I did the ancestry.com trial last winter and loved it!! Yes be sure and save everything that you gather as a *.ged (gedcom) . If you go to familysearch.org that Randi mentioned, you can download their free genealogy software that will let you look at all of the entries you were able to gather. You can even store your family information at the LDS familysearch.org (Latter Day Saint) site.

I would love to take out the subscription service and do some more searching - maybe this winter!!