A friend enjoys researching the geneology of her family, and when she came to Houston recently she used the opportunity to track down more info on some of her relatives who had lived in the area. It was fascinating following her around as she worked, and discovered the gravesites of some of her relatives. Seeing their final resting places really gives a sense of reality to lives you'd otherwise know about only from newspaper clippings or other intangible sources.
She also did a quick web lookup to see what was easily available about my family. It was eerie to see an image pop up on the computer screen of the original handwritten 1930 US census sheet which documented my maternal grandparents, and their two young children (my uncle and my mother).
If you live in Houston then you have the Clayton Library available to you. It's a genealogical library with census records, books for every state and some foreign plus all kinds of other neat stuff.
Most big cities will have a genealogy library that covers more than just that area. Great resource!!