I've been researching my Ancestry in several ways.  I started by searching online for my surname, Smiser.  It wasn't long before I found my third great grandparents, George Smiser and Martha Lair.  Then I acquired my cousin's family research which had been done all on paper nearly a generation ago.  Finally I contacted the Smyser/Schmeisser Family Association in York, Pennsylvania and the original immigrants from Ruglesbach, Wurttemburg in 1731...that's when I began to enjoy the whole thing.  I met living relatives and they too were interested in our family.  From there I was able to connect with the original German lines of the Schemisser families back to the 1500's.  The same thing happened with my paternal grandmother's family, the Gollehons, of Smyth County, Virginia back to the Gallaghers of Northwest Ireland and the Stalcups of New Sweden as early as 1695.  Then I began researching my mother's Hoffman line from Hunterdon County, New Jersey from 1725...and her Luttrell line from Frederick County, Virginia from colonial days.  Now I have embarked on the journey to the future through DNA testing which has been the source of unparalleled success in finding third and fourth cousins across the continent and around the world.  My ancestry is becoming clearer by the day with new discoveries of my family origins is the distant past.  I am past my 15,000th family member today with some near relatives included.