Fun with Parish records

[Kingsclere]

Regarding "atrocities"... I'm reminded of this educational film from the 1930s that covers the whole sordid and frightful business. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ivsb79-h90

[coombs]

I sometimes feel that admitting defeat on a certain ancestor may be more realistic and better in the long run than chasing any leads which always seem to throw up dead ends. Especially if it was in the 1600s and well into the 1700s when many did not leave a will or were not poor enough to come under the poor law, or even if they were tradespeople they did not leave a will, and survival of apprenticeship records are quite hit and miss. And gaps in PR's or people not being baptised, or baptised at a NC chapel, or they moved somewhere that was some distance from where they were born. You may have to accept that it is virtually impossible to trace back any further.

[melba_schmelba]

It can often pay to browse parish registers in places you know or suspect your ancestors may have lived as you will often find someone connected i.e. as a witness on a marriage, or someone whose name keeps coming up indiciating they were a parish clerk or churchwarden. You will also sometimes find random notes, and other things to do with the parish or local poor (even if there are separate surviving parish chest records). Sometimes DNA can do only this - give a firm link to a place rather than a name in which case doing a little study of that place or small area can be a satisfying option if you come to a brick wall.

[coombs]

Also you can never be totally sure that the man named as the father on the baptism or birth certificate was the correct one. And even the mother, if the baby was taken in or the grandmother posed as the mother to protect her daughter.