Family Tree...Where to Begin...

My brother has used ancestry.com with success.

(I told him to STOP looking--we probably don't want to know EVERYTHING! LOL)

My BFFs tried ancestry.com and LOOOOVED IT!! I wish I had the $ to spend on it! They learned things that completely blew their minds, and now have pictures and all sorts of information of the people who came before them. I was so touched at their stories. They had run a free 2 week trial, but you have to cancel at the end of 2 weeks... happy hunting!! Let us know what you find!

if you have the money for ancestory.com you could try it. My dad has been researching our family history for years and has gotten back to the mid 1700's but cannot go any further without traveling to england..LOL. I know you say you aren't able to go to pennsylvania, but that may be your best bet. you could go to their court house and such and do the research there. my dad traveled down to kentucky first and then on to virginia. good luck, you could find out some very neat info!

You would be surprised what you can find just by googling the name, particularly if it is an unusual name. It's helpful if you have a year, too. If you know what year your grandmother was born, just try googling her name and the birthyear - you might be surprised. As for unusual names, sometimes going sideways. For instance, if your Grandfather was named Henry, that's too common, but if his brother was named Delvin - go with that for a search. They'll have parents in common, and it'll get you a generation back.

Findagrave.com is a fantastic resource. If you know your great grandfather's name, you can go to findagrave and look for graves with that name in Pennsylvania. (It helps if you have some idea of the city or county, but it's not always necessary.) With any luck, he'll be buried next to his wife. If you are really lucky, some kind geneologist will have also posted an obituary, and you can get his siblings and parents, too.

The LDS website is free, so you might start there, too. www.ancestorhunt.com

I have a girlfriend who also didn't have the option of traveling to Indiana, where her roots are. She has had a lot of luck with setting up a correspondence with geneology groups in the area, as well as with the librarians and docents of various museums and librarians in the area.

Warning: it gets to be a little addictive. I have ordered many a pizza, when I forgot to make dinner, because I almost had a relationship between two people figured out...

Ancestry.com is the way to go. They have different subscription plans available - but just be aware that they take the entire subscription amount in one lump sum - they don't split it into monthly payments.

There is oodles of info there. Any info you have about his family including any and all places they may have lived, full names and maiden names, ages/ date of birth (estimated or exact), marriage and death dates, occupations, cousins, aunts and uncles will help in your quest.

Not all info will be accurate and you can't entirely base your research on others' family trees or even one record. (One census record had the wrong age for my paternal grandmother.) You have to verify from different sources (census, church, tax records.)

You can research as many family lines as you wish on Ancestry. Enjoy your quest!

If you can afford to get a subscription to Ancestry.com, do it. My mother has been doing research on our family history for years. I bought her a subscription to Ancestry.com for her birthday, and she has found so much more info. She loves it. It blows her away all that she can find on that one site. My husband just got us a subscription so that he can research his father's side of the family. He said it is becoming addicting. LOL Have fun!

I second the LDS websites. They're free and there are people around who's job it is to make sure you are finding exactly what you need. You don't have to be LDS to use them or access the information.
We've done quite a bit of genealogy in our family. My brother went through the list of ancestors at one point cleaning up dates and relationships and has a pretty good grasp on what it takes to get started. He told me once that if you can trace your family back to full names for your grandparents (and possibly their parents), that should put you in line to pull up a whole slew of information going back from them.
Good luck, and watch the addiction :)

How exciting!
I work as an architectural historian and part of my job is researching census records and other primary sources.
Ancestry.com is a great resource, especially to those new to this type of research. Pull together all the information you have, identify time to do research and then sign up for a one month membership (be sure to cancel at the end of your month to avoid future billing).
Start with the census records and the family from Harrisburg. If you know their DOB that would be enormously helpful. You should be able to find them quite easily. Moving backwards every 10 years in the census, tracing them, you will find their mother, father and siblings names. You can then branch out from there.
Keep a notebook of all the information. When you have found as much as you can on Ancestry.com, I recommend going to the Library of Congress website. There has been a massive projects for the last few years to scan historic newspapers and make them searchable for free on line - it is called Chronicling America. Type in your ancesters names and you may get lucky and find some more personal information about them. I have learned alot about my family from this resource, it is more personal information than just dates of birth and death.
And as a final resource, try Google Books. Search on line and see what you get. I had an ancestor who was written about in a published county history book.
Good luck and enjoy!