Unless you have absolute proof of a person's name and date of birth (age) - as in you have seen a copy of a birth certificate, it is important to remember people have an amazing habit of forgetting the names they were christened by, and the exact year they were born.

So when beginning your research into your family history it is worth remembering to look a few years either side of the estimated age / birth date of the person. One of the interesting things to watch for - especially with regards to census records is - a census is taken every 10 years. I know you know that - but - watch the ages of the people who have submitted their information - sometimes they don't age quite as quickly as the census.

When you are looking for names - remember the common variations - Jack for John and vice versa, Kate, Kit, Kitty for Katherine as well as all the different variations of spelling. So Katherine, could of course be Catherine or Kathryn.

Researching your family history can be a lot of fun, it is also very time consuming and can be confusing. Therefore keeping all your information together can save a lot of time because you don't have to keep going over the same old ground.