How to get your family back into the 1600?

ok, we have been researching our family tree the mins family, but there is one problem we can only really get back to 1796 with a boy who was a flax grower after that everything stops,and im wondering if anyone who has traced there ancestry to scotland if there family were presbyterians or whatever could tell me how you could get youre family back to the 1600s? (btw i live in northern ireland so this should help on what sites to recommend)