I have been researching for 20+ years. I am curently able to help those who request it.
I have trace one of my grandmother's lines to 300 AD. Yet some of you may find this impossible. The Stafford's lineage came from England and the surname is derived from Staffordshire where there had many land holdings and Castles. In tracing this line back
Through time the name was changed from Toeni. The Toeni were very prominent in Royalty
Going as far back as the Plantagent dynasty who ruled England since the Norman invasion
At Hastings in 1066. Some of the Plantagents married into the Wydeville family (later became
Woodville) The Plantagents ruled England longer than another other era.
Some were Kings and Queens while others were Sir, Knights and Barons. All coming from the same Royal blood lines.

The is an organization called RAOGK that is very helpful but few know about. The cost are often times free or the charges are very minimal. If I can be of any assistance you can let me know. I have many other "Trade Secrets" I am happy to share with others.

On the Today show they said you can now look up your genealogy free on the ellis island website.
I guess every little bit helps.

It will only help if one's ancestor came through there, as with any database, it's limited to what is in there. Trying other sites such as Ancestry.com, rootsweb.com, Cindi's list or even GENWeb.com came become more useful than any single database.
In genealogy the rules of evidence requires three pieces of credible documentation to be substantiated as being credible.
And always document your sources.