Looking Back in a Good Way (a definitely non-pillar of salt way)

Building upon what I most recently posted, I want to challenge everyone to obtain (wherein you have not already done so) a five generation pedigree chart. This is perhaps the easiest and most satisfying place to begin any personal genealogy. And it's this easy. List the following about yourself: date of birth, city/county/state of birth, date of marriage, city/county/state of marriage, and any of the same information about your spouse--also include a date of death if applicable.
Now, if you've done this you finished step one. Next, obtain the same information about your parents. They will then probably know most of the same information about their grandparents (that's step two and three). Now you're three generations back. If you are fortunate enough to have grandparents who are still living you can get any missing information from them, and then ask them about their parents. If they have all the information, great, but in most cases they may be missing some dates or locations. Those are the first holes you'll need to fill. I'm also fairly confident that for the fifth generation your grandparents will be able to give you at least the names of their grandparents (your fifth generation) if not further information.
So there you go, five generations in quick and easy fashion and five is one more generation than what will fit on a typical 8 1/2 x 11 inch genealogical chart (the extra one generation I hope compels you to keep going beyond the four generations--beyond the one chart). I really can't over emphasize how easy it is to get a lot of this information filled in for your first five generations. And with that, you can begin to pull in new information. One neat place to start is by getting copies of U.S. Censuses with your ancestors on them. They are really neat forms and you can get them online from Ancestry.com. For those without access to ancestry.com, for free, you can get a free trial of ancestry and during that time begin to look up these old census records and print off what you find. They list names, ages, occupation, if owning a home, and a number of other things. And I guarantee you have enough information to track down your older ancestors on these forms, and these forms and the aid of ancestry.com may be enough to help you fill in some holes or even push your records back more than five generations.Good luck with it all. I encourage everyone to know at least this much about yourself and to have the information readily available. It's a good reminder that you have a responsibility to many who came before you both to do well with your life, as to provide what blessings you can, through the temple, to them.  

Below is an example of a four generation pedigree chart.  I doubt it's printable, but it gives you an idea and can be found by clicking the following link:  pedigree chart.