I should take it in small steps so that the project does not seem overwhelming. I have traced my family back to the 1700s so far, but I started with a scrapbook just going back to about 1850 as this was the easy bit. I had photographs of my great grandparents and I added two written sections, one talking about their lives and another about what was happening in the local area and the country at the time, adding old postcards showing the area where they lived. It was my first attempt at scrapbooking and retrospectively, that side could be better, but the whole seems to make it interesting for all those who have seen it. Using the scrapbook I could change the design of the pages to reflect the various periods.
I also used a roll of wallpaper lining to draw out the various branches for my own use so that I could see where everything fitted together - computers are useful, but limited it seeing the bigger picture.
It’s an absorbing hobby that also started my interest in scrapbooking, which I had previously though of as a hobby for Victorian ladies who just stuck pretty pictures into a book - how wrong was I!