Getting started building your family tree

Technology has changed the way we build our family trees.
Even a few years ago, people who wanted to begin their family trees started with nicely sharpened lead pencils and a little stack of "Family Group Sheets". This method was useful in organizing the information that they already had in their possession but it did nothing to help them in their search for new information.

To find new information they utilized tools such as pens, papers, and letters mailed to different state and county entities seeking records about their long dead ancestors. Doing genealogy in that manner was often a lonely and solitary pursuit. It was often unfruitful and it was a long and tedius procedure with each ancestor. Those people also traveled far distances to go to libraries and county seats where the records they needed might be found.