How far can you trace your ancestry back to?

I've been working on my own tree for over 30 years and I'm still not even close to finishing it!

On some lines, I've gone back to around 900 AD.  On most, I've gone back to the 1500s, 1600s and early 1700s.  A few, I've not got back as far as 1800.

Be persistent, take your time and preferably take a college course or at the very least find a course at a library or family history society.  I've done a few and they're usually excellent.

On my mum's side, I can trace my ancestry to the early 1900s. On my dad's side, I can trace my ancestry to late 1800s.I claim Irish, English and Scottish ancestry from my mum. My dad's family are of English descent, but I wouldn't be surprised if I also have Austrian ancestry given my surname.

On my dad's side of the family, to some 6th & 7th great grandparents with decent reliability. On my mom's side, to a couple of 3rd great grandparents.

Depends of past records and even whether they were kept at all. Even if all records were available, I wonder whether we would really want to know the full details of our ancestry ?

Knowing the peculiarities of the human race, its quiet deviation from the stipulated rules, the sneaky little rolls in the hay, and the wandering minstrels who swiftly vanish over the horizon after bringing tears of joy to many a lonely

maiden, No, I think I would prefer just to let sleeping dogs lie.

Questions about the answerer are not allowed on Y!A

simple celled organisms, like bacteria, is where your family come form 

Some lines, back to the late 1600s. Most lines, the mid- to early 1800s. It gets really hard before people arrived in the US, both finding records and reading a language I don't speak.

Among my favorite things to discover is cause of death, although it's often absent. The ones I find are commonly something curable now, or avoidable accidents. Two kids who fell through the ice skating alone--but not together or anything. A logging sled improperly secured, crushing a man with lumber. Eating food that had gone bad. Lots of typhoid and TB. Childbed fever only two generations back--enough to be pre-antibiotics. Lost both feet to frostbite, traveling against advice, then gangrene set in.

Fascinating, really.

My birth family is Mennonite. I have my family tree back to the Reformation. Around 1450 or so.

My wife can go back pretty far. My parents for me, that's about it. I was adopted as an infant. I'm Native American, apart from that, I've no idea. A DNA study that my kids wanted me to do, indicated the tribe was very likely from the Northeast USA, there's a little German & Northern European as well; about 15% as I recall.

So far, late 1700s on one branch and only late 1800s on the Irish side (still working on it).  If you have got back as far as the first census, then you will need to check church records in the city/town/village of your ancestors to get any further.  More and more is coming online, so don't despair as in the next few weeks/months/years you may suddenly find a piece of information which gets you back on track to look further back into your families past.  I have has great leaps and then nothing for a few years and then suddenly I find more information.