So you've finally decided to track down that long lost relative. Or maybe you want to know who your ancestors were. Genealogy is one of the most popular pastimes on the Internet. But first you have to do some basic detective work. Talk to people. Your family, friends and neighbours may know the names of the people you are wanting to know about. It's vital to start backwards and to focus on which area of your family you want to research.

Jenny Adams-Barbaro found the Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain was invaluable.

For others, the National Archives is a good place to start.

Genuki has some great guidelines on how to get started in geneology.

If you need to search outside the UK, Ancestry.com has a powerful search engine broken down by country.

Cyndi's List has over 115,000 genealogy links for you to explore.

Look4them is useful for finding lost people.

RootsWeb has a powerful search engine for names.

FamilySearch also helps you search for ancestors.

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