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General => The Common Room => Topic started by: Davedrave on Tuesday 03 January 23 18:41 GMT (UK)
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The furthest back I’ve got on the female side of my family is 1736 (a 6x great GP) and on the male side is 1647 (also a 6x great GP, though I know that the same family was almost certainly in the same place in 1622 - church warden record.) In numerous branches of the family I can see people considerably earlier than the secure records, who are very likely related but I can’t make watertight connections to them. I can see quite a few trees online which look plausible but for which final proof is lacking to my satisfaction. How typical is my experience?
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This can be very frustrating !
I`ve got what I think is a direct line back to 1615 in Scotland. Unfortunately there seems to be a generation missing which is most likely due to the Minister not keeping the records. After the "missing" years I`ve proved all of it.
There`s still family in that place, so 400 years in one place.
On my English side, my gt grandftaher told my mother that "his" family had lived 200 years in a Lincolnshire village. Going back to my 4x gt grandfather, the earliest record I found is his marriage in 1790.
I could go on forever ! ( and do, sometimes !!)
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To a marriage at St Botolph Bishopsgate in 1646: almost exactly the same year, davedrave. That John Malton and that Sarah Beale must have been born around 1620 but I can find no proof.
They are 8th ggp, though.
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Furthest back I have got is on my father's side, to 6xgtgrandfather Paul Berger born somewhere in Moravia in 1692. He died in Chrudim, now in Czechia, in 1736.
Funnily enough, my English ancestry has proved more challenging, due to Aysgarth NRY parish records being patchy before 1710. I've got back to Alice Dodsworth b. Abt 1707'and Thomas Butterfield born about 1700. There are earlier Dodsworth and Butterfield families there, but no baptisms to prove parentage. Thomas is probably the son of either Richard or Peter Butterfield. Other lines on mum's side grind to a halt at a similar date with Crawhall and Ions at Stanhope DUR.
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On my paternal side, I go back to John Garar (sic) baptised in 1550.
Every subsequent generation has been Garrad.
On my mother's side, I have 2 threads back to mid-1500's.
All documented ;)
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On my paternal side, I go back to John Garar (sic) baptised in 1550.
Every subsequent generation has been Garrad.
On my mother's side, I have 2 threads back to mid-1500's.
All documented ;)
That’s impressive. Can you be certain that everyone is in a direct line of descent and none are cousins? I have people in the neighbouring hamlet to my 1647 (1622) records who were farmers of the same name, documented in 1569 and who may link to another farmer of the same surname who left a will in 1508 in the same parish, but I can’t prove a link, unfortunately.
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On my paternal side, I go back to John Garar (sic) baptised in 1550.
Every subsequent generation has been Garrad.
On my mother's side, I have 2 threads back to mid-1500's.
All documented ;)
That’s impressive. Can you be certain that everyone is in a direct line of descent and none are cousins? I have people in the neighbouring hamlet to my 1647 (1622) records who were farmers of the same name, documented in 1569 and who may link to another farmer of the same surname who left a will in 1508 in the same parish, but I can’t prove a link, unfortunately.
On the Garrad line, it is documented on the Bures-online website - http://www.bures-online.co.uk/garrad/garrad.htm
Corroborated by the author Anne Carter, with whom I exchanged many emails. She was nee Garrad!
I also visited Bures St Mary and Bures Hamlet, where there is the Garrad Reading Room.
I descend from the Abraham Garrad - Mary Baker marriage.
My 2xG Grandfather, also an Abraham, was one of their 10 children.
My mother was a Sims. Likewise fellow researchers did most of the early research. But I tried to corroborate the research using PR's.
I should point out that a lot of my research was done pre-internet :D
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Documented back to mid 1600's (Scotland). This one I found amusing -
My 6 x Great Grandparents were Thomas Wilson and Meg Mill both born in 1695. St Monans, Fife, Scotland. They married on 15th October 1719.
In 1726 and 4 children later Granny Meg was reprimanded by the kirk - Documented as follows -
Minutes for non observance of Sabbath - 1726,
Meg Mill, Spouse of Thomas Wilson, had been found carrying water on the Lord's Day before Public Worship.
Poor lassie was she suppossed to take her bairns to the Kirk with dirty faces >:( >:(
Dorrie
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Furthest I have traced back on my paternal side is mid - late 1400's on one or two lines that were yeoman farmers or gents and left good documentation such as wills and land records. Majority of lines I have had the time to trace however are back to early 1500's all documented. Was fortunate that many parish registers went back to 1530's.
On my maternal side it varies quite a bit. If you are looking at furthest lines, with documentation being parish registers, wills, land/manorial records, inquisition post mortem's, pipe rolls, etc, then it would be mid 1200's. If you include visitations, pedigree rolls, landed gentry records, etc. then further back again.
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I suppose it’s all very much the luck of the draw. If parish records don’t survive then you are stumped and the same goes for old wills, and then there’s the issue of non-baptism. I have one individual whose earliest record seems to be a marriage in 1828 and whose burial age means he would have been born in 1800. He’s the most recent unknown.
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Back to 1770 on my paternal line, after which there's not enough corroborating evidence to discern which of the 500,000 Houghtons with one of the four or five family names is the correct one.
On my maternal line I get stuck at the start of the 19th century. Just can't find the records.
I feel a little embarrassed now! ;D ;D ;D
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Gee and I thought I was doing well tracing one line back to 1699 through baptism records. When you consider that was before Australia was settled, thank goodness for the internet. None of my other lines go back further than the mid 1700’s.
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I'm Irish. Lucky to get back to late 1700s. :'( :'( :'(
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I can't get back further than 1850s on my 2 Irish lines despite knowing the mother's maiden name from later RC baptisms in Cardiff. Most other lines i can't really get back much before 1800 with any certainty as they all moved around such a lot. Grandparents born in Cardiff but previous generations scattered around England (Staffs / Essex / Suffolk / Somerset) and Wales (Pembrokeshire). Much the same, with different locations, but no Irish, on my husband's side.
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I do feel for people researching Irish ancestors as it is so difficult.
I have got some lines back to the 1500s, thanks to merchants and mayors and aldermen. One of my Colchester ancestors was from 100 miles away originally, she was originally from Lincolnshire. May have moved down there for service, and in her will she mentioned family in Lincs. And a Sussex line in the 1700s leads back to Norfolk, Lincolnshire and Somerset on the same direct line further back.
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The furthest I have got back with certainty is to this ancestor:
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Pyke-920
who died in 1584. I am actually descended from him twice, as one of my ancestor couples were second cousins once removed (which seems distant enough so as to be acceptable ;D)
However, the only reason I was able to do so is thanks to the incredible work of the Wiltshire Archives in digitising their records for people who are unable to view them in person. A huge shoutout to them!
It was also a matter of luck, as a very unusual name (Vincent Head) runs in the family. It starts with my ancestor Vincent Head (d.1822 and verified by DNA), who was named after his grandfather, who was named after his grandfather... Also, in general, they were very good at following naming conventions!
More luck would follow, because these ancestors with unusual names were landowners/holders and so left wills, which allowed me to verify my information, rather than simply relying on parish registers.
Most of my lines do not go back this far; this is actually very rare for me, as I follow a very strict "burden of proof" method, which means that if I feel I couldn't defend my reasoning in court, then it is not going in the main tree! I have research trees, where I add the lines I feel I could not prove now, but maybe one day in the future I could.
As a side note, I am half Irish and those lines can't even break into the 18th century!
Queenie :)
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The answer depends upon how much tongue in cheek is acceptable.
Also depends upon the records that are available, the church records in the village where my predecessors lived are on Lan OPC and go back to the 1700’s so tracing them was pretty straightforward.
Usually before 1800 I become more doubtful.
This far back and beyond is in my tree thanks to a gateway.
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I have two lines back with some certainty to the 1640s and one probable, to a marriage in 1611. All these in East Kent villages and thanks to the Canterbury Archives and Findmypast for digitising them. I did do some of the original work back in the dark ages going through Bishops Transcripts in the said archive!
I doubt if I shall ever get much further - no professional men or aldermen in my past, though I did have high hopes when I found a Nethersole born 1652, but nothing so far on that front.
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What I find really annoying is when I get stuck - and haven't even gone back particularly far.
On one of my branches I have gone back to JOHN SMITH, probably born around 1770. Wish me luck, because I'm not feeling optimistic! ;D
I also have JOHN HEDLEY - pretty recent at 1820 - and I'm now discovering just how common a name Hedley is, in the North East. >:(
I've also just started a tree for my husband and his grandmother was Catherine Kelly in Liverpool. There are loads of Kellys in Liverpool. :o
How inconsiderate of all these people not to have wacky middle names. :-\
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On my mother’s maternal side, she descends from a Harmer in east Sussex. The Harmer Family Association was formed in 1978 and have done extensive and well documented research of Harmers in England and abroad. The first Sussex Harmer recorded is one Milo de Haremere, at the end of the 12th century. The early Harmers were lords of the manor at Etchingham, not far from where my mother was born.
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I have it on infallible authority that I descend from a certain Adam and Eve, 23-X-4004 BC
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I have it on infallible authority that I descend from a certain Adam and Eve, 23-X-4004 BC
Is there a time of day on the birth certificate? ;D