I think Johnny hit the nail on the head.... software is great, but nothing beats a hardcopy.... in fact... two hardcopies.

I lived in Fort Lauderdale in 2005 when Hurricane Wilma hit and thanks to Wilma..... my faithful binder was destroyed (not the binder as much as the paper inside of it ...

I almost forgot...

there are also blank census forms available for the U.S. census..... I like them because I can print neatly the information from the census record for just the ancestors I'm tracking and it's neater than the writing of the person who took the census (usually).

They can be ...

I noticed this thread, and thought I'd add my two cents on the original post.

I started out doing my family tree several years ago with the might pen / paper ..... eventually, I bought Family Tree Maker (version : Older than dirt).

I currently use Family Tree Maker 2009 so that I have a software ...