I'm one of the young ones. My mum had researched her father's side about 20-30 years ago and had the surname going back to the mid 17th century. At some point, far more recently, probably about 10 years ago, she got Family Tree Maker and printed the tree off - which went onto about 8 sheets of A4. I thought it was pretty amazing to have such a huge tree going back so far (maybe you could try that trick to get others interested
. A second cousin who also saw the tree has started doing his family history too). Some years later, the 1901 census was released and I said I'd research my dad's side, but never did at that point. I didn't really know what to do anyway. Then a few years after that, my mum was trying to link a couple of lads who died in WWI to our tree, and by this time the 1901 was accessible and I found the names of my great grandparents quite easily by asking family members. Once I'd found them on the census it was just a case of working each line back. After I started researching my dad's side, my mum picked up the research again (having put it away since getting married) and decided to have a go at her mother's side (Smith, partly why it had been put away). I don't really know why more young people aren't interested in researching their family history, I find it fascinating.
I still use the 10 year old version of FTM too. The only extra things that I wish it had are fields for christenings and burials and fields to put family/individual census data in.
Andrew
