Where do the roots end?

[jess5athome]

Hi, thankyou so much Rena, I will take a look at those.
Best regards jess

[GrahamSimons]

Always worth joining your local FHS (or the one for the area you're interested in); always worth a nose around your Local Studies Library and/or County Record Office, and a chat to the staff; always worth a look at Genuki to see what records it points to. You never know.

[billybarnowl]

Your limitations are only those of your mind!

20 (yes really 20) years ago from memory - I had a number of brick walls - all of my walls related to people who were born mainly before 1837.

Today (little drum role - I have finally cracked the last biggy)!

However, I have cracked all of my brick walls in effect by doing very simple things.

1. Do not assume -
As an example, my Dad always referred to his grandmother as Elizabeth and even though I had had sight of the grave which said Eliza - I believed him. Actually, I could not find here records until I searched for Eliza.

2. Do you have 3 pieces of evidence to confirm a person's identity?
With Eliza as an example:-
I knew where and when she was buried (burial and death cert)
and I knew who she had married (marriage cert)
This alone proved who she actually was.
By choosing to ignore this I had created my own brick wall.

3. Top tip if you are going before 1837 and/or beyond the UK - consider excepting 2 pieces of evidence and/or steps sideways to break your wall.

Let me introduce to Darthula (the wall I finally broke today after 20 years today).
So what did I know 20 years ago from a census I knew she was born St John's Newfoundland c 1813.

If you are researching people before 1837 and need to back to 1770'ish use the Newspaper archives to assist you.

By finding six lines below in an 1834 newspaper (which I had actually ignored for 5 years), it finally allowed me to trace her ancestors: -
"August 28, at St. Augustine's Church, Bristol, by the Rev. W. Millner, Charles Bullen, youngest son of James Davis, Esq., of Weymouth, to Darthula Eliza, youngest daughter of the late Elias Rowe, esq., of St. John's, Newfoundland, and niece to he late Mrs Danson, of park Street, Bristol."

By taking a step backward - and searching for who was Elizabeth Danson - I discovered that she was one of the two sister's of to Elias. Children of Elias and Eliza Rowe.

My 20 year wall now(in simple terms) now broken!

And finally - do not forget the potential power of the internet and websites such as Rootschat. I have over 20 years made numerous contacts with distant relatives and shared thoughts and information about our ancestors (and also agreed to disagree).

Goodluck

Billy

[hallmark]

Hi, I have been researching my family tree for a while with some degree of success, mainly i have to say with the help and kindness of the roots community who i cannot speak highly enough of.

My question is where or when do you know that you have reached the end of the line, or the beginning of any possible research.
 

When your pulse stops!     

[coombs]

Often there will be the evidence hiiden away in some record office, in a document that will probably never make it online and a document that is outside the usual parish registers etc. A property document or something, or a personal family doc deposited with local RO's.

[DavidG02]

Dont forget there are archived records that havent been opened in centuries that may have that snippet of info

[PaulineJ]

I'd be happy just to find my Maternal great-grandfather(s)

One, nothing before his 1892 Marriage in Cornwall/Devon claiming to be from London/Middlesex in 1901 & 1911!
The other has a 1865 Wolverhampton birth certificate with no father, then nowt else before the 1891 London census.

Tried school records, vaccinations , everything I can think of over the last 10-15 years.
At this point, I'm not holding my breath.

[coombs]

I still live in hope to one day find the maiden name of Sarah Coombs. I shall keep trying. Her first hubby was from Dorset. She died just a few weeks before the 1851 census. I found an 1810 marriage in Axminster but the bride was not a spinster, she was a widow, so if the marriage is right, she'd have to be a very young widow as she was born c1790. I shall never give up on this.

[pinefamily]

Dont forget there are archived records that havent been opened in centuries that may have that snippet of info

I live in hope, David. 
In answer to the original question, how long's a piece of string? You can research as much as you want, but really you could research forever. As has been said, new records made available, tracing descendants of all of your ancestors' siblings....