Where Have You Searched ?

With all the genealogy programs available on the internet, are you actually starting your research in the middle instead of the beginning. Have you asked your living relatives about their parents and grandparents? I have been lucky enough to have a few letters and a short autobiography that my Dad wrote to see about their lives. But for all the research I did I never thought to ask my Dad about his grandfather. It seemed so long ago that I never realized that he would have known his grandfather. Some relatives may have old newspaper clippings, a family Bible, pictures,etc. With todays cameras, pictures can be taken where these items are.
What are you doing with all those old pictures, stills and movies? Are they disintergrating? There are many places where these can be put on CD's or you can scan a lot of your own pictures. We all tend to put off these simple things in search of more names. Have you looked at the hundreds of books available in your local libraries? What about the next parish? If you request a book on library loan and it can't be loaned, you can get the location where it can be found.Sometimes it will be only a few miles away. Or some libraries will copy the index and you can order copies of the pages you want.
You can find out where copies of religious ceremonies were held and order a document, you can seldom get an original copy.
Many libraries have old newspapers on micro-film.
Before you spend time and money going to far-away places,check close to home first.