I have been researching my family for many years, connecting over 29K family members and even published a book on my family.
Here are a few locations I use on the net to look up family.
Obituary as it usually has date of birth/year and parents listed
http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ can put in names of person or parents if some one has posted it
https://familysearch.org/search has the census and some military records
Google the family name for site where you can post a question about the person
These sources are basically for families prior to the 1940's due to privacy rules
If you have any questions, drop me a note and I will try to help you.