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

[pinefamily]

The line I'm looking at the moment has clergy and landed gentry, so should be easy right? Then why can't I find marriages?
It doesn't help that Devonshire wills were destroyed in the 1942 bombing of Exeter Cathedral.

[Old Bristolian]

It wasn't the cathedral that was bombed in Exeter!

[MaecW]

The Cathedral was bombed : the Lady Chapel was destroyed. I can just recall seeing it before it was repaired. !
However the Wills were destroyed in the then Registry. I'm not sure where this was, it might have been in the Bedford Circus area or perhaps in the City Library in Castle Street, which was burnt out in a raid.
Maec

[pinefamily]

It wasn't the cathedral that was bombed in Exeter!

No? I was under the impression that the wills were stored in the Cathedral (or part thereof).

[pinefamily]

Anyway, the Devonshire wills were lost in a bombing raid in 1942, and it makes Devon research that bit harder.

[MaecW]

In reply to the original query, so far I have three lines tracked back to the 1600s, in Norfolk, Shropshire and Cheshire respectively. Additionally there is a family who appear briefly in Buckinghamshire and Royal records of the mid-1400s, who may be related to my Shropshire family (the  surname is not common) but I have yet to find proof of this. ( A couple of Ancestry trees make the connection, but the evidence is not convincing so far.)
As to whether this research is "primarily" I guess the answer is "no" but, as with most of my direct lines, I keep them at hand and check for new information from time to time.
In that respect, thank you to  horselydown86 for the links, with which I have already found another small bit of the jigsaw !

Unfortunately, I don't think I can get too far with my three distinct Jones families in the Swansea area as we run into patronymics going back from the late 1700s. 

Maec

[coombs]

I have managed to get back to the 1600s with some lines, and even further with others. It is getting that far back as others have said. I got back to the Borde family of Cuckfield, who were doctors. My Norfolk lines back to the 1600s have been quite good.

Even if you do get back to a vicar, knight or landowner, it can still occasionally be tough finding their parents. Oxon and Cambs alumni's of vicars and doctors can say "son of John Smith, a glover of Gt Yarmouth" for example.

[BumbleB]

I admire those who have traced their families back so far.  But what do you do when there are gaps in the parish registers?  One of my families originates in the Tadcaster/Healaugh area, but there are gaps in both PR's and BT's.

Tadcaster:
Deposited Registers (Borthwick Institute of Historical Research.)
Baptisms: 1570-1624, 1653-1971
Marriages: 1570-1624, 1653-1977
Burials: 1570-1624, 1653-1932
Bishop's Transcripts:
1598, 1632-1641, 1666-1669, 1671-1673, 1675, 1676, 1682, 1690, 1692,1695-1697, 1700-1702, 1705, 1707-1745, 1747-1755, 1757-1773, 1775-1859

Healaugh:
Deposited Registers (Borthwick Institute of Historical Research)
Baptisms: 1698-1990
Marriages: 1698-1752, 1754-1837, 1839-1984
Burials: 1698-1991
Bishop's Transcripts:
1633-1641, 1661-1663, 1666-1668, 1671-1673, 1675, 1682-1684, 1688-1692, 1695, 1696, 1698, 1699, 1701-1755, 1757-1856, 1860, 1863-1869

 

However, I have been very lucky in that these parishes followed Reverend Dade, so that late 18th century entries detailed parents and grandparents plus day and date of birth and baptism 

[JohninSussex]

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.   

Regards 
Chas

Hello, I don't understand what this is trying to say. 
"We tend to be in their cadet line" surely means "We are descended from a younger son/daughter".  But that is still in our direct line. 

And "look more closely at the people who married your relatives":  The people who married our relatives [if you mean direct ancestors?] are themselves our direct ancestors so again are in our direct line.   

The people who married our indirect relatives (Nx great uncles etc) are not usually of great interest so that does not give us a gateway ancestor at all.