How to go further back than mid 16th century?

[Aulus]

In 1538, Thomas Cromwell promulgated an edict instructing the vicar and churchwardens of each parish church to maintain registers of all baptisms, marriages and burials performed.

I've been lucky that one one branch of my family tree I've got back to the earliest parish register (Guests in Broseley, Shropshire, where the parish registers start in 1570) .  This is literally luck - spotting a couple of words in an 1820s newspaper that linked the family to Shropshire - combined with the fact that the Guests were literate from an early stage and - not to be underestimated - also to the help of Rootschatters.

The family were not ennobled (that came later, and not my branch!), so is there any hope of going back beyond the first parish register? 

Oh, and just as comfort for those not as lucky, the branch of my tree whence I get my surname, is stuck around 1840 

[behindthefrogs]

Where I have ventured back into that period I have always found wills of more use than parish registers.  There are also many other documents filed away in the various archives which can help.  Tracking the ownership or occupation of property for example often leads to family relationships. 

The only dates that you can find are usually dates of death but it is possible to attibute approximate dates to marriages and births. You will need to look a lot wider than the line you are trying to trace as you will be working with snippits of information which can crop up anywhere.

David

 

[bedfordshire boy]

Try:
http://www.a2a.org.uk/  (Guest - Shropshire Archives)
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/default.asp?j=1
http://www.google.co.uk/books?hl=en  (a bit time consuming as there a lot of guests but Guests are rarer!)
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.genealogy.medieval/topics (as above!)
http://sdrc.lib.uiowa.edu/patentrolls/search.html

Are there any feet of fines in which property transactions are recorded?

David

[Mean_genie]

There is a Research Guide Medieval and Early Modern Sources for Family History on The National Archives website

www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/RdLeaflet.asp?sLeafletID=79&j=1

[Aulus]

Thanks all.

Food for thought and further activity. 

Looks like I'll be having a holiday in Shrewsbury!