We all have to start Somewhere - for beginners and the learned

You may well have heard or read of this all before but just incase anyone would like to be reminded here we go. All our families have their own, distinctive history, and your ancestors have helped to make us what we are today. For those of you who are about to embark on the family trail, here are a few basic guidelines to help you to progress successfully and resourcefully.
Patience and perseverance are two very important words one should remember for the potential family historian, along with a “sense of the past”. As your investigation takes you back into a different era, be prepared for the odd surprises -and perhaps a shock or two. When researching your kin you have to step back into the previous world of your ancestors to understand their lives and you'll rapidly find yourself probing into local and social history to uncover more.
Your success when researching also depends on whether records of your relations are still intact, your family may have moved many times. Perhaps your ancestors surname is unusual and you want to find out more, remember in the nineteenth century several of your ancestors may well have been uneducated and you will most likely encounter changes in spelling as they were written down by clerks and ministers as they sounded.
In the United Kingdom, the Public Record Office, the Family Records Centre, county record offices and libraries - are NOT the places you should start your research. Your first steps should be to talk to aunts, uncle’s cousins and other relatives to gather together as much information as you can. In addition to certified documents such as birth, death and marriage certificates, wills etc, the following may provide precious information to aid in your research:
A family bible is a great find, although there are very few, it more often than not records dates of family events as and when they happened. Diaries and Apprenticeship papers also obituaries and grave papers. School reports, occupational pensions. Military service records, Society and club association cards or trade union subscriptions, scrapbooks, letters, newspaper cuttings, old address and birthday books.

Photo albums are particularly helpful as they remind us of the past and will jog old memories when talking to older members of the family, and if you can try and write down information of any interviews. Although there are certain questions you need to ask, try not to be too demanding - a number of short discussions may be more fruitful than one long one. Remember to ensure that you have written on your own photographs of who, when and where. Your great grandchildren will be thankfull you for it!
Don't forget about old family stories they might not be wholly true but can be helpful - most families have at least one. They are more often than not based on the truth, but like bits of gossip, they tend to become embroidered or imprecise as they are passed on from generation to generation. Try and verify the information with real evidence and share your findings with other members of your family. You may find out that someone else is interested in joining in with you. This is a great way of sharing the workload and maybe the costs too. There is an abundance of books regarding genealogical research available; you may be able to borrow several of these from your local library. Family history magazines frequently contain a Readers Interests section in which readers submit details of their surname, period, and area of their research and with a bit of luck you may find an entry for your family.