Family involvement in Family History

Working on your genealogy should not be a task that rests on one individual in the family. It needs to involve the whole family.
Make plans to set time aside to do your family history and genealogy with your spouse, your children, your parents and grandparents, and even your grandchildren.
I only have small children at this point and time, but I know that by working on family history and talking about it and sharing it with my wife and kids, they might also be motivated to participate on their own pedigree charts. Think of it as spending quality time with your family.
This means that you might have to turn off your television and put down the remote, the game pads, your cellular telephones (gasp!), the video game controllers, and use that precious time to spend it working on your family history. It's more important that you accomplish your own work because no one else is going to do it for you. It is your family, and so it is therefore your responsibility.

Preliminary Search

The first step in researching your genealogy, it's best to begin by doing a preliminary search. This means looking for information that you already know, what might be family tradition, and even going through your personal belongings to find vital information. You will want to search for family Bibles, birth certificates, death certificates, obituaries, photographs, marriage and divorce records. Search for things that you may already have and begin from there.
In additoin to beginning preliminary searches, it's a great idea to contact your relatives and talk to them about what records they have available. Talk to your parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc.