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Each state has a genealogy web page, with links to each county's genealogy web page. These are all free sites and have vast amounts of information. The main page is www.usgenweb.org. Go there for the state links, then go to the county links.

Each page has query boards where you can post a query looking for info and if someone has it, they'll post it. Its worth a few hours of searching these sites. They also have archives where they have transcriptions of census records.

My favorite site is RandomActsofGenealogicalKindness (http://www.raogk.org/) They list look-up volunteers by state. These folks will help you at no cost, save out-of-pockets for photocopies),

There is also the Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild, where volunteers have transcribed passenger manifests from hundreds of ships from the 1600s to present. I don't have a URL handly, but google it and you can find it. Also Ellis Island has a searchable database.

Someone else cautioned about copying others' work. They are right. Too many "genealogists" will take shortcuts and perpetuate bad information. Sometimes they find a name with dates that kinda, sorta, maybe work, and they are too lazy to prove or disprove the link. Always, Always, Always, independently verify the research. You would be amazed at the amount of pure rubbish that is out there, including family trees made up from whole cloth.

As for software, I like Family Tree Maker (www.familytreemaker.com) I don't like the pay sites. Ancestry has info, but its costly. You can do ther search for no charge, and then if something shows up, sign up for the two week free trial.

Anyone needing any help can email me. Others here have given many of the good sites. Going online is quick, but you miss out on the personal side. It's not easy and can be costly, but if you get a chance to visit an area where your ancestor lived, DO SO. Stop by the local library, museum, and courthouse for the low down on what the community was like and most likely they'll be able to give you the dirt on your folks (mine were "blood thirsty" and run out of town - that's something you won't get off the web). There's nothing better than being able to actually touch marriage certificates your ancestors signed with their own hands, walk the streets they did, and visit homes they lived in. The web is just too sterile and boring. We've taken vacations that were just for genealogical research. Once we happened into a town and saw a car dealership with my grandfather's name. When I walked in I nearly fainted because the owner who greeted us was the spitting image of my grandfather. Grandfather and this guy's branch connected back in the early 1800's! I'd have never found that branch without actually making the trip to the old family community and there have been countless other quirky instances like this.

Obviously, I too love genealogy, and have traced us back from the Texas Revolution, the Civil War, Revolution, John Smith, and to Europe on my own. I've found others on the net who have taken us back to Wm. the Conqueror (lol, Mr. M and I were both from him though Mr. M from his wife and me from his mistress!) and on back to the Vandals and Kings of Norway around the 4th century. But I feel more a connection to those people I've hunted down myself.

As someone posted, do your own research and take someone else's research with a pound of salt. Consider other's work as a tip but not the gospel. It's not that others lie or try to make their lineage important but some are just careless and go off on unrelated lines. Document, document, document.

Good luck and have fun.