I've traced my family back to the 11th century on one side, but found that my subscription to ancestry.com was priceless in finding the other side of the maternal ancestry, (since I have no idea about who my real father was, I can't check that side of the family).
You might give it a go. I didn't realize that there were so many other people looking for the same stuff I was, and I got to meet some distant cousins. Fun times!
