Finding the earliest folk in a village with certain surname

[belfordian]

I often want to find when a particular ancestral line arrived in a place and stayed for a few generations. I’m thinking of  pre-1800 times. Is there an easier way of doing this than trawling through parish registers which in my area often don’t start until 1700s. Has anyone created software which sorts through baptisms and burials in a place and attempts to attribute these to a particular person? As burials did not always state age I suppose it would not give accurate results.

This is wishful thinking, I realise, but I’d love to know how when some of my lines arrived in a place.
Any suggestions?

[coombs]

Poor law records if they were eligible for poor relief such as settlement examinations/certificates or even removal orders. Or apprenticeship records.

They may have left a will if they had some property.

Look at names of the witnesses of 1754 onwards marriages in the parish of anyone of the name your are searching, also note down any witnesses of your name of interest witnessing a marriage. That is if you have easy access to record offices, or they have been transcribed onto the internet such as FreeREG, or the records have been scanned.

Also note down children's names, see if the parents named any after their parents.

[Ruskie]

Freereg, familysearch, even the pay sites like Ancestry can be searched by place and date. Look for parish records.

[belfordian]

Thank you Coombs for your suggestions. I try most of these options but sadly not all of such records survive and I’m really trying to go beyond the start of parish registers. Perhaps I’m being over-ambitious for people who were agricultural labourers.

[bearkat]

If you're looking for earlier records try searching the catalogue of the local county records office or http://www.medievalgenealogy.org.uk/search.shtml

It also might be worth looking at manorial records.

You are more likely to find records for wealthy people or those in trouble with the law.

[belfordian]

Thank you Bearkat. Good suggestion. Sometimes I wish I had wealthy ancestors!

[bearkat]

It's always worth searching the Internet.  For example, if you were looking for early Bedfordshire records try

https://www.bedfordshirehrs.org.uk/content/publication/bedfordshire-wills-1480-1519

A knowledge of medieval English or Latin helps 

[Biggles50]

Dorset records go back centuries, we traced the migration of my Wife’s family using their records, so you should be OK with the pair you list.

Same for Lancashire and my side

Alas not all Counties are as good.

[coombs]

I find Suffolk records can be quite good, but it could be many ancestors came from there and they seem very fulsome.

Yes, ag labourers rarely left wills, and not all poor law records survive. If they did, it would make things easier I bet, as a settlement examination can be like the 1841-1921 census, even if 1841 was not as detailed as subsequent censuses.