The foilables of ancestry research

When I first started looking at ancestry.com, I was initially on fire about finding all my parentage. I knew a few things from my parents, but even those were suspect. They weren't really interested, or they didn't know, or they focused on part of their heritage. We were English, we were German, we were Scottish, Irish, Welsh, French, and Native American. Maybe some other stuff, they weren't sure. In short, they weren't any help.
My cousin runs the Laughton family website, and he just said our people were all mostly English. Laughton is a well-known old English name, and there's a town somewhere in the middle of Britain named Laughton en Morthren. Okay. Fine. But if you look at the names many are Anglicized Irish names. Huh.Well that just had to be too simple, and then there's my mother's side of the family.
Eric, my English boyfriend, said maybe they were all English, with Irish surnames. Sure. But think about it in an historical perspective. The British Isles were invaded numerous times, people moved from place to place because of war, famine, the need for work, and whatever. Think some more, and realize that people are people and they don't always have clear motives.
Tracing a name can bring you to a dead end where no records exist, or bring you to the point where finding those records presents a snarl not unlike the Gordian knot. For example, a peek at an Irish famine ship registry reveals the name of one of your ancestors. And you notice there are eleven other women with the same name. My, that's a common name.
But wait, what if ... Hey! Do people always travel under their own name? You have to have a clean record to travel to another country, don't you? So, what if your auntie has that name and you were pinched by the law for stealing a loaf of bread?  You could use her name, couldn't you? Then you could get a job in America. But when you get to America you find the slums of New York, New Orleans, and other places, and a whole lot of people who hate you. You could anglicize your name try to drop the accent and get a job in service. You might not have your pride, but you'd have a full belly.
What if your parent mistakes relations by marriage for those of blood?
And then, what if you were raised by other people, and they gave you their surname? What if everyone knew your mother, and not for her cooking? What if your sister was really your mother? None of these  scenarios is unrealistic. Records can only help you so far.
So, along comes y-DNA and mitochondrial DNA tests that trace your DNA to the source, giving you a percentage of your bloodline by geographic region. It's not cheap, but it can be done. How far do you want to go? At this point, I think I'll quote Irish comedienne Geraldine Doyle, "In the end, you'll just find out you come from a long line of dead people."