1. Talk to and record family Elders about their life experiences. Be sure to include dates and places. Label your cassette or your notes with date and person interviewed.

2. Begin to collect and label family photos. Include full name correctly spelled and date. Record married women with birth name - Anne Jones nee Smith.

3. Keep all family documents you receive. Organize them in family groups, label them and file in a way that works for you. This data would include items such as wedding invitations, birth announcements, certificates, obits from newspaper with name of paper and date included, funeral remembrances, wills, divorce papers, letters and any other items that may provide information about your family members.

4. When you begin to look for data outside of your family documents be sure to record where you got the information. Include title of source, page number, and other relevant items so you can find it for future reference.