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Okay, you've gathered your data, interviewed your relatives, and preserved the records, now what? Why, the Internet of course!
The first place to begin is using some of the search engines available to you, my favorite is Google. Search engines are a logical first choice because they will point you to other sites put up by others who are also interested in genealogy. Start by typing in your last name and see what you get back. Not only is this fun but you might discover that someone you are related to has already placed their information up for others to find and use. Scroll down thru the links and read the brief descriptions that are offered. If something looks interesting, go see what it is all about. You can do this with all the surnames you know.
Once you find a site and verified the person on your site is your ancestor, send them an email. We've met relatives from as far away as Australia and Germany during our research and exchanged some great information. Sometimes you will find a surname that matches the one you're looking for and it's in the same geographic area but you can't make a connection, this is common when you are just starting out. It might be that this person's ancestry branched off from a different person than yours did. This means you might still have a common ancestor it's just that you haven't been able to trace it back far enough yet. Even if you're not certain, ask them, that's why they placed it on the Internet in the first place.
For your next search, repeat the process above using the first and last name of your oldest relative, surrounded by quotes. You should be able to recognize the genealogy-based sites from the others. You can take advantage of the work people have already done and increase your store of information at the same time. There are literally thousands of genealogy websites that you can look thru to find matches.
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