Genealogy Chat

Over a period of twenty years I have painstakingly traced my family tree back to 1690 in Otley West Yorkshire. I have always made sure that I have birth and marriage certificates where possible and/or have researched Parish records to reach this stage.

Now I discover that there are several trees on here that take the family tree back to 1200 ! They all reference Roots Web as their source but I think many have copied from each other.

Just how accurate is this Roots Web and how realistic is it to go back to 1200 even with the relatively unusual surname of Cawood?

Steven, be assured that you've put your tree together the correct way with no mistakes and fully sourced. Roots Web is only as accurate as the infomation posted there. And you can only take your Ancestry as far back as the records go. If they go back as far as 1600 you are very lucky. To go back further than 1538 is to go beyond parish records and is hard to do unless your ancestor is a person worth noting in official documentation.

Rootsweb is just a community web site for asking questions and getting advise it hold no records just a directory....and lots of usefull information but it could be like many tree unsourced and copied from one to another with no substantial evidence to upheld it,, often a calulated guess if it fits it has to be.!!......but if any wills were made these can shed light in having more proof.....often sidelining can lead back to mak research fault proof,,ie; named in a will by extended family.....

Thank you to you both. I suppose I knew the answer really. I wassuddenly flooded with this information that, in all honesty, was just too much to take in. I just needed someone else to put me back on the straight and narrow.