how far into your family tree can you go?

The farthest I can go back on my dad's side is when my grandfather and grandmother came through Ellis Island... everything else is lost with time, their names were changed, they had little to no family.

On my mothers side I can get back pretty far though. Her dad's side is with the main family of Slanes in Ireland, and theres a pretty tight record of who what and when for hundreds and years. All kinds of Tuatha Dé Danann shit in that side. Her mothers side on the other hand, can't trace much before Ellis Island.
 
I know back to my great-grandparents as well as a lot of stories about great aunts and uncles who died before I was born. I know my paternal grandmother's parents emigrated from somewhere near Oslo in the late ninteenth century. I also know some branch of my mother's family can be traced back to clan Craig, and there is a Craig tartan somewhere in an heirloom chest. I can draw some conclusions based on the etymology of my grandparents' surnames (Knudsen, Coley, Ruth, and Bynum).
 
Only have info on where they came from in Europe.

moms side grandma is pure Lithuanian, name Chekitis
moms side grandpa is (we think) all German, name Kopp

now dads side is where it gets messy.
The name is Austrian, and its been changed. We have no idea how it was spelled. but it sounded like Niplashon. No idea.
Grandpa is think Austrian and polish.
Grandma is something I have no idea about.

I know theres some Italian, Irish, and Cheyenne in there somewhere. wish it was easier to figure this shit out.
 
We've got a big ol' book on my mom's side that goes a ways back, I don't know how far exactly. I've mostly focused on the ancestors around the Civil War era (of which there were 6, 5 Confederates and 1 Union. They all came from Walkersville and Tazwell, Virginia, so the book says and Mom and I are going down there in August to find "out roots". Mom's found papers that say one of our ancestors fought in the Revolutionary War in Delaware at the time Washington was riding the boat across the river. Snazzy. She's also found that one of our boys was a kaiser back in Germany.

And my poor Dad only knows that he's Polish and probably English from Granny's last name.
 
My great grandfather fought at Somme, and lived. Further back than that I'm related to a few scientists, an economist and a bit before that my fathers side of the family were threw out of Ireland for being notorious criminals.
 
My mother once used Ancestry.com to trace our lineage back to 500-600 B.C. The blood line jumped from Scotland to Iceland to Sweden to Turkey and then to...Canada? Yea it was weird. And everything after the year 1000 or so has probably a .01 percent chance of being true anyhow.
 
Who capitulated to German rule and just sat in his Castle organising things really well and pretending he still had an army.