Step C: Write what you know on one sheet of paper.

If you started with "Step A" then turn that sheet of paper over, and do the following on the back side:

In order to get started in genealogy, I recommend that you start by writing down, on a single piece of paper, everything you know about the person you want to start researching.  This information might include:

• Their full name (including maiden name, if known).
• Where and when they were born, died, or married.  Approximate locations or dates should be used if exact dates are not known.
• Names of spouses, siblings, and children.

At the bottom of this page write something like "Source: [Your Name] Personal Knowledge" and if you called someone up and asked them for the data, write "Source: [Their Name] Personal Knowledge" next to those items.

Your goal should be to get some information on 5-10 people, covering 2 or 3 different generations, and connected to each other.  If you need to check your birthday/anniversary lists or make a few calls to get information, then do it, but don't spend a lot of time on this.    

This page is NOT part of your genealogy records.  It's just something to help you get started researching.  In the next step, you need to select what genealogy software or web sites you will use.  It often helps to enter a little data into the free versions of different software to see if you like it, how it works, and what reports it can generate.  You can use this data to test these programs and web sites.