How many have an interest primarily in family research from 1400-1500-1600s?

[JWSAncestry]

I have to say that is the time period I'm most interested in. Unfortunately, there are not many records unless one is fortunate enough to have a confirmed gateway ancestor, which I don't have.  That is my number one focus from America and  Great Britain.

[barryd]

I was asked the question many years ago about getting their tree back to the years mentioned in the question. I answered you need the money. Their answer was I have the money. I retorted back it not your money but the people you are researching have to be wealthy. Records of taxes, property, wills. etc.. The vast majority of people many years ago had no documentation whatsoever.

[horselydown86]

http://aalt.law.uh.edu/AALT.html

http://www.medievalgenealogy.org.uk/fines/

[Pheno]

Sorry but I don't see how you can have a primary interest in that period as you have to get there first.  You have to start more recently with known/verifiable facts in order to progress backward to the 1500's - you can't just start there.  This can be extremely difficult for most people.

Pheno

[Kiltpin]

Hi JWS, 

Most, if not all people have a gateway ancestor. Confirmation is harder, but once you have found them things do usually fall in to place.   

The thing is, most gateway ancestors are not in our direct line. We tend to be in their cadet line. My advice is to look sideways. That is to say look more closely at the people who married your relatives.   

A good example of this is The Prince of Wales. When he was a lot younger, he was often booked on commercial flights as Charles Windsor. 

Regards 

Chas

[Redroger]

Not necessarily, the big element is luck!! I have a line in Dorset which goes back to c1300. The people concerned were nothing very grand, just tenant farmers who held the same tenancy for over 400 years, and the records happen to survive. However, it's not all that wonderful as around 1776 there is the problem of an illegitimate birth in my line which has been an impenetrable brick wall for over 20 years.

[Mowsehowse]

Sorry but I don't see how you can have a primary interest in that period as you have to get there first.  You have to start more recently with known/verifiable facts in order to progress backward to the 1500's - you can't just start there.  This can be extremely difficult for most people.

Pheno

Or maybe I could chuck out 30 years of research, and work forward from my favourite Gateway Contender, John of Gaunt.
Am sure I can find myself descended from him if I concentrate. 

[jc26red]

No it's not that  easy  even with a gateway Ancestor.  One line I am researching keeps marrying into good gateway families,  so you would think they would be easy to trace!  The wives families are but mine?  Not  so easy,  they had money but documents start to run out around 1650.

Luck and years of researching got me to this point. There are a few possibilities for the next step back but no firm evidence connecting them with my line yet.

If the name is unusual, you might want to do a one name study for that timeframe rather than trying to trace one particular line.  Don't forget spellings are haphazard and surname (as you know it)  might not even exist  the further back you go.  Plus the usual suspect for deadends - father unknown.

[carom]

I was chatting to a neighbour at our local history society. Despite being a Davies she has her family tree in Wales going back about 300 years as they remained on a remote hill farm.