Tracing my family tree..

I’ve been off sick the past week and stuck at home watching daytime T.V. has almost sent me crazy, however it has given me a chance to do something I’ve been meaning to do for ages but not got around to starting. That is tracing back my family tree. I’ve already been to Genes Reunited and started a tress but I have a few things against me

(1) I don’t know what I need to do to get more information (2) The census data online seems to be either incomplete or missing so I can’t tell if the facts I’ve put in are incorrect or if they’re correct but the information just isn’t available online (3) My family goes back to Ireland (don’t they all!) and records there are certainly not online. (4) Sites like Genes reunited work if you sign up and pay, I don’t want to pay unless I know I can get something in return (call me old fashioned) and signing up and paying to simply get access to something which may or may not help me is not something I’m very comfortable with.

I’ve tried going to the genealogy websites but most seem quite rubbish and I’m coming to the conclusion that actually this is one area (a bit like archaeology) where you have really got to go and do the fieldwork yourself or get someone to do it on your behalf and in either case go to the actual artifacts and trawl through them. 

I know that my great and great great grandparents included Scott, McKee, Nixon and Sloan. All very Scottish sounding names so I don’t think I’m going to turn out to be descended from viking stock but you never know…(perhaps a DNA test is in order?)