I recall my Dad telling me that an uncle (or maybe it was a cousin) had searched for his ancestors and got quite a way along.
This, being before the advent of computers and the internet must have been quite a Herculean task.
How do you keep everything organised?

The Family Tree has always intrigued me, but children, immigration, work etc. played havoc with the family history.
Now, retired having a little bit more time and with the help of the internet, and spurred by the birth of our grandchildren, it became an interesting hobby.

Another reason for my interest was me being curious about the origin of my given names: Hein Elbert.
My Dad always told me the story how Elbert once used to be the family name or a part of a family name, he wasn't quite sure.
Exploring this question turned out to be quite interesting.
The subsequent contacts with members of the Elbers family made this hobby extra rewarding.
The many generations of painters from the Elbers and the de Vries families, now halted with the retirement of cousin Klaas de Vries on the de Vries side, became even more interesting with the research by Alle Elbers into the painting of flags by the Elbers of which several are now in Dutch Maritime musea.

My interest in the Elbers Family illustrates also that the traditional heavy emphasis on the male descendancies in many genealogies is misplaced. The female lines can be equally as interesting and deserve as much attention as the male lines.

Such is the history of my Mother's relatives: the Molendijk Family from Twente.
Without the help of my second cousin Gerard Lutters I would have drowned in the many Jan's, Jan Hendrik's, Janna's, Fenna's.
He very kindly send me the descendants list of Wasse Essink N.A. Hannink,
which facilitated the tracing of the Molendijk Family back to the 1730's.
Again thank you very much Gerard!

As earlier indicated, all information here I gathered from the internet (a trip to the Netherlands would have been nice but not absolutely necessary) with exception of the Molendijk info.

Public archives as in Genlias, Drenlias, Tresoar, Historisch Centrum Overijssel, Municipalities Hoogeveen, Avereest, Hattem are indispensable.
In many cases these public archives are duplicating each other. But I found that sometimes one offers a bit more info than the other.
Hence it is worth to consult all sources.

Furthermore data posted by other genealogists on the internet can be very helpful in breaking logjams.
The following list of websites I found particularly helpful.

http://www.den-braber.nl/vpnd/statuspagina-ov.html : Project "Van Papier naar Digitaal": a Dutch project by volunteers to make original documents (mainly old Church records) available for viewing on the net. Very valuable!

www.werkman.info: here I found initially information about my great grandparents. Dick Werkman has updated his site recently.

www.babbage.clarku./~djoyce/gen/dutch: with information about the earlier de Vries Family.

www.warrink.net: with information about the Hartlief and the Uges Families.

www.home.hccnet.nl/arends/eelde: with information about the Uges and the Lefferts van Boven Bos Families.

www.home.tiscali.nl/~cb003033 and www.familie-troost.demon.nl: with information about the Troost Family from Almelo.

www.genealogy.demon.nl: with information about SW Drente Families.

www.twente.ngv.nl/TG97-02.htm:with information about some earlier Molendijks.

www.//afinab.tripod.com/genealog/sources: has Stad Almelo death and baptism registers of before 1811.

http://db.genealogy.net/ofb/map.cgi?land=deutschland : has death, marriage and baptism records of the Grafschaft Bentheim: not to be missed by those looking for ancestors living on either side of the Dutch-German border.

http://www.annavangelderen.nl/Jeltje%20Kort.htm#862 : Anna found some interesting information about the earliest de Vries family (at that time not even called de Vries) i.e Abel Roelofs and brothers.

http://gen-ned.smitskids.nl/index.html : Idskje allowed me to get some picture of the earlier days of the de Boer Family and the tragic event surrounding my great grandmother Wiepkje de Boer.