*cast a wide net – look for all family members and know who they married; that is your cluster
*always work with a timeline
*consider all possible spellings / watch for naming patterns including several marriages with one family
*make sure you have worked the earliest census that exists – make notes on your family and the people by them.
*watch for anything unexpected
* always consider the push and the pull - what pushed them to make this drastic move and what pulled them to the new place
* use the county formation maps constantly
* Google historical maps - the Google image search is one of the quickest ways to find good historical maps quickly for an area
One of the largest issues in colonial research is being sure that you know where they are.
Before 1790 there are no giant masterlists. Here are some tools that help:
Revolutionary War records - pensions - rosters - pay stubs - militia lists. Best sources of these are at Fold3, FamilySearch & Ancestry.
If you find a person who might be your grandpa on a record but are not sure you need to Google the roster for his unit to see if there are other names you recognize. You can also Google terms like the county where they live followed by "revolutionary war" in hopes of finding a list of participants or history that helps.
New England - FamilySearch and Ancestry have many of the town records indexed in databases. Can you find births for children or for nieces and nephews that help tie your ancestor to a place? Start with the vital record databases.
General Town Records - unfortunately many of these are not indexed yet but if you think you know the town where they would be in New England, browse your town records at FamilySearch. Spot check what is in them. You might look at page 25, page 50, page 75 etc. because in some of them are tax lists. They are easy to use and very helpful.
New York
1855 state census of New York - yes it is late but if you have people still living who are older it gives the COUNTY in NY that they were born
the local genealogy society has volumes of early land warrants for NY in book form
New York Land Records at family search - each county has an index
Pennsylvania
map of the Great Philadelphia Road
Pennsylvania Archives (free from Fold3)
Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Collection's Land Records Collection
Revolutionary War Records in Pennsylvania resources
Maryland
Assessment of 1783 - choose a county and then do control find and make it search for your surname)
Early Settlers of Maryland (database by Dr. Carson Gibb)
Rent Rolls of Somerset Co. Maryland, 1663-1723
Virginia
Cavaliers & Pioneers - the first volume is free at Hathi Trust; later volumes can be searched but you can't read them. WAGS has copies.
Virginia's Colonial Soldiers - some of it is restricted. You can view it at the local Genealogy Society.
Early Virginia Religious Petitions
Virginia Land Office Patents & Grants / Northern neck Grants & Surveys
Virginia Colonial Abstracts (Beverley Fleet)
Chronicles of the Scotch Irish Settlement in Virginia from the court records of Old Augusta Co. 1754-1800 - not just the Scotch Irish are listed; families from all over what became West Virginia
Dunmore's War (1775) for men who served or supplied goods for those who did primarily in those areas now known as West Virginia - from the Library of Virginia
North Carolina
North Carolina & Tennessee, Early Land Records, 1753-1931 (Ancestry - requires subscription)
North Carolina Land Grant Images & Data (North Carolina Genealogical Society)
South Carolina
South Carolina Department of Archives & History Database Search