Hi Amber! I'm a huge fan of genealogy and have been researching my family tree going on 7 years now. I warn you its highly addicting. I've listed a great source for storing your information and also sites that I frequently go to. Once you find where a person was born or died google the County/State and add Genealogy or Historical Society to the search. Example: Benton County, OH + Genealogy .
When you have a date and place and your searching before 1930 then there is a great deal of information available through the census'. If your not a member of ancestry.com then you can go to the message boards on
www.rootsweb.com (County/State your researching) and request a look-up.
If I can be any help please feel free to PM me.
Oh........a side note: I went to a genealogy conference when I started and was adviced that your research is only as good as your proof. Be sure to document all your resources. Also, when you do find where someone else has researched an ancestor don't assume that their information is accurate. Follow up on it and be sure that names, dates and places are accurate. Personally, I love to collect marriage license, obits, death certs, tombstone pics, etc.... to support my research. I keep all my information in a huge binder that has plastic page protectors.
Good Luck!
Here's a great site where you can download a free program that stores your research.
www.familysearch.org
click on order/download products
click on software downloads free
click on the first download for 5.2
Then follow all the prompts. When its all downloaded you will find the icon on your desktop. Click on open new file. Once your into this start filling in your information (I only give the minimal). Then your ready to begin entering your families information. There is a help tab ..... click on this and it will explain how to use this program. I love it. I am the only one that can access the information. If I choose to share the information with others I can decide to and what I want to share. If you have any questions feel free to ask.
http://www.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=3693
http://www.findagrave.com/
http://www.sos.state.il.us/departments/archives/databases.html ..... if your researching in Illinois
http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/
www.familysearch.org