Dear Tracy: Family history is fascinating. Researching and putting together a pedrigree is like learning any other hobby. There is a method to it and principles to learn. There are many books for beginners, you can get them from Amazon.com. Bascially there are two steps 1. Gathering the information ie where to find the records and what records to look for. 2. Anaylzing the formation to put together the facts into a complete picture ie which information to decide is valid and what does not fit your ancestor. And the last thing: it is important to start with the lastest dates and ancestors and work backwards, not jumping ahead ie death dates of grandpa, then marriage, then birth, then death dates of great grandpa. The places that most everyone starts at is gathering information from all older relatives, verbal and physical materials that might have names and dates. Then sending for vital records(birth record, etc) from the goverment. The other place most of us start for our ancestors that were alive in 1920 and before is the government federal census. There is a lot to learn and do but it is a blast while you are doing it. Dont worry about working long hours and not having a lot of time. Your dead ancestors are not going anywhere and if you get the genealogy bug, you will spend your whole life looking for them in your spare time. LOL ---So download some pedrigree and family forms from a internet site and start filling in the blanks! Diana