I do like this topic. But I honestly can't pick a favorite. My fave is the one I am working on at the time. I have sunk my teeth (and my heart) into my Murphy branch right now. There were 7 brothers and maybe one sister (not confirmed yet) who came over from Ballon, County Carlow. One of the brothers was my gg grandfather. I am very focused on one of the other brother's family now, due to them being orphaned at a young age. I am on a mission to find the orphaned children, but I don't how many and only have 2 names. Of all of those brothers, it appears there are no actual Murphy descendants. All descendants come from females in the family, although 5 of the boys had very large families. I am not sure about the orphaned ones, and my gg grandfather had 4 children by two wives. One of those children was a boy and I haven't been able to find him after the 1870 US census in Cohoes, NY.
Before that it was my Hayes branch. My gg grandfather Hayes was widowed in 1888. He lived until 1943 and never remarried, although he had 2 little girls to care for. There is the possibility that there were 2 more (family rumor) and they might have been placed in an orphanage or with another family. We found out that my gg grandmother, dead at 24, was illegit and had a sad life. We also miraculously found one of my gg grandfather's 3 brothers through the Welcome Walls in Australia and now have family down under.
And then there was my Schmieg branch, of which I knew nothing until recently and worked hard finding other family members, graves, birth, marriage and death records.
It's so hard to pick. I haven't even jumped into several other branches and then they will be my favorites.
Kath