:’) Given the fact that we’ve only just managed to emerge from the peasantry, I’m pretty sure my ancestors were either in that boat, or managed to be on the dispossessed lines. :’) $600 is pretty cheap. So much is electronic and so much is available, multiple genealogies from zillions of sources can be used to generate searches for you and yours (typically starting with information from you, your known ancestors, and most people can come up with at least their great-grandparents), followed by outputs from each database which provides a hit, followed by attempts to import the outputs and merge them, then edit them down, and work on getting as much verifying documentation as they can. Gotta love our technological age!