Earliest Dates

[tab11]

Congratulations Little Nell!

That really is impressive.  Perhaps you can give us some tips.

tab

[Flourgurl]

Tab, I was just reading all your previous posts and noticed you asked how far people have gotten back..I have got to before the year 400 on my dad's line, and not to brag but that is b/c he was descended from royalty.  If you are lucky enough to hit royalty, they have always had their own pro genealogists so all of the work is laid out for you.
Very cool, however you always have to wonder about what I call the "mailman factor"
(illegitimacy).......which is why I am now more interested in my pure maternal line.

[Annie65115]

1550 ish on one line; many thanks to the good burghers of Grantham who kept meticulous records and had legible handwriting

[lyndyloo6]

 , It seems as if I am bragging but I have got back to 1580 amd 1603 on 2 sides of my husbands paternal line.  Brilliant records for Inveresk, Midlothian and I suppose I struck it lucky

Lynda

[James1950]

1532 Nicholas Duxbury
1591 Jenkin Bulcock
1670 James Myerscough
1695 John Heyworth son of Nicolas born ? ( my latest brick wall)

Good luck tab 11. The research can be very addictive and very very frustrating 

[robbo43]

Well on the Flood side, I do like to make reference to the book of Genesis, and I can indeed trace the line back to Noah - but that is Noah Flood born c1775 in Exeter  .  One branch I have got back to the 1590s, but on others I'm still stuck in the 19th century.

Robert

[nickgc]

Very good Robbo!  I remember barely being able to hold in my laughter at a teenager at a Mormon FHCtr who was (in all seriousness) telling his friends that his grandmother had traced their line back to Adam.

As an American with ancestors who arrived from UK and Europe (primarily England and Scotland) between early 1600s and mid 1800s, I am quite jealous of all of those who can trace their lines with relative ease through parish records.  If your ancestors arrived in North America in the 1600s or 1700s, and weren't well-to-do, it is increasingly difficult to trace where they came from.  Consequently, except for my "later arrivals", I'm mostly stuck at about 1800.

Nick

[robbo43]

I remember barely being able to hold in my laughter at a teenager at a Mormon FHCtr who was (in all seriousness) telling his friends that his grandmother had traced their line back to Adam.

Nick

Thinking along those lines, the Royal Family rather dubiously trace their ancestry back to Alfred the Great and the Kings of Wessex, who claimed descent from Woden - which would make the head of the Church of England the descendant of a pagan god.   

Robert

[Siamese Girl]

The OH's family is fully documented back to 1584, I think I can make a further generation back but I just need firm proof.

Firm proof is what I'd like to see in a descent from Adam as well! 

Carole