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I have been researching my family history for 30 years, starting with a pen, paper and inter-library loan before anything was online. I made mistakes, learned from them, made more, learned more. By now I have a fair knowledge of many sources, both reputable and pure myth, I read many local histories, and I combine this with my degree in population studies, especially useful in migration patterns. I'm now back to the 1600's for all but a few branches where I have some brick walls (Morgan and Oliver in New Jersey, or across the line in Pennsylvania, around the time of the Revolution). I also have German, English, and Portuguese ancestors that I work on. Not ready to go World Membership on Ancestry until I fill in more of the holes in my genealogy before I get to the immigrant. I have a lot of Mayflower and Mass Bay lines, Rhode Island, Nantucket, Connecticut from the beginning, ditto New Hampshire and Maine, and some Dutch ancestry. Most of the direct family hasn't gone beyond NY or NJ, though other branches have. My Dad's side arrived in upstate NY before 1820, many were Quakers, others were business people, and most farmed. These are the areas I'm most familiar with, and some of the families that I'm researching.
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