I recall my Dad telling me, years ago, that an uncle of his (or maybe it was a cousin) had searched for our ancestors and got quite a way along but got stuck somewhere in Friesland.
This, being before the advent of computers and the internet, must have been quite a Herculean task.
How do you keep everything organised?
Unfortunately nothing seems to have been preserved from his work, so I had to start from scratch.
With help from newly found relatives and the ever growing presence of original documents on the web, I am now (March 2009) well on my way. There are now about 7500 names in my database. This data base can be accessed here: www.heinandwil.net/GenealogyTNG One is never finished however; there always will be persons to be found, connections to be explored.

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 on by the birth of our grandchildren, it became an interesting hobby. Along the way I connected with other family members interested in the same knowledge.

Another big reason for my interest was me being curious about the origins of my given names:
Hein Elbert.
My Dad told me a story how Elbert once used to be a family name or a part of a family name, he wasn't quite sure.
Exploring this question turned out to be very interesting and rewarding through the contacts with members of the Elbers family.
The research into the many generations of house-painters from the Elbers and the de Vries families, became even more interesting with the research by Alle Elbers into the painting of flags by members of the Elbers family. These flags were meant to be flown from ships at special occasions; several of which 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 Brecklenkamp in Twente.
Without initial help of my relative Gerard Lutters I would have drowned in the many Jan's, Jan Hendrik's, Janna's, Fenna's.
He very kindly send me early on a descendants list of Wasse Hannink geb. Essink, which facilitated the tracing of the Molendijk Family back to the 1730's. Most information now has been corroborated and verified independently.
Again thank you very much Gerard for getting me started!

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 and I will be updating this list shortly..

www.babbage.clarku./~djoyce/gen/dutch: with some information about the earlier de Vries Family and a branch that emigrated to the U.S.A.

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.

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~bruggencate/index.htm: Afina Broekman has published here reconstructions of families living in the stad Almelo some from before and some after 1811.

http://www.online-ofb.de/index.html : has death, marriage and baptism records of among others, the Grafschaft Bentheim: not to be missed by those looking for ancestors living on either side of the Dutch-German border.

As earlier indicated, residing in Canada, most information I gathered from the internet, with a heavy emphasis on publicly available archival records (more trips to the Netherlands would have been nice but not absolutely necessary) although one trip to the Historisch centrum Overijssel in Zwolle. a few years ago, was very helpful.

Public archives are unlocked, as in:
Genlias: for records after 1811 all of the Netherlands,
Drenlias: for records before and after 1811, province of Drente,
Alle Groningers: for records after 1811, province of Groningen, however they intend to include older records in the future,
Tresoar: for records before and after 1811, province of Friesland,
Historisch Centrum Overijssel: for records mainly after 1811, some info from before 1811, province of Overijssel
Municipality Hoogeveen: for records after 1811 in Hoogeveen (Drente.
Municipality Almelo: for photos of the actual marriage and death certificates from 1811,
Other big cities like Amsterdam, Rotterdam, the Hague, Leiden do have their own on- line access to their archives as do some regional archives as Groenehart archieven with data from Gouda and surroundings.

One more recent addition is the emergence of a project VanPapiernaarDigitaal.This is becoming quickly THE portal for mainly church records from before the establisment of a public administration in 1811. Volunteers actually photograph the pages of the church books and publish them on this site. I have found many of my forebears on these pages!!!
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To ferret out all information it is worth to consult all sources.