How far back can I realistically trace my family tree?

In Western Europe and North America, civil registration and parish registers usually let a well-documented line reach the early 1700s. Before that you depend on surviving church books, notarial acts and estate papers, so progress becomes uneven and branch-specific rather than steady.

Should I start from myself or from the oldest ancestor I know?

Always from yourself and work backwards. Starting from a distant ancestor means assuming the link between them and you, which is exactly the thing that most often turns out to be wrong.

What information do I need for each person?

A full name including maiden names, birth date and place, marriage date and place, death date and place, and the source for each of those facts. Recording where a fact came from is what turns a tree into research rather than a family legend.

How do I handle a name spelled differently in every document?

Record the spelling that appears in each document on that document, and pick one form for the person's profile. Spelling drifted with clerks, languages and borders; identical spelling was never a requirement for identity, and insisting on it hides real ancestors.

Can I import a tree I already built elsewhere?

Yes — export a GEDCOM from your current software or site and import it. People, dates, places, notes and relationships come across, and you keep working from where you were instead of retyping.

How many generations should I aim for in the first month?

Three or four solidly sourced generations beats ten guessed ones. A tree built on unverified links has to be dismantled later, and dismantling is slower than building carefully the first time.

What should I do with contradictory dates?

Keep both, note where each came from, and rank them by how close the source was to the event. A birth registration written days after the birth beats an age stated on a death certificate decades later.

Do I need to interview relatives before searching records?

It helps enormously, and it is time-sensitive. Older relatives hold place names, nicknames, migration stories and photographs that no archive has, and those details are what make a record search precise instead of speculative.

Vestigee — Building Your First Family Tree | Blog

Step-by-step guide to creating and organizing your family tree