newbie looking to add include files

[Mark Petryk]

I would like to add some files to the list of standard include (*.h) 
files, kind of like a library, to the standard search path of include 
files.  I see that there are many include files in /usr/include with 
many sub directories.  Copying my files into yet another sub directory 
under /usr/include did not see to make those files available to the 
compiler using:

#include <myfile.h>

I know there are command line parameters to add include paths during 
compiles (-I and the like), but how is it that the compiler knows about 
/usr/include and how does it know to search some of the sub-directories 
in that area.  Is there a configuration file somewhere that I need to 
add my additional path to so that the compiler searches in my directory 
by default?  I'd like to store my header files in a directory like: 
/usr/include/myfiles/myfile.h