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I use Family Tree Maker for my data base. I started with the people I know about or who people tell me about. GenForum.com has sites for different surnames, counties, states, etc. I have learned a lot from that site. I also use census sites which really makes it come alive. I also have a subscription for ancestry.com which has been a lot of help but like other sites, there are lots of errors on it. When I first started with my dad's side of the family, I knew his parents and grandparents The genforum site really got me started by just seeing if others had posted messages about the same names, etc. UsGenWeb is also a very useful site but most counties have census data on them. When I go back as far as I can, I just type in the name of the oldest + genealogy and others may have posted info on your family.

I try not to use FamilySearch which is the LDS site because of the errors there. I just read a report today or yesterday which was talking about all of the mistakes on that site. I am not back far enough to get to the countries of origin so I think I will have to update my ancestry.com to get the foreign countries. So far, I have ancestors in England, France, Wales, Scotland, Russia, Ireland with a few others tossed in for good measure.

It is a fascinating hobby especially when I get back to the Middle Ages and the plagues, kings, etc. It brings to life what those people went through with all of the deaths and in some cases, whole towns died of the plague. Sometimes there were no one left to bury the dead. I can not imagine living through something like that.

Try it. Don't expect miracles to happen overnight. It may take a while but like I did for my friend, he gave me some names and in about 2 hours, I found data which took the family back to the mid 1500’s. I have tried to find verification info as much as possible. When I first started, I just entered the data and did not add where it came from. Big mistake. His other trees are causing me lots of headaches because I can not find info on the members of the family. It is going to take time for those. But that is ok. I have plenty of time.

One feature of ancestry.com is finding well known people who are related to yours. Of course, I take a lot of that with a grain of salt since some dates are way off base. Children are born after parents and in some cases they are off hundreds of years. But in a lot of cases, I find the right info and if someone else has done that research, use it as a starting point. I then verify what I can from other sources.

Good luck. You just might find it very addictive.