Genealogy Chat

Just curious, what's the earliest date on your tree and how long did it take to get there?

Mine is 1000, when I got very lucky and happened to get into contact with someone who'd been researching that line for years, and even luckier in that he'd found a link to some Welsh princes who've always been keen on keeping records of their lineage. The earliest I've got to solely through my own efforts is some speculative IGI entries from the 1740s; the earliest proved beyond all reasonable doubt is a baptism in 1836.

Well I think I might have the oldest! It is still speculative but I have recently joined a medieval online group of genealogists and one of the interesting topics is descents from antiquity. The lack of records in the Dark Ages means there are very few possible ways back to early times but one of the people whom several serious genealogists now have on their sites is a man called Flavius Afranius Syagrius. He lived in the mid 4th century and was a Gallo-Roman consul and is a probable ancestor of Charlemagne. As I know how I am descended from Charlemagne I also would be the descendant of Syagrius. However........everyone of European descent is thought to have Charlemagne as an ancestor so old Syagrius belongs to millions of people. When I was doing my own research from parish records I was delighted to have got back to the mid 16th century. That research took me many years to sort out. I just got very lucky recently and found an ancestor who was an Earl. His ancestry has been well researched and documented by lots of people so it leads back into royalty and nobles all over Europe and many lines go back to around the 9th and 10th centuries without much difficulty. I can't put it all on GR though! Too many ancestors. Best wishes Sue

Susan that is really interesting. Would you pm me the website. I've recently seen a programme on Sky which briefly touched on gateway ancestors and this sounds like its a similar thing. Thanks Dianex

Thanks to two ancestors, I have written proof of their ancestors living in Sussex in 1748. I believe I know who the wife's parents were; I don't know where the husband was born, but speculate it was France. I started researching in the late 70's and have been doing so off and on since.

Lisa what a coincedence, I grew up in sussex ~ now i live in California :) Helen

i have got back to 1742 with documented evidence but with igi i can get back to 1535 but its not proven love linda x x

26 people with Charlemagne, born 742 in their tree, but lots of conflicting birth-places :-) Like Susan above, I 'got lucky' with a 2x Gt Aunt who married into a higher-class of family (not the usual ag.labs) and I found myself in among all the Dukes, Earls and Sirs, which then didn't take terribly long to find a line to the Royal Family, meaning that ultimately I can claim to be decsended from Charlemagne too! He's not in my GR tree though, but instead on my somewhat larger tree on my PC hard drive. I stopped tracing backwards from Charlemagne when I got to St. Arnulf of METZ, born in 582, as there seems to be some dispute over his parentage and the lines any further back than this. I'm only adding these names in for a bit of fun though, just for the inevitable dreaded question when someone asks me how far I've got!! My provable direct-line ancestry from parish records goes back to about 1540 on one of my maternal lines. That is an exception though, as most of my other lines fizzle out in the mid to late 1700s. I haven't added any new direct-line names for ages now.

Try http://groups(.)google(.)com/group/soc.genealogy.medieval where the posters are very knowledgeable on medieval genealogy. My direct line goes back to c1450 with maternal lines also going to Charlemagne and the man from Metz, but pre 1066 I tend to take with a large pinch of salt

Proven back to 1554 on one line, with a mention of a man of the same name in the same farmhouse dying in 1479. My main line back to 1179 - except, erm, I cannot link my 2 x GGF into this line! Olde Crone