WHERE TO BEGIN

Don't worry about record offices yet - the best place to begin researching your family tree is at home.

By talking to as many relatives as possible, you'll soon build up an idea of who was related to who, and how many children Great Aunty Dot had.

Ask your oldest relatives for family names, dates and places and look for birth certificates, letters, newspaper cuttings, diaries or anything that will fill in the background on your family.

Also, decide what you want to find out. Are you drawing up a simple family tree or do you want an idea of what life was like for your ancestors?

Are you going to follow one branch of the family (a one-name search) or get an overview of everyone?

"Have a hunt around and get a fact that you can start with - it doesn't matter how early or late that fact is," says Else Churchill, from the Society of Genealogists.

"Whether you're working with just your grandparents or you've got a lot of information and you're starting quite a way back, you need to have something to start with."

EXPLORING ARCHIVESWhen you've established a basic outline of your family's background, it's time to start finding records.

While many records and indexes are now held online, visiting archives and record offices will prove an invaluable source of information, with help and friendly advice from the staff.

Else says: "Luckily, because we haven't been invaded since 1066, there's a huge amount of bureaucracy that can be found in record offices, the National Archives, local council record offices, local libraries, specialist institutions looking at certain occupations and places like the Society of Genealogists, which is a remarkable library because we concentrate on family history.

"We collect other people's family history and you might find the research has been done before."

BIRTHS, DEATHS AND MARRIAGESIf your ancestors were alive before 1901 and if you know where they lived, you'll be able to find them and details about their occupation in the census returns. But most people tend to start with more recent history, and by looking at records of births, deaths and marriages.

Civil registration of Births, Deaths and Marriages (BDM) began in 1837 in England and Wales (1855 for Scotland and 1864 for Ireland), when registration became legally required.

Before you can order certificates, you will need a certificate reference number, which you will find in alphabetically arranged indexes, available at the Family Records Centre (www.familyrecords.gov.uk) in London and the certificates for England and Wales are kept at the General Register Office (www.gro.gov.uk) in Southport.

Separate registries for Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland are located in Edinburgh, Belfast and Dublin (See www.gro-scotland.gov.uk; www.groni.gov.uk; www.groireland.ie).

The certificates include more information than indexes alone - such as the name and residence of the mother and occupation of the father on birth certificates and the names of the fathers of the bride and groom on a marriage certificate.

GOING FURTHER BACK"Censuses and BDM records will get most people back through the Victorian period and then the records that are most important will be those of the Church," says Else.

"Most probably the Church of England, which is the established church, but it might be a non-conformist church, Baptist, Roman Catholic, or Methodist."

From 1538 in England and Wales, and 1555 in Scotland, each parish in the UK had to keep registers of baptisms, marriages and burials, although some records have been lost over the years in church fires and floods. If you're lucky, you might find names, dates and other information on microfiche at the church or County Record Offices.

FILLING THE GAPSOnce you've found out, and got the evidence to prove, the basic facts of your family tree, you can start fleshing it out into a fuller history by looking at newspapers and records from the time they were living.

Else says: "Can I fill in the history of my ancestors and find out what was going on in their lives? Did they have a certain occupation or practise a certain religion? Were they mentioned in newspapers of the local village or town? You can get such a feel for the community they were living in, for who they were and where they were living."

The county record office will have records of wills before 1858, and the land tax records which detail local landowners, while the British Library houses the national archive collection of newspapers on microfilm.

THE INTERNETOne of the easiest ways to find out details of your family's history is undoubtedly the internet, which hosts thousands of sites and chat groups for those interested genealogy. "We've been doing social networking well before the kids got hold of it, so things like RootsWeb.com has been around a long time and they developed into things like GenesReunited.co.uk, says Else.

"You can say I'm interested in this individual, this is my ancestor, is anyone else related to him?' So you find cousins that way and make those links."

Many archives publish their indexes online, so you can search for your ancestors in census returns and BDM records on sites such as www.ancestry.co.uk.

You can search freely in some indexes, but you will have to pay to see a copy of the actual record.

"The big kick this century was the National Archives putting the 1901 census online," adds Else.

"Despite having a few wobbles in its first year, the big realisation was there are people out there all around the world with British ancestry who wanted to look at records. So that has been a big development, people putting information online that you can get reasonably cheaply."

AVOIDING THE PITFALLSDon't expect to track down every member of your family right back to the Middle Ages in just one week. Family history research takes time, patience and a few simple skills.

"It isn't a race, it doesn't matter how far back you get, but most people will find they probably get back to the early 1800s and may find a problem," says Else.

"If you've got somebody who's living in a large city and you really don't know much about their name, because they may have been trying to avoid bureaucracy, some ancestors will be difficult to find.

"But then again, you might get some people with a reasonably uncommon name, or something that you do know about them that you can pinpoint when you're searching for them, that will mean you have some phenomenal success."

Always write everything down! Note down all your sources so you can go back to them, as well as all your searches, even if unsuccessful, so you know where you've been.

Try not to rely on online sources only as lots of information will come from microfilm or microfiche in libraries, record offices and archives.

"You can get frustrated because the internet might help you get to some records very quickly, but it hasn't got every record on it.

"A lot of people will just put up information they think is right. If it's repeated what was once speculation becomes a fact and when you try and prove that fact, you can end up going round in circles," says Else.

CASE STUDY: SCANDALS FROM HISTORYDavid Everett has unearthed some scandalous secrets during his time as a family history researcher.

The 68-year-old, of Kidderminster, said: "It wasn't long after the 1881 census became available that I started looking into my family. I knew my great grandfather lived in the Arboretum, Worcester, but it was the first time I realised my family came from Gloucestershire. For a few years every time I had a day off work I'd race to the record office to find out more.

"One of the most exciting things I found was about one of my great grandfather's brothers. He was accused of stealing sheep but it turned out to be his lodger and he ended up in Australia. You really uncover all sorts."

Mr Everett, a retired civil servant, now helps other people trace their family history.

He said the most scandalous skeleton he discovered was a reference to a baptism, where the child's parents were step-brother and sister. In the record book, scribbled in pen next to the entry, someone had expressed their sentiments by writing vile dog'.