Growing your tree?

[Vasquez109]

I have been very fortunate on 1 small branch of my tree, as one family stayed mostly in or around the same parish in Cornwall since their church registers began in 1538.

Now to find a direct line back to the early-to-mid 1500's has been a pretty lucky one I guess, as the registers are very legible and clear and the parish was relatively small so not much detective work needed!

Im just wondering how or even if its possible to go beyond the magic 1538? Has anyone done any research dipping their toes into the 1400's? It might not be possible but thought id ask!

Thanks,
David.

Incase you're wondering. The earliest entry of the branch is a burial for 7th April 1580. Thomas Skewes at St. Gerrans, Cornwall.

[Ayashi]

I've been fortunate if I've dipped my toes into the 1600s! Most of my lines stop 1700s-1800s usually because of lack of evidence and/or common names. I've got one family that ends with "Elizabeth Atkinson, dau of John and Mary" when there are about four John and Mary couples all having children at the same time.

A couple of my cousins have got lines back into the 1500s but I don't know how much of that is wishful thinking and use of wills without evidence that the wills are actually ours. I've decided not to tread those lines until the people involved have gone to meet the ancestors- that way I can't offend them while they are still alive!

I vaguely recall that we are related somewhere in Cornwall/Devon, or thought we might be. I remember your name but forget the link. I've been researching again at branches down there but I'm still hitting the same roadblocks so sometimes I think it just isn't meant to be. You never know when a small jewel will fall out from nowhere though.

[coombs]

I have managed to get back to 1541 on one line. A Thomas Bache who wed Alice Miller in 1541 in Pulham, Norfolk.

I think wills are very helpful for pre 1750 research. NRO website says that only a minority of people left wills which I disagree with. I estimate about 25% of our ancestors left a will. It was more common than you think, same for people moving around.

[clayton bradley]

I am researching in the Halifax area and have found numerous documents on Discovery in The National Archives which have been helpful. The Manor Court Rolls have also been useful and lists of Lay Subsidies and I have bought all the wills up to 1600 for Broadleys. I have also tried to read all the background information I can find on the area. My problem at the moment is joining the people I have found from 1538 onwards in the parish registers to the list of references I have from the 1400s. I can work out, say, that I have a family of brothers (because their wills match up etc) but I have no idea what their father, born in the 1480s, was called. He could be one of half a dozen people or someone I don't have a reference for. I have found the eldest son of eldest son lines easiest.cb

[KGarrad]

I've managed to get back to the mid-1500s on 3 lines.

On my paternal line, I was lucky enough to stumble upon a fellow researcher who was born with my surname.
Because she lives in East Anglia, from where the Garrad family originate, she has been able, over many years, to do research in most of the archives in the area.
I have no reason to doubt her research (which isn't om Ancestry!); i have corroborated much that was pertinent to my line.

On my maternal line, the Sims family were living in just a few villages in Wiltshire for over 400 years.
Consolidated research between 3 or 4 Sims researchers has got us back to the 1500's.

It helps if your ancestors were either well-off (as the Garrad family were), or frequently came to the attention of the authorities!

[ThrelfallYorky]

Like others, including the OP, I was fortunate enough to start with a fairly unusual surname, with a limited area of use, and they all seemed to have used the same church for all events, - and I had the bonus of a nearly accurate drawn out tree done by my grandfather to start me off on that line ... but I can't get further back than late 1500s even so.
I suppose if you're lucky enough to have noble or wealthy folk among your ancestry, you may be able to, but for those of us who were sired by craftsmen, small landowners and farmers, etc, I suppose you'd be really fortunate to be certain further back than then.