Family Tree: Where to begin?!?

Question:Hello!
I'd love to start making a family tree.
I know one of the main points of starting a tree is to talk to family members and gather information, articles, photos etc. I can't do this because I am no longer in contact with any of my family. Anyway, what is the best way to start. Is there a program I can use to record people I have 'found.'
What are the best (free) websites to use?
And could you give a beginner any tips?!
Thanks for any help.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Hello!
I'd love to start making a family tree.
I know one of the main points of starting a tree is to talk to family members and gather information, articles, photos etc. I can't do this because I am no longer in contact with any of my family. Anyway, what is the best way to start. Is there a program I can use to record people I have 'found.'
What are the best (free) websites to use?
And could you give a beginner any tips?!
Thanks for any help.

some simple (and broad) tips...
Yes, it is normally suggested that you talk to relatives, which is a huge help.. but completely ignores that many persons don't have that option. Genealogy should be based in documents/ records, even when family tells you what they know. So.. you simply skip the family info and go for the records.
Starting with you is the standard, and more important that most new persons realize. If you 'jump' ahead (at any stage) you run the risk of connecting to the wrong relative. Document you to your parents; parents to the grandparents, so forth. YOU BUILD A STRONG BASIS this way.
ONE of the biggest road blocks I see here, are biting off more than you can chew. Everyone wants that family tree. My advice.. SHIFT how you think to specifics... ie you are working on your grandfather James, and looking for his place of birth and parents. Knowing how to word a query means the difference between success and no info.
Information is not limited to what your family may have. Your ancestors may have left many records, NOT ALL WILL BE online.
Contrary to most opinions... I refuse to suggest this site or that as "best". Using multiple sources increases your odds. You will find several that seem to pay off... swap back and forth.
Look at this as a long term project, not a one shot deal. Those who find a huge tree online in 15 minutes run the risk of not realizing how shaky the info might be. Better to have 10 names that are RIGHT than 500 names that go back to Adam/Eve.
The exact sites that will benefit you will be related to the UK.. but the process itself is pretty standard.
Make yourself at home here.. lots of people to help along the way.

try typing this in the yahoo search engine. i'm sure you'll find a good site.

You can begin with me if you are really good looking, hot n sexy babe!!!!
I promise we'll make full tree with kids pics!!!

There you go, you can send it to all your family members, cousins etc. and they can register their members, its a cool website and you just need to register for free.

http://www.geni.com/

In my opinion the best free site is www.familysearch.org it is completely free,and is excellent. I also use www.ancestry.com/.co.uk I am studying the subject and I want eventually to become a "probate genealogist". I am in the UK and if you need any help to get you started you can email me through my profile. You start with yourself and work backwards. It is so addictive.I find the archives library is probably the most useful for all of the really old stuff. As you are probably aware, "Civil Registration" here in the UK didn't begin until 1837, so any thing before that date you will need the Archives Library. Just ask if you have a question there are lots of really helpful researchers here in the UK.

familysearch.org has free software, as well as a good search index.

Start on paper, then if you get enough information, you can switch to a computer program.
Write down everything you know about everybody you can - it may be just names, it may be birthdays, the states or cities they were born in.
If you are not in touch with your family, it becomes much tougher. Get your birth certificate and get as much information off it as you can, including age and birthday of your parents and their birthday if given. Look for newspaper stories of births and mine them for locations and dates. If they lived in a small town, the newspaper may have social columns with data of trips and visits.
Depending on your age and your parents age when you were born, go to the most recent census that has had details released (for example 1940 has been released in US, but not 1950) and attempt to locate them - indexes are on line to search names.
If you can determine addresses where your parents lived in the past, there may be city directories that can confirm where they were and how long they were there.
Because of the activities of Mormons wishing to pray for their ancestors, there is a huge data base of names with possible links. For example, Firth, Idaho, is named for a Mormon settler who donated land for the railroad service site next to his land. The town history has more data which pretty much proves he is unrelated to me.
Whenever possible, get obituaries and mine them for names, ages, towns and further data to go further back. England has had required passports much longer than USA so registration information may be available.
The process can be long and tedious. I have been researching my great aunt, a minor painter active until about 1949. In the process, I have found totally wrong information in 'authoritative' sources - a guy who went from people's names in a cemetery to similar names in a city directory - and completely contradictory information in contemporary sources - the name of the minister who married her is different in three different newspaper accounts published the same week as marriage.
You will find information that if you had known it two weeks earlier, you could have perhaps looked at original records of first employment, but now you are 500 miles away and can't easily go back.

The Mormons provide the best free service.