How to Begin Your Genealogy Research

Tips from my experience 

• Visit and join city, county or state historical societies. Historical societies often have a wealth of information that is not generally seen in online databases - pictures. newspaper clippings, things unique to the locality. I've found that's it's generally very inexpensive to join a historical society, and it's often worth the $10 - $30 a year it costs. Members are often given additional access to records, free copying of newpaper clippings, and other benefits that non-members don't receive.
• Look at maps. In one case I was researching, I couldn't understand why a couple lived in New York, and yet all their children were born in Canada! When I finally thought to look at a map, I saw that they literally lived across a bridge from Canada, which was where the nearest hospital was!
• Note nicknames! People often refer to other people by their nicknames for their whole lives. In some cases, a person might have more than one nickname. Or one side of his family calls him by one name, and the other side calls him by his nickname. If you make note of all nicknames as you come across them, you might be able to avoid confusion down the road.
• Document your sources. Make note of your source (including a copy of it, if possible) for every new piece of information you get. If you don't, later on you might question something, and think, "Now I wonder why I thought she was his sister?" You think you're going to remember all the sources, but as your tree gets larger and larger, it's impossible to track everything in your head. If you don't know the source, you'll have to re-do all your work to clear up the confusion.