My great grandmother was a genealogy freak. She traced our family all the way back to Germany in the 1600's. My first descendant in America was Thomas Bier (later the name changed to the American spelling, Beer

He came over as a boy (age 6) in 1655 by himself on a ship all the way from Germany! His parents had died and other family sent him here to live with the mother's sister.
Now, I said my great grandmother. She did all this without the internet! I don't know how, but she spent years visiting towns, reading journals, meeting distant relatives, visiting cemeteries, etc. Quite a lot of detective work. What an amazing woman she must've been.