Do you have any older members of your family you could ask? That's usually a good starting point. It's difficult in some families that had a lot of kids, where grandparents would be long gone by the time the youngest grandchild became interested in geneology. Also, in many cases, (like in my family,) some of the older people were ashamed of their heritage and did all they could to hide it. You get a lot of made up stuff. But looking up your last name in some heraldry books at the library is a pretty decent start, too.