I agree with Big Paul. I have been into genealogy for about 24 years and am working on editing my second published book. GenForum is a good place to find cousins you never knew you had. Others out there might be searching for the same family and will be able to save you a lot of time and work. I have just two warnings. Firstly, realize that you must take the non-primary and non-secondary sources with a grain of salt. Books based on these two types of sources are very good too. Family tradition is probably the worst source of information. You must prove everything. Secondly, genealogy can be addictive and it is rather an anti-social hobby. You can find yourself spending long hours in genealogy libraries or walking through cemeteries looking for dead ancestors.