• Tax Lists
• Birth Records
• Marriage Records
• Property Deeds
• Court Transcripts

• Death Certificates

• Social Security Death Information - this database is accessible through many online search sites.
• Military Involvement

• You may find information there on your family, get the librarian to help you.
• Census Records
• If there is a Genealogical Society in your area, you may find transcriptions of many county records in book form. Remember that these books are copyrighted, you cannot post this information publicly with permission, but you can use it as an "index" of sorts for when you go to the courthouse.

• Visit the churches attended by your family members. Some churches keep records about all their members since the church began.

• Speak with each family member including elderly members. If you do not pressure forgetful people, they can tell you much of your history without realizing it, and many older people remember their childhoods with ease.
• Don't ask about dates at first. Ask where they lived, where they went to school, where they went to church, the stores where they shopped, what they did on Sundays. Instead of asking for dates, ask for their ages when these things happened. You can calculate the dates from their ages.
• Sometimes the "obvious" is right under your nose. If you can't figure out what happened to great great Uncle John after his military experience, ask if he was in a hospital. Even in the early 1900s people had no way to take care of family members who had medical or psychological problems. They were often sent to state hospitals or "insane asylums" to live out their lives. I have several of these in my family for epilepsy and Huntington's Disease.

Genealogy.com

Ancestry.com

FamilySearch.org

Surname Springboard Index

U. S. GenWeb - FTP