CG The same rule about the importance of locality in real estate applies to genealogy. Without a proper locality and some sort of time frame attached to an ancestor's name, you have nothing.
Genealogy is the first cousin of history, and it is closely related to geography.
In order to find the records you need, you must determine the locality in which your ancestors lived. It does no good to find a John Holt in Maine if your ancestor by that name always lived in Texas or Yorkshire, England. A geographical reference to a town or county is usually easy enough to track down by consulting a map or atlas or by using a search engine. Sometimes, however, it's not so simple. Names of places may have changed, or the scale of maps may not permit sufficient detail to include smaller communities.