Hi Andrew,
The best place to start is with what you know. Do you have your parent's names, birth and death dates? The location where they lived? You start there and work backwards.
This site does not charge for anything. But most information is found at the county level. If you don't know the county, go to:
http://resources.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/townco.cgiand it will find it for you.
Probably the best place to start is:
http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~norway/Genealogy is like putting a jigsaw puzzle together - only you have no picture and have to go find the pieces yourself. But, it is very rewarding when you do. You will find long lost relatives that you never knew you had.
Good luck on your searching.
Sue