Keith Dixon wrote:
>I'm having a very difficult time understand what I'm doing.  It is simple
what I'm looking for but my computer skills are just not letting me do it.
My grandfather's was Arthur Alfus Ford, he was born Feb 22, 1882 to Peter
and Mary Ford.  At the time the were living I believe in Prince Edward
County VA.  
>I have joined a program with no success in finding them.  I would like too
know if anyone out there would or could help me find my family roots.  My
grandfather had a sister named Edna (Ford) Lee living in Richmond.  She had
a son by the name of Dewey that worked for the city.  She married a
gentleman that was well too do.  I would  love too know about my
g-grandfather and g-grandmother and maybe their prior descendants.  I
believe they did fight in the Civil War.  My grandfather was very devoted to
VA.



Mr. Dixon,

Your frustration is understandable. It happens to virtually all of us when
we become curious about our personal history and discover the challenge of
research.

The problem does not lie with your "computer skills." The reality is that
everything isn't on the Internet. Indeed, *most* records are not on the
Internet and the odds of finding any ancestral line online, reliably
reconstructed, are slim. 

Very broadly speaking, there are two approaches to genealogy: "look ups" and
"research."  The term "look ups" apply when we go to any index or search
engine and look for a name. We may be lucky enough to find the name, but we
still haven't proved its our person or that the information is correct.
*Research* requires us to learn how to go beyond those "look ups" and their
corollary, "name gathering." 

You apparently have reached the stage where the "look ups" aren't working.
What you need now is a good how-to-do-research manual, one that teaches you
three essential skills:

1. 
Sources. You need to know how to find out what sources exist for the place
and time of your interest, where to access those sources, how to use those
sources, and how to interpret the language you find in those sources.

2.
Methodology. You need to learn research strategies that go far beyond "look
up a name." You need to learn how to correlate all the bits and pieces of
information that you find in various records---details that, by themselves,
don't prove anything but, together, provide you with the identity or
relationship you are trying to prove.

3.
Documentation and evidence analysis. You need to know which types of sources
are more reliable or less reliable, how to evaluate each piece of
information you find to determine whether it is likely to be trustworthy,
and how to identify your sources fully enough that you have the information
needed to make those evaluations---particularly as your research becomes
more extensive and you start finding all sorts of contradictions between
sources you assume you can trust.

My favorite how-to-do-research book is one that is very unfortunately
titled, but its guidance is golden. At the time they wrote this guide, the
coauthors were president and vice-president, respectively, of the
Association of Professional Genealogists:

Kay Germaine Ingalls, CG, and Christine Rose, CG, CGL,  _The Complete
Idiot's Guide to Genealogy,_2d ed. (New York: Alpha/Penguin, 2005).

With their help, you should be able to hurdle the roadblock you've now come
to, with many meaningful discoveries thereafter.

Elizabeth

-----------------------------------------------------------
Elizabeth Shown Mills, CG, CGL, FASG
Tennessee

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