Americans' fascination with their roots overwhelmed Monday's ballyhooed online rollout of the complete 1940 Census when 22.5 million people swarmed the website in the first three hours — paralyzing the system. Most people couldn't access the free data on the National Archives and Records Administration's website. Not even Census Director Robert Groves, who attended the official unveiling at the Archives in Washington, D.C., and looked up his grandfather, who lived in St. Louis in 1940. The site, 1940census.archives.gov, kept loading, and loading and loading but never did. The hangup caused frustration for historians and family researchers, embarrassment for the Archives and a chance for private sites such as Ancestry.com, which had some images ready for viewing as early as the wee hours, to gloat/USA Today. More here. (AP/UTA Library via Fort Worth Star-Telegram photo: A poster used for promotional efforts during the 1940 Census is shown)

Question: Have you ever studied your family genealogy? How far back can you go?