searching for nobility on your tree

[Rosezi]

Advice needed. What is the best root to take researching nobility on your tree. Once you have exhausted all the parish records what next? One of my branches the Wootton family of Boughton Malherbe in Kent could be connected to Richard the 1st of Normandy. I'm aware you have to be very wary of other trees that claim to be connected to royalty and nobility etc.. but one of the trees has done some very extensive and detailed research which looks very convincing, I would like to do the same but feel a little lost. 

[Girl Guide]

Any good researcher will list their sources e.g.what the record is, where it is located, what year it relates to, its reference number.

If sources are properly listed then they should be findable by other people.

Richard the First of Normandy is certainly going back a bit!      

Have you thought about Manorial Records or are you already familiar with those?  You don't say how far back you have already got with your Wootton family.

The National Archives has some information about the Manorial Documents Register:-

http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/manor-search

Have you contacted the records office relevant to the area and asked them what sort of records you could look at to take your research further back?

I'm no expert at researching a long way back so there may be other sources that you can investigate that I have no knowledge of.

There may well be other Rootschatters who are more experienced than I at going a long way back in the past.  Hopefully one of them will give you some suggestions/advice on what to do.

[iluleah]

Manorial records, wills, licences, land and tax records,legal records like Deeds, Patent /Curia Regis/Close rolls also Heralds Visitation although they 'supposed ' to be transcribed from the manor records they are the 'creative copy and paste, whatever fits and make it up as you go along' which you will find if you compare the actual manor records to them.

You will need some knowledge of French and Latin as many documents are written in those languages and lots of patience as the records you research are not family connecting records.

[KGarrad]

The only way is to follow your family back a generation at a time, using whatever documentary evidence is available.

Find proof of the links between generations

[Gadget]

I stumbled upon mine with the help of Rootschatters. I got back to 1687 (from memory) and found a female ancestor (Katherine Puleston). I couldn't find much more but put a request on the Flintshire board and someone found the link to substantiated published trees. The thread will still be there (poss 2006-7).

It's what's called a 'gateway ancestor'. As others have said, you need to do a thorough paper trail first.


Gadget

Added - my grandmother (in my avatar) was the granddaughter of the younger son of a younger son, etc.

[ThrelfallYorky]

KGarrad's advice sounds the most sensible. As one of the people who simply never had a "gateway" ancestor to their name, I must admit it puzzles me that so many people want to find nobility/even royalty more than just tracing the family line and location as far and fully as possible.
I'm afraid I do know some people who are "convinced" by very thin evidence that there is a link - a relative of mine was certain she was related to Robert the Bruce - with no evidence any of us could find.
Often such trees make leaps and plaster up connections - but good luck, Rosezi, with your search. Do please be careful checking things out.

[iluleah]

I must admit it puzzles me that so many people want to find nobility/even royalty more than just tracing the family line and location as far and fully as possible.

I completely agree!

I was fascinated by the Manor Hall in the village my ancestors live in, many of my ancestors worked for the manor, be it as stone masons, thatchers roofing the manor cottages where my ancestors lived or as gamekeepers, gate keepers, blacksmiths or on the land.
I found out King James  daughter was 'off loaded' onto the family there to be brought up and paid for ( of course) and then she was married off at 15 and taken to Europe to be married she became the Winter Queen ( Queen of Bohemia)
I was given access to the manorial records by the owner some years ago which were still at the Hall, so I was looking for information about my ancestors from invoices, wages and rent payment but also about Princess Elizabeth.
Just like any other records there can be decades ( or longer) when they were not kept up to date, clearly pages and pages filled in by one hand over a century or more or not filled in at all with a century or more of information missing, so like all records it is down to who is responsible to do it, if they took on that responsibility AND 'if' those records are of any use as family connecting records and many are simply not.
It is very hard to prove beyond 1800ish as so much detail is not there, a parish record which states Robert son of John baptised and date doesn't tell you the mother, doesn't tell you a surname is little use and even if the surname is there there may be 3 or 4 of the same name in the same village.
So by the time you get back to so called 'gateway' ancestors, if people have not proved prior and are then relying on what someone else states, at best it can be a surname collection.

[Gadget]

I must admit it puzzles me that so many people want to find nobility/even royalty more than just tracing the family line and location as far and fully as possible.

Most of us just stumble onto these so called noble lines while doing thorough research.  I find that the lives of my ancestors are more interesting than the lines.

I must admit that I prefer to have my coal miners and ag labs (and their lives) but if you get back far enough, you'll most likely link in to  some noble or other. Most people can't get that far back   

[Greensleeves]

When doing my late husband's tree, I stumbled upon a gateway ancestor linked to the Earls of Oxford, and this took me back to the Anglo-Saxon royals (none of your Norman johnny-come-lately types  ).  Coincidentally, at one time my husband had been employed in a large family firm owned by this line, but he never knew that he was in any way connected to them.

However,  the most exciting thing I found in my tree was that my 4x great grandparents were Norwegian, which left me totally astonished. And this was the only thing I have ever found in my research that has impressed my daughter: that she could well be descended from Vikings!