and of course, will bring a whole new dimension to your family tree by helping to bring your ancestors' lives to life. Now start searching our online record section Once you've collected all the information you can, it's time to start looking at official records. Start with the one family name -- it's easier to focus on one name rather than trying to look for everyone. Most people start with the father's line -- but the easiest name to start with is the one you know the most about. It's more difficult to trace ancestors with common surnames, such as Brown or Johnson, unless your family came from a small town or village. So it's a good idea to choose a more unusual surname to start with. Make sure you search chronologically backwards from yourself, ensuring that you have found the correct ancestor at each step. If you start searching for records for people a few generations back without having the full details about the relatives in-between, you risk getting confused between people of the same name. How do I find out more about my ancestors? Once you've found out the basics about your ancestors you can search other collections on Ancestry.co.uk. These include military collections, directories and member lists, newspapers, immigration and emigration and court, land, wills and financial records to help bring your ancestors' lives to life. We also have a large collection of parish records which allow you to go back further in time beyond the start