It's amazing what is out there if you know where to look. Don't just follow your primary family name either, trace back your mothers maiden name and her mother's and so on. We found out we can trace two distinct (from opposite sides of my family) all the way back to being in Plymouth and having travelled over on the Mayflower, one of them even signed the Compact. Another part of the family was here waiting on them. We've also found names associated with following Roger Williams to establish the Rhode Island settlements, colonial governors, a branch that fought at Lexington and Concord, other Revolutionary battles (both sides), the Civil War (War of Northern Aggression for those south of the Mason-Dixon), etc. We thought my wife's family had only arrived in the late 1800s, but by following the maiden names traced her family back in America almost as long as mine has been here. History is there, you just have to find it.