Try your local public library and see if they have a genealogy department. Many public libraries offer free genealogy classes and have subscriptions to online databases like Ancestry and Heritagequest. Also, most genealogy librarians are genealogists themselves and have years of experience in the field. You might also see if there is a local genealogical society.

When I worked as a genealogical librarian for our local public library district, we had a very helpful handout about basic genealogy, which can be found here:

http://thelibrary.springfield.missou...t/basicgen.cfm

Happy Hunting!

Todd