Harry it is a fun and interesting hobby. I used to spend a couple of hours a day back when I was doing the ancestory.com.
I kept getting dead ends but I managed about 5,000+ Grandparents of mine alone. I didn't save every aunt, uncle, cousin, etc because there would be too many. I just saved my direct lines.
Most of mine are English and Scottish. I went back about 1500 years. Pretty cool stuff. My mothers great-grandpa and all of his siblings moved to Canada from England in about 1864 and then to Maine and then they all spread out. I found out that I am related to a lot of English royalty but then again who isn't.
My wife's line was from France, but I couldn't find much. Girard was her grandmothers maiden name. Spelling was a dificulty also, everybody changed the way they spelled their names. Made it time consuming figuring all of that out.
Have fun with your quest, it is quite fun.