My number 1 tip as you begin to research is to keep a notebook with you and always write down any information you find and the source of that information. For example say you have just found a census with your great grandfather, you want to write down all the information on the census (some have more then others); name, spouse, children, ages, age at marriage, occupation, education etc it can even be good to look at their neighbors on the census. Next to this information write down your source i.e. Federal census 1880 or New York State census 1895. State, county, the date the census was taken. I also recommend keeping a document on your computer where you can save any links to information you find, it may not be as easy to find things later on as you might think. Also sometimes you will find a document and when you go to look for it again, it's gone or claimed by someone (like ancestry.com) who will make you pay to see it. This is one of the many reasons it's so important to write down all the information you find.
Now if you are using the ancestry app you'll probably start getting hints almost immediately, but remember they are hints nothing more they might be the person in your tree or they might not. So go through those carefully and even though it's on the app I still recommend writing down the info, also if you want to look at it later take a screen capture. Sometimes the app will only let you view the document 2 or 3 times and then they will ask you to purchase it, which as you know is something we are trying to avoid.
My 2ond tip actually comes via my great aunt who got this tip from a professional many years ago. He said "you don't look for their birth records first, you look for their death records". The reason as you may be able to guess is that there is a lot more information at the time of death. This is where social security death index comes in handy, also findagrave.com. Some states have there own ancestry websights where you can search birth, marriage and death records. For instance I was able to google Missouri death records and find a state websight with that information.
Tip 3 Google is your friend, it's always a good idea if you have someone with an unusual name to try simply googling their name with their birth and death year, you never know what you might be able to find. For example as I was doing family research on my maternal grandfathers family I ran across a Helen Elizabeth Wellman Wellman Banner 1838-1930 (my 3rd great grandmother) and we decided to google her, and we were able to find a google book entitled The Descendants of Thomas Wellman of Lynn Massachusetts which was published in 1918. Chances are someone somewhere along the line, somewhere out there has done research on at least part of your family tree, don't be afraid to use the work they've already done just be aware that they might be wrong and always double check it.
Now my last bit of advice for today is to use familysearch.org, it is basically ancestry.com but free. Now feel better equipped and get to work, send me any questions and I'll do my best to answer them!
You can print out blank census forms and use them to keep track of the info for just your ancestor. Also looking up siblings in the census records can yield interesting tidbits of information. My grandmothers sisters listed city rather than country for place of birth in a later census. Some census worked added that it was Germany only by looking at the image of the original did we find where the family came from. Also documents are not always as accurate as one would think.
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