Where to begin tracing your family tree

Ten concrete first steps: interview relatives, collect certificates, work backwards one generation at a time, find the family in the census, and set up a system before the paper piles up.

Everyone's family is different, but the first steps are the same for almost all of them. Do these ten things in order and you'll have a proven tree back to the mid-1800s, a filing system that won't collapse, and a clear idea of which record to chase next.

1. Write down what you know

Yourself, parents, grandparents: full names, dates and places of birth, marriage and death, as exactly as you can. Mark anything you're not sure of with a question mark. This is your starting chart; the templates guide has a pedigree chart to fill in.

2. Talk to the oldest relatives now

Not next year. Ask about their grandparents, where the family came from, occupations, religion, who emigrated, who "wasn't talked about". Record the conversation with permission. See interviewing relatives.

3. Gather the family papers

Certificates, photographs, letters, service papers, funeral cards, newspaper cuttings. Scan them, label the scans with names and dates, and keep the originals somewhere dry and dark.

4. Set up a system before you have much to put in it

A genealogy program on your own computer (free ones exist), a folder structure for scans, and a habit of noting the source of every fact. Our organising guide explains a system that still works at 2,000 people.

5. Find the family in the 1921 and 1911 censuses

Your grandparents or great-grandparents will be children or young adults in one of these. The household entry gives ages, birthplaces and the parents' names and occupations, and anchors everything that follows. See census records. If the family was in England or Wales in 1939, the 1939 Register fills the gap to living memory.

6. Get the key certificates

For each generation you need a birth (names the parents, including mother's maiden name) and a marriage (names both fathers and gives ages and addresses). Search the free GRO indexes first, then order only what you need. See birth, marriage and death records.

7. Walk back through the censuses

From 1911 to 1901, 1891, 1881, 1871, 1861, 1851 and 1841. Each one tells you the birthplace you need for the next step and catches the siblings, lodgers and in-laws who turn out to matter. Note everyone in the household, not just your direct line.

8. Cross from civil registration into the parish

Once you have an ancestor born before 1837, the census birthplace tells you which parish to search for the baptism and the parents' marriage. See parish registers. This is where free indexes such as FreeREG and FamilySearch earn their keep.

9. Check what others have done, carefully

Search for the surname and parish in online trees, one-name studies and family history society publications. Treat everything as a lead to verify, not a fact to copy. The surname guide shows how distribution maps narrow a family to a county.

10. Decide what to spend

By now you'll know whether a subscription is worth it for your family and for which site. Many people get a long way on the free websites plus library access to the paid ones; the comparison guide explains the differences.

Then what?

Repeat steps 6 to 8 for each line until the records run out, add wills and military records for colour, and consider a DNA test once you have a solid paper tree for it to connect to. And back everything up.