You should start by asking all your living relatives about family history. Then, armed with that information, you can go to your public library and check to see if it has a genealogy department. Most do nowadays; also, don't forget to check at community colleges, universities, etc. Our public library has both www.ancestry.com and www.heritagequest.com free for anyone to use (no library card required).
Another place to check out is any of the Mormon's Family History Centers. They allow people to search for their family history (and, NO, they don't try to convert you).
A third option is one of the following websites:
http://www.searchforancestors.com/...
http://www.censusrecords.net/?o_xid=2739...
www dot usgenweb dot com/
www dot census dot gov/
http://www.rootsweb.com/
www dot ukgenweb dot com/
www dot archives dot gov/
http://www.familysearch.org/
http://www.accessgenealogy.com/...
http://www.cyndislist.com/
www dot geni dot com/
Cyndi's has the most links to genealogy websites, whether ship's passenger lists, ancestors from Africa, ancestors from the Philippines, where ever and whatever.
Of course, you may be successful by googling: "john doe, born 1620, plimouth, massachusetts" as an example.
Good luck and have fun!
Check out this article on five great free genealogy websites:
www dot associatedcontent dot com/article...
Then there is the DNA test; if you decide you want to REALLY know where your ancestors came from opt for the DNA test. Besides all the mistakes that officials commonly make, from 10% to 20% of birth certificates list the father wrong; that is, mama was doing the hanky-panky and someone else was the REAL father. That won't show up on the internet or in books; it WILL show up in DNA.
I used www.familytreedna.com which works with the National Geographics Genotype Program.
There are so many websites devoted to genealogy; just google genealogy and see how many hits you get! You can even google "free genealogy sites" and get so many hits. Don't forget to type in "smith family genealogy" (whatever surnames for your dad and mom, grandparents, etc.), "webster county genealogy society", "kentucky genealogy society", etc.
AND check Yahoo! genealogy answers, especially the top 10. Just click on their profiles.
As for putting it down on paper or into a genealogy program (not recommended! If it crashes, everything is lost!), you either start with yourself, OR, with your parents and work backwards! Your parents, then your grandparents, then your great-grandparents...