Searching Census Records
Ancestry.com's Newsletter had a great tip of the month for May 2005. The tip was to get started in family history by searching Census Records. I completely agree with this tip and have found probably about 50% of my 8000 names by searching the US Federal Census Records. You can access these records with either a subscription to Ancestry.com or Genealogy.com. I think these are the two main sites that carry the Censuses, but they do both cost money. You can go to any LDS Family History Center though and access Ancestry.com for free.
I tried a free 2-week trial with Ancestry.com and really liked it, so therefore signed up for a year subscription. I have not tried Genealogy.com yet, so I do not know which is better or offers more information for a better price. Genealogy.com has a 2-week trial as well though, so perhaps I will investigate it. I would love to hear others feedback on either site.
The U.S. Censuses offer great information such as a person's age, where they were born, where they currently live, their occupation, and their relationship to the others in their household. These records started in 1790, and continue for every 10 years until 1930...but most of the 1890 Census was burned and cannot be accessed. I don't like to use any Census earlier than 1850 though, because those earlier Censuses only list the head of the household's name and then tally marks stating how old the women and men are who live w/ them. In 1850 they start to name each individual person and their age and place of birth. Then later on the censuses add the relationship to head of household and then in 1900 they even mark the month and year each person was born and their age at first marriage.
If you are looking for people who lived during the 1800's or early 1900's, this is probably the easiest way to find them and lots of other information too.