whats the earliest date

[Gadget]

550 AD - but I found one of those Gatekeeper/Gateway ancestors. Earlier than that, the published trees go back 'to Brutus' but I'm not taking that on board 


Gadget

[Suttonrog]

Lets not get too carried away with Parish Registers. They did not start until 1538 and as far as I am aware no originals survive earlier than 1611 - you have to rely on transcripts.

That is not to say that other church records did not survive butyYou have to be lucky with other records.

Rog

[kerryb]

550 AD - but I found one of those Gatekeeper/Gateway ancestors. Earlier than that, the published trees go back 'to Brutus' but I'm not taking that on board 


Gadget

You're very lucky Gadget as I suppose a Gateway ancestor is one of the best ways of getting further back.  I've not found one yet but I live in hope 

Kerry

[Just Kia]

What is a Gateway ancestor?

[Gadget]

What is a Gateway ancestor?

Someone who links you in to a 'noble' line where the trees are usually well established and  independently verified. Mine was b. in 1670 and then it was easier, especially as it connected into the family of Owain Glyndwr.

Re the records needed - the National Library of Wales was the best source for my research on this line.


Gadget

[Deb D]

I have a copy of a very old family tree (compiled in 1856-7) which claims "the common ancestors both thought to have been born abt 1580" ... however I have doubts about that, since their first child wasn't born until 1633.  Most of the other births etc., seem ridgy-didge, but I haven't added them to my tree yet, and probably won't, until I find corroborating evidence.

More research required, I think ... *sigh!*

[Charles IX]

wow I thought that I was doing well getting back to 1746 and that 1746 ancestor is a bit dodgy hahaha whats the earliest someone from wales has gone?

[Gadget]

wow I thought that I was doing well getting back to 1746 and that 1746 ancestor is a bit dodgy hahaha whats the earliest someone from wales has gone?

See my earlier reply - 550 AD 

But it's not really all that interesting without the stories. I'm more attached to some of the lines where I've only got back to the 1700s because I have some stories.  It sometimes feels like so much 'breeding stock' when it's just lines.


Gadget

[Charles IX]

you have gone back to 550AD on a welsh line?? wow thats really something, I mean getting back to 550AD is mindboggling itself but it I find it gets hard tracing welsh familys.

But I geuss thats the diffrence between a pro and an ameture