For all-around usefulness it’s hard to beat Karen Clifford’s Complete Beginner’s Guide to Genealogy, the Internet, and Your Genealogy Computer Program though you could, of course, start at the very beginning (literally) with Susan Beller’s Roots for Kids or Jackie Arnold’s very basic explanation of relationships in Kinship: It’s All Relative. But without question the simplest book to start your genealogy research with is William Dollarhide’s Managing a Genealogical Project, which offers a unique approach to organizing and presenting your genealogical research and also includes forms such as Pedigree Charts and Family Group Sheets.

Some beginners might want to start with the standard textbook in genealogy, Val Greenwood’s celebrated Researcher’s Guide to American Genealogy, widely acclaimed as the best book ever written on American genealogy; while others with a more classical bent will want to read Genealogy as Pastime and Profession, the book that laid the academic foundation for American genealogy, by Donald Lines Jacobus, the dean of American genealogy.