I’ve been very curious about Ancestry.com and thought I might join. My maternal history is traceable back to the late 17th century in England/America. However, my paternal history seems to start with my grandparents who just kind of showed up around 1900...
Ancestry.com offers a two-week free trial, and you can get a lot of info in that time! Then you can make an informed decision about whether to invest membership fees. As a teaser, they let you see all US records during the trial period, but nothing from outside the States. The monthly rate is quite reasonable; $25 for US records, and $30 for world-wide.