I've been extraordinarily lucky in my genealogy research in that my ancestors and my husband's ancestors have been fairly easy to locate via online resources.
Both sides of my family settled in Ohio, the majority of them in Lima, Ohio, and for some reason the records of Ohio, in general, and Lima, in particular, are quite accessible. I have been able to access death certificates on line for most of my ancestors who died in Ohio, which is something not available for most other states. Also, all of the editions of the Lima News, from the turn of the last century to about 1965, are available online. I have found weddings, funerals, obituaries, engagements, divorces, births, and other interesting tidbits about my family. Many other ancestors lived in Delphos, Ohio, a short distance from Lima, and all of their burial records from two cemeteries are available online. Ohio really has its act together as far as genealogists are concerned.
Regarding my husband's family, his father's ancestors all emigrated from Croatia in the early 1900s, after the opening of Ellis Island, so all of their immigration and naturalization records are online. Shortly after arriving, they all came to California, where birth records are available online from 1905 until 1995. When I decided to try to find the ancestors in Croatia, I was forturnate to find that all church records from the 1700s on are held in one location in Zagreb, and so I hired a researcher to locate them. With all these resources, I have been able to put together a nearly complete family tree from the 1700s until today.
My husband's mother's ancestors were also easy to locate. One maternal grandfather's ancestors are all identified in a book written in the 1980s by two very diligent researchers. And one maternal grandmother's ancestors have been traced to the Mayflower. (Many Mayflower descendants are meticulous genealogists.)
So, all in all, I have found thousands of my own and my husband's ancestors quite easily. Although it has been time consuming, and is ongoing, the search at least has been productive. There are only a few lines that remain at a dead end.
One is the Brennan line, which ends in Ireland with the name of only one ancestor: Edward Brennan. He would be my 3rd great grandfather, the father of Ned Brennan, who emigrated to America with his wife, Mary Fahey in 1861. I have no definitive name for Edward's wife, nor his date and place of birth. Here is where my genealogical luck has run out, for not only are there no records online for Edward Brennan, there are probably no records, period. Most census records before 1901 were destroyed by the government on purpose, or by accident in a fire in 1923.
Likewise, some of my mother's German ancestors remain unknown, particularly the ancestors of her great grandfather, Hermann Henry Frecker, born around 1830. Germany's records are not centralized like those in Croatia, so you must know the exact town in which your ancestor was born. I have a general idea of his place of birth, but I am unsure of the exact town. Without that, I would have to hire someone, or visit Germany myself, and look through records in dozens of towns. This could be a very long endeavor, one I'm not sure I want to take up.
So every few months I google Herman Henry Frecker and Edward Brennan, with appropriate dates, hoping for a miracle, wishing for something new to pop up. After all, Google's mission is to catalog and put online all the information in the world, so someday maybe some information will surface about the ancestors of these men.
Or maybe once my husband retires next year, we can take up temporary residence in Germany, and then move on to Ireland for a few months. Even if I find nothing, I can think of far worse ways to spend my time and money.
