Medieval Family History - taking the plunge...

[chinakay]

Quiz:  Can you tell from that which county I'm working in ?

West Country, Lancashire, Liverpool....

Beware a bit of thread drift here...I may need to refer to this one frequently. Hopefully

Cheers,
China

[Keith Sherwood]

Hi again, Everyone,
Still waiting to hear from the College of Arms about the possibility of a 1622 award of a coat of arms to a GURNER individual, which might in itself indicate a bit of into-the-medieval-period family history.
Also, on the web I have come across a list of 20 abstracts of Wills for Ickleton, one of which is for our Robert GOURNER in 1656.  However, these wills start as early as 1460, and there are three for the CRUDDE/CREED family; there were two intermarriages between the GURNER's and CREED's in Ickleton.  I believe they lived in neighbouring houses, right next to the Parish Church.
I've e-mailed the Cambs Record Office in the hope that these abstracted wills are in an easy to read transcribed volume, and if so, I shall be up there after Easter to trawl through them for possible mention of earlier members of the GURNER family as witnesses or beneficiaries.  Bit of a long shot, but you never know...
Finally, I notice that I came across a mention of a Roger GURNARD in a subsidy roll in Stanstead, Suffolk (not that far from Ickleton)for 1524, so that might be another tenuous clue in this most difficult period/area of family research,
Regards, keith

[Lydart]

You've probably already thought of it Keith, but to save me trawling through all the past pages ( ! ) is there a one-name study of Gurner's in their various spellings ?

[Keith Sherwood]

Lydart,
No, I don't think there is one, though there's not a huge number of threads thrown up when you search for GURNER.  Think I'm a bit alone out there with them, though, as most of them were started by me!
keith

[Lydart]

You're obviously the One Name Study person then !

[vickifperry]

Medieval Family History is like doing a jigsaw puzzle from a pieces belonging to many puzzles.

Firstly you have to collect as many pieces as possible which might belong to your puzzle.  When you have enogh of these you eventually find some pieces which link together.  Eventually you find a key piece which links to your family or more often someone else's.

That is so true!

Hi,

I want to do a nice family tree for my in-law’s as a wedding anniversary present. I’d like to do it back from my husband and his brother, probably 5 generations and include names, occupations, locations and dates. Also maybe a few pictures of family members and maybe churches/houses. Does anyone know if there are programmes that make this possible, or any good companies that can do it? I vaguely remember reading about a programme where you can design your own very large tree, and then send it off to be printed on large paper, but I can’t remember the name.

Thanks

Vicki

[Redroger]

Hi Ruskie, This posting is probably too late to be of much use now, several months after the posting, but I have read the Medieval Genealogy Book, and found it to be quite readable and very interesting. I already have one medieval genealogy concerning my probable 3 great grandmother, Betty Meatyard of Dorset (From memory 1759-1809), which takes her ancestry back to around 1300. I understand that the tree was compiled from medieval documents held at Cambridge University. Her ancestors were tenant farmers in Dorset. Though the tree is well documented my frustration is that through illegitimacy, she had at least 7 children and had bastardy orders for only2!,I have so far been unable to certainly connect her as my ancestor. No doubt I shall make several further postings on medieval genealogy as I read through the list, but so far I haven't had the guts to start out.

[stonechat]

HI


I have oonly just spotted this thread

I have had some success with wills taking me back either before PRs for a parish started or to make connections where there are no records I can find. The key resource for this was the Surrey Wills on British Origins which are derived from work by Cliff Webb of the West Surrey FHS.

I have also recently transcribed and translated my first two latin docs- both feet of fines from 1683 and 1706. These used a diabolical hand and numerous abbreviations, which combined with a lack of Latin made it a little tricky. So earlier work holds no terrors for me.

I do have two sizeable trees going back through medieval period, but these are derived from  published trees.

I have already found the medieval genealogy website.

There are some fantastic resources on the internet to learn those difficult hands and to understand the format of some of these documents to help to understand them.

Only one thing I need - more time!

Bob

[Ruskie]

Yes, thank you redroger - it IS too late. I have also purchased and read the book  and found it most enjoyable. Thanks anyway.