future generations, which often involves the painstaking restoration of damaged records. Charging for membership helps cover these investments and pay for running costs. Starting Your Research OK I'm ready to start. What do I do? Start by writing down all the names and dates of all the relatives that you can think of. Rough dates and a place (of birth, marriage, death or residence) are better than nothing. Make sure you keep a record of anything you're not sure about, until you can be absolutely certain. Then start filling in the details on your online family tree. By starting a tree you'll know what gaps you need to fill in and what you need to go next to go further back in time. Plus, once you've filled in a name, place and date we will automatically start searching for matches for them. Time to start digging Look in your loft and cupboards for old documents, letters and photographs. Try to collect old Birth, Marriage and Death certificates, and ask relatives to have a look for anything that might be useful to you -- any information is useful information. Also, talk to older relatives about what they remember -- you can uncover some little-known facts and fascinating anecdotes. Update your family tree If you have access to a computer scanner, you can scan in any documents you might find and attach them to the relevant person in your family tree. This will help you keep everything together in one place --