Genealogy Chat

To have got back to 1640 you must be in a County and a City,Town, Village or Hamlet with all the certs back to 1837 and then all the settlement records, wills, poor law, marriage licences, apprenticeships, militia records, newspaper reports on accidents/crimes like poaching or stealing handkerchiefs, possible deportation as well as all the parish registers and a whole host of other things along the way that you have picked up at the CRO? So you must have picked up a great deal of knowledge on the way which will give you many many clues. Assuming you have done all of this then you must have got the ancestors back to the Civil War and decided what side they were on as this might give a clue as to where they have come from or gone to? So having done all the basic work which can take many years to do, you have built up a picture of your ancestors and can now start on the manorial records. TNA have a good book for this called: Using Manorial Records by Mary Ellis cost about £8 I have used Manorial Records in the British Library. They are not easy reading as the Old English + the Latin can make it difficult but there are books to help with this. You will need to Google Manorial Records to see where your interests might lie. As Heather said previously the chance of getting back beyond 1540 is not very high as English records did not start until then. If you can prove Royalty, wealthy Landowners then you can get back further. Mine are 'commoners' working for the wealthy and I am back to 1633 using all the methods described above, but I am stuck at 1633 wondering where my ancestors came from as they disappear from the counties of my interest. I am using the Manorial Records of a neighbouring county to help me, as I suspect that they might come from there, so a thorough understanding of Manorial Courts would be a very good start to be going further back, especially if you have found ancestors working for the wealthy or titled families, although you do not need to have ancestors working for titled people to be in the manorial records but if one was a bailiff for example, then you would find quite a lot of info. I have a bailiff in my family and have found some wonderful documents at the CRO concerning this ancestor, signed by many famous people so there is a lot to be found! Janet

How did you get the info back that far? Did you do it, or has someone just given you a tree? You should have all the sources if it has been researched. You need to look in Parish Records before 1837. But I should double check all you have so far too. Check out the new to GR on the homepage for advice on research. My earliest dated is 1550 and I dont hold out much hope of anything earlier as even the churches never kept records before that time.

hi i have family dated back to 1640, but i wouldnt know were to start, on getting further back than that, can anyony help, Lynne