This is just a subset of people who do it, but I've seen some people in fairly spiritual/esotericist circles get into genealogy. It seemed like some of them were hoping to find answers to some issues they were struggling with in their family history.

Apparently in some schools of thought from that area there is a lot of focus on family relationships and the fate of one's ancestors and how those may affect people across generations. I feel like newer generations tend to take more of an individualistic/"blank slate" view of their heritage, whereas I've encountered a lot of older people who gave much more thought/weight to where their ancestry came from and things that happened generations ago.