Addresses - pin down the location of a member of the family at a particular date, enabling you to plot their movements over the years. You will obtain addresses from many documents which are dated, get other addresses from people's memories -they will remember the address, but seldom the dates. Use the documents to narrow the gaps. If you can get addresses from far enough back, you can use them to consult census records.

Census dates vary from country to country, but in the UK the most recent available census is 1891.