What do you need to know to get started?

It helps to know who your momma and daddy are.  If you are adopted then that might be an issue.  My suggestion there is to do your DNA testing with either Ancestry or with 23andMe.  Your choice, they both give you good information.  Different, but both good.  Ancestry tells you more of who your family line is and will actually help you locate family tree members using the little green leaf.  

See the little green leaf there on the block that is labeled Harold Knight?  That is how ancestry helps you find out information pertaining to that person.  Just so happens Harold was my daddy's brother.  They never knew each other.  Harold died in 1950 of a gun accident.  Daddy, had been given up for adoption in 1919 to his aunt.  So they never had the chance to meet.  I digress!!  

23andMe is different.  It will tell you who your relatives are, but doesn't have a family tree theme at all.  It will tell you how many centimorgans you share with a certain relative.  The more centimorgans you share, the closer you are related.  My brother (my half brother) and I share 1999 centimorgans.  My half sister and I share just barely over 2000.  23andMe also tells you way more about your health than ancestry does.  That is if you pay for it.  I had mine done before you had to pay for it.  

I think for someone wanting to work up a family tree ancestry is the way to go.  I also think that if health is your issue and you don't really care about a family tree, then 23andme is the way to go.  I have both.  

So...all that being said, you would want to start your family tree with you.  Put your name in where instructed.  Add your parents, add your grandparents.  By then, you should be getting some of the green leaves.  Remember that not all of the information that comes through the green leaves is accurate.  Other people enter information into the database on Ancestry and I have often found it to be wrong.  You have to dig through and look for information that is factual.  

Let's say your father was born in Atlanta, Georgia.  And you know that as a fact.  Then a leaf shows up saying that your father was born in Los Angeles on the same day in the same year.  It can be two things, either someone entered it wrong, or there were two people with the same name born miles apart on the same day.  Simply ignore it and move on.  

When you are building a family tree, it will be up to you as to what you include and what you don't.  I have a cousin who was married nine times.  I don't include those husbands in our tree.  Maybe it's because I'm lazy.  Or maybe it's because she may marry again.  I simply add her to the tree because she is my cousin.  Then I add the spouses she had children with.  Enough said on that issue.  

The other thing I often run into when researching my family tree is that for some reason people misspell names very often.  My great grandfather's name was Eno.  I have seen it spelled Ina, Enough, Ana, Enauld and Honor.  Now this part is probably because of the census takers.  Or maybe they weren't home the day the census taker came through.  Maybe Eno lived three miles from his nearest neighbor but wasn't home. So the neighbor who barely knows Eno tells the census taker, "I think his name is Enough."  Or "I think his name is Ina."  That is where some of the misinformation comes from.  

Last names can be an excursion into futility too.  My great grandfather Eno's last name was Crochet.  I have seen it listed in the censuses as Crouchet, Crocket, and many other misspellings.  

One of my great uncles was Luzinon Crochet.  I have seen his name slaughtered as Liuzignan.  And if you ask for help, you will more than likely spend a good hour explaining that Liuzignan is really Luzinon.  Trust me in that if you ask for help from other genealogy sites, they each have their own way of looking for information and they are not all correct.  It can lead to great frustration.  

You must be part detective and part sleuth to fill in your family tree.  One suggestion I have is to consider every possibility.  And also remember that if you can't find something, that doesn't mean it didn't happen.  It took me a full seven years to locate any information on my grandmother.  That didn't mean she didn't exist.  You may know or be aware of a fact but you may also not be able to prove it.....YET!  Never give up.  Keep looking.  Turn every stone.  You will surprise yourself.  

You may also find information that others in your family may not want found.  I found my half brother and my half sister quit speaking to me.  It can happen.  Be prepared to find out things you may or may not want to know.  I found out my paternal great grandfather fathered 24 children.  10 with his first wife who then died, and 14 with his second wife.  I know, you don't have to say it.  

In the course of my search, I have found that at least three or maybe four of his children were deaf mutes.  

Also in the course of my searching, I ran across someone who was also searching the same information.  She was the granddaughter of one of those 24 children.  She informed me she had been in that house and that the children who were deaf mutes were kept in the attic.  I am horrified that anyone would do that to their children.  No one was more horrified than I was.  

Just know this.  In filling in a family tree, the information you are working with is the lives of your ancestors.  They were no more saintly than you or me.  They were people.  People make mistakes. Things happen that they have no control over any more than you or I.  I found out that my fifth great grandfather was a slave-owner.  That, I take as no reflection on me.  I had no control over things that happened in the 1700s.  I don't like it, I don't approve of it, but I can't change it.  We don't get a do over.