How far back realisitically can I go >>>

[halfasheep]

I know mine were living in one of the cottages at Bryncoch Farm, but all seemed to be in the mining industry in some capacity of the other.

Say I find in the mists of time that they did work on farms, how would I go about finding the acreage they worked anyway?

[behindthefrogs]

Well I know that that farm they were on was 63 acers, would this be considerd as "smallholders" and I have another family line that had a 99 acer farm. How many acers would you consider to be "smallholders"?

66 or 99 acres would be a reasonable size farms in the fertile parts of the country but in other areas only just sufficient to support a family.  For example around London in areas which are now part of the suburbs a reasonable sized farm would be at least 250 acres.

David

[mike175]

I hope I didn't give the impression I was belittling small farmers (being one myself)

What I meant to say was that many described as farmers in the census were really subsistence farmers on rented land struggling to keep body and soul together just as most Ag Labs would have been. Having experienced first hand just a little of what they had to contend with, I have an enduring respect for all of them.

The dictionary helpfully describes a smallholding as "smaller than a farm" . . .  but I would agree with David's definitions.

Mike.

[behindthefrogs]

The other vital resource which I had forgotten is of course wills.   The most surprising people made wills even back in the 1700s.  I have found wills of people who I thought were just Ag Labs who in fact owned about ten acres of land and the cottage in which they lived who left a will.

David

[halfasheep]

Wills is another area I am yet to delve into (mainly due to a complete lack of time to search the indexes). I have one will, but only because someone had found the index and posted it on their website dedicated to one of the surnames I was researching.

So many resources, so little time. I suppose it comes down to where you're going with your tree. I'm trying to be as comprehensive as possible, whilst only including blood relations, so whilst I'm growing outwards in numbers, I'm not actually going that far back at the moment, but would really like to - one of my resolutions this year (although the ongoing house renovation and impending wedding will no doubt but a damper on things)

[Charles IX]

Where do you find out about wills? Are there sites and stuff you can go on?

[halfasheep]

Think you have to go to Cardiff records office to search - don;t think you can search for wills on-line (correct me if I'm wrong - it would help me no end!)

[wilcoxon]

This might help with wills.
http://www.llgc.org.uk/index.php?id=487
You get directed to the online wills pages,

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/default.asp?j=1
Use this one to search for other wills.

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/familyhistory/wills/?homepage=quicklink
Try this one as well.

*****************************************
This might also be of help if you have problem working around the sites.
 I  had trouble `susssing`this out and was given this tip , it is quite simple and comes up with more detail, ie name, place and occupation than A2A does,
Although the NLW site looks impressive it is not easy to navigate!
If you are looking for wills, go to:
http://cat.llgc.org.uk/cgi-bin/gw/chameleon

Select 'English' (if required) at the top-right

Select 'Family History' in the left column menu

Select 'Wills' in the 'Search for ...' box in the left column and click
on the 'Save' button

Select 'Keyword' in the central column

Type in the name of the person in the first 'Search for' box in the
central column
Type in a place (e.g. village, town or county) in the econd 'Search
for' box in the central column and click on the 'Search' button

A list of possibilities should appear.

To find further details, click on the record number.
The important details are the 'Title', 'In' and 'Shelfmark' e.g. SA1717-22

You can then contact the Library in order to get a quote for the
photocopying at:
http://www.llgc.org.uk/index.php?id=nlwenquiries and filling in an 'enquiry form'.

[behindthefrogs]

You can find a number of threads discussing Wills and the other subjects by going to the Rootschat lexicon:

http://surname.rootschat.com/lexicon/index.php

David