What do you and don't you know about pedigrees?

I like a dog with a good pedigree, or a good set of papers, but Ive also seen non-papered dogs that will out hunt, out find , out stop and out catch some of the papered dogs I've had dealings with. I'm a fan of reading up on dogs and trying to trace the blood back as far as I can with any available information. I've spent countless hours on the phone with John Wayne Ross just soaking up some good , solid information. That man can do some talking, and to be honest I'm not much of a talker and don't really like to have the phone to my head that long. But he's the type of fella that I don't mind listening to because he's not full of b.s. and knows his dogs. And lineage. To me papers are like recipe's , and I'd sure as hell like to have popcorn sutton's moonshine recipe. ....... just saying.