Summarize this article in one sentence.
Before starting your ancestry search, speak with relatives to gather as much information as you can about your family history. Get as much specific information as you can (i.e dates, locations); conducting a genealogy search with names alone will be very difficult. Ask relatives for any relevant primary documents they might have (or copies of them) to aid in your research. Be sure to give proper care to any old documents you have or receive from relatives. Keep them clean, store them in a cool, dry place, and handle them with gloves if possible. Consider contacting a conservator if the documents are in bad shape (e.g. moldy or torn documents) and need to be repaired. To preserve family records, digitize your documents, being careful not to damage them while copying and scanning. Digitizing documents generally means scanning and saving them as PDF files on your computer or storage drive. Purchase a scanning software if your computer doesn't already have one installed (e.g. Adobe Acrobat). For the best results, use a scanner that scans in color and accommodates large documents. Before starting your own genealogy search, check to see if anyone (i.e. a distant relative) has published a genealogy and family history of your family. There are many websites where you can search published family histories (e.g. the Library of Congress catalogue). Be sure to use any publications you might find as a reference point for starting your research, and not as an irrefutable source of information; being published does not guarantee accuracy, so be sure to double check sources, look for reviews from credible genealogy journals and newsletters, and search for documents related to the information provided.
Interview your relatives. Preserve and record old documents. Search published genealogies.