The book I've read to research this post was Tracing Your Ancestors by D M Field which is an excellent book which I bought from a second hand book store. In tracing your family tree it's worth checking if someone has already done a local history in your area or done a family history either in your family or a related family. It's surprising how many of these have been done and also how many exist in manuscript form and hardly anyone knows about them. It will save you loads of work. If your family is Irish you may find there was a fire at the records office in Dublin in 1922 which had various records stored more census records. You also may find your family has a coat of arms you never know. This is normally passed on via the eldest son in each generation. Another thing is family history where you read about the life in the towns and the careers your relatives worked in etc. In some ways this is better than simple family trees. Other things worth checking are wills, trade records, parish records, birth and death records and military records. This was a really enjoyable book that is only around 60 pages but is very informative.