Every search has a first step, and it is almost never where the seeker expects. In this first sitting, I answer the question that stops so many before they start. We begin not in the archive but at the kitchen table — with the living, with the names and stories already in your keeping — and work backward, one generation at a time, from what you know toward what you do not. I'll show you how to gather what your family already remembers, why the most recent records are your firmest footing, and how to write down a memory without mistaking it for proof. The line begins with you.

Resources to begin:

• Start at home, not online. Before any database, talk to your oldest living relatives and gather names, dates, places, and stories. Photograph documents and record the conversations.
• Free places to build your tree: FamilySearch (familysearch.org) and WikiTree (wikitree.com) — both free — let you record what you find and begin searching records.
• A starter record set: the U.S. Census (1950 back to 1790) is the backbone of early research; you'll find it on FamilySearch for free.
• Capture the oral history: a free interview guide and prompts are available from StoryCorps (storycorps.org) and the Smithsonian's oral-history resources.
• Write down what's memory and what's proof — and keep them separate. That discipline is the whole of the work.