel wounds, was sent back to his unit, then sent on the hospital ship to Egypt.) DESPITE those two losses, my Grand-Uncle's brother signed up in 1916, leaving a pregnant wife and a daughter.* THAT's heroism and is notable, but not by wikitree standards.
THESE are who blow me away. I knew of their everyday lives first. I have honoured their sacrifices ever since I knew of them, back 40-plus years ago. I brought my children up to also honour the sacrifices made by ALL those who served. I get a thrill when I see so many here making sure that others like my non-"notables" get recognition, even if it's just from a "sticker" on their profile. :)
* He made it home. Wounded in Action in France, he was repatriated to Australia and lived to father more children than just the two daughters he had.