It would be really great to see where your family came from. I’ve always said I would go to England to see where the first of my family came from...but just figuring that out will probably require magic. Ancestry.com is not even sure.
Yeah, I did the whole geneology thing for my kids.
It was tough but I found out I have ancestors in Wales, England, Scotland, Poland and Ireland.
My biggest help was when I found a living relative (now dead) that had already done much of the research. My dad's family was there but they had no data on his children, which I gave them freely for helping me.
With 14 grandchildren, I could really give them an update.
You should not give up.
Ancestry.Com is not the only resource.
http://www.genealogy.com/
http://www.411locate.com/
http://www.intelius.com/
http://publicrecords.searchsystems.net/
Plus there are a lot of cemeteries that have digitized their populations.
Have fun.
Back on topic:
Pisces,
If you are really interested in touching with your roots you can do some cemetery touring and take rubbings of tombstones. Its tedious but not expensive and kinda interesting.
Once you have some actual names and dates, you can check out the local libraries and newspaper archives to find out where they lived and go visit the neighborhoods.
Just an idea.
Those are old world countries that preserve heritage so you might even find some stores and such that haven't really changed over time.