I have done a huge amount of work on my family tree (admittedly in fits and starts, depending on work commitments etc) and have traced my family back to 1720 where the trail goes cold. The parish records before that had suffered water damage and were illegible. However the family name was around in the same area of Wiltshire about 50 years earlier, so assuming that folk didn't travel very far in those days, then it seems likely that that will be as far back as I can go. I have never been interested in having a DNA check because it will not tell me anything about what I would call the "real" history of my family. My surname suggests that it originated in France around the time of William the Conquerer as most people had no surname at that time and apparently a lot of peasants simply took the name of the particular knight that the king gave the land to. Hence I suspect all the DNA would tell me is that we originated in Western Europe - no surprise there!

As a precautionary note: my wife decided that it would be a good idea to follow my lead and try to trace her family history. At the age of 62 she discovered that she had been adopted and the people she thought were her Mum and Dad were not! This led to her brother checking his background, only to discover that he too was adopted but from a different family, so the pair of them were not related to each other either! Be prepared for a few surprises which may or may not have a happy outcome.