I have been doing Arney genealogy research for almost 30 years now.  I have been researching my particular branch of the Arney surname.  Travelling backwards in time has been no easy feat.  My branch goes back from Tennessee, back to Virginia, back to North Carolina, back to Pennsylvania.  My particular "brick wall" was hit at Jacob Arney, who died in Lincoln County, North Carolina in 1784.  He had a son, Christian Arney, Sr. born in York County, Pennsylvania in 1750.  Jacob Arney moved his family from Pennsylvania to North Carolina in 1767 (Christian went with his father).  What is not known is who were Jacob Arney's parents and where did they come from (were they born in the USA or did they immigrate to the USA from elsewhere)?  This particular Jacob Arney, back in the 1950's was confused with another man and tied to this particular branch of the Arney's for quite sometime.  A Jacob who was the son of a Frederick Ernigh (who arrived in the USA, from Switzerland, in 1732) was tied to this branch of Arney's for decades.  One of the original researchers, a Dr. Tom Rider, realized the mistake and has spent the last few decades trying to correct the error.  Now that we know who our Jacob Arney is NOT the son of, we desire to know who he was the son of?  I do genealogy as a hobby, so yes I have never been formally trained.  I do it the old fashioned way, looking through book by book.  More later.