Getting started - help appreciated

I started by using the free trial on Ancestry. They often give 3 free days over a bank holiday. I use the family tree templates on Ancestry. The only certificate I have bought was my paternal grandfather's. This came through as a PDF and is saved on my desktop. A lot of the research is trial and error but it does become addictive. Good luck.

I have just googled family tree software. There is a choice. Which is best?

I’d go hell for leather using the free trial on Ancestry as you get a lot more leads from other people’s’ research though as someone else posted they are not always correct! You can do free searches on Scotland’s People but have to pay to see the actual documents. It helps to download free family tree software to help you keep track. We had a head start on DH’s Scottish forebears as he inherited a family bible with entries going back to 1848.

I've been doing my family tree for years and have used loads of different sites. For Scottish forebears, Scotland's People is excellent, although their pricing is done by purchasing credits, and not by subscription as Ancestry and Find My Past.
I have my own family tree software with all my research on it (which I back up elsewhere) and I only have a very basic tree on Ancestry. As others have said, don't believe all you see on other peoples trees, do the research yourself.

Thank you for all the tips. Is Ancestry the best site to start with or am I better just using scotlandspeople?
I have been on there and located my maternal grandparents but it looks like I am going to have to pay to see the birth certificates to get their parents’ names. This is going to be expensive, isn’t it?

Esspee

How do you keep coherent notes?

Um!!

Well, I haven't done much recently but I did run everything off and filed it in families.
I joined an online site and put the information in trees too.

Now I need to co-ordinate and write up some stories so that other family members can understand it all. If anyone has tips on that, I'd be grateful.

Do beware if you join an online site like Ancestry or FindmyPast as some people don't research properly and put any old fact or person into their public trees. Do your own careful research and don't copy from anyone's tree without fact checking first.

You can find free templates online to run off and fill in to get you started; there are programmes you can buy too.

I've found WDYTYA a bit disappointing.
It's interesting enough but they seem to concentrate on just one story in detail of an ancestor from the fairly recent past eg a grandfather or great grandmother etc.

They are not delving into older records and tracing origins.

How do you keep coherent notes?

Make sure you differentiate on your tree between blood and inlaws. It can get very confusing after a while and you could end up following a wrong line.

I think there's a site called scotlandspeople.gov.uk

Most of my ancestors are Scottish if that makes any difference.

I started with free censuses which I think are still available.
However, my father was a Victorian so was on the 1901 census and I started from there.
FamilySearch.org has a lot of parish records etc free to access and I think all genealogy sites give free access to some records.

Start with what you know about the family you are researching.
I started with my Grandfather and worked back to his parents and grandparents, because I had his exact DOB and place of birth, so it was easy to find my way around the online information.
I would advise getting a free months subscription on Ancestry and see how you get on, beware , it’s addictive!
There used to be a Magazine ‘Who do you think you are‘ which had hints and tips in it, not sure if it’s still published though.