Calling Fellow Young Genealogists!

[UpstairsDown]

Sirsimon How on earth do you get back to 800AD? That's amazing! Was it a gateway ancestor? If so that's very lucky indeed!

[sirsimon]

I did the usual working backwards in time. It so happened that the line was well documented and could be traced to 800 ad

The person in question is related to me through my great grandmother

[iluleah]

I did the usual working backwards in time. It so happened that the line was well documented and could be traced to 800 ad

The person in question is related to me through my great grandmother

I would be very interested to know what documents you are talking about, as you say "well documented"

[UpstairsDown]

iluleah I'm guessing that he is probably related to an aristocratic line as past about 200 years ago they were the only people who really had a very accurately documented family pedigree. If you then trace that line back to a so called gateway ancestor i.e. one with close connections to some of the oldest families you could conceivably date your ancestry back to someone like Charlemagne, who I guess is the ancestor in question at 800 AD.

[UpstairsDown]

Or I am completely wrong, which does happen. Think I'm right about the ancestor in question here, though.

[rosie99]

I have traced the majority of the lineages to the late 1700s, the earliest lineage I have traced dates back to 800 AD

I am also impressed - have you seen these records and tracked back this far yourself or are you relying on the research of others

Rosie

[sirsimon]

My maternal great grandmother was Evelyn Brain, using parish, birth, marriage and death records, as well as censuses, I got the Brain family back to Thomas Brayne, born 1665 in Stafford.

His wife was Catherine Cartledge, her mother being Lydia Adams

The Adams family can be traced back to 1272, to the Lords of Gavestone, Gloucestershire

The earliest traceable Adam married Elizabeth De Gournay, this family was well documented and much information about them can be found online on family societies.

If you follow the Gournay family, you will reach around 800 AD.

[iluleah]

My maternal great grandmother was Evelyn Brain, using parish, birth, marriage and death records, as well as censuses, I got the Brain family back to Thomas Brayne, born 1665 in Stafford.

His wife was Catherine Cartledge, her mother being Lydia Adams

The Adams family can be traced back to 1272, to the Lords of Gavestone, Gloucestershire

The earliest traceable Adam married Elizabeth De Gournay, this family was well documented and much information about them can be found online on family societies.

If you follow the Gournay family, you will reach around 800 AD.

So by  "well documented" you mean you believe someone else has researched, proved, cited and you have accepted that.

I know how hard it is to prove connection and to find any connecting records before 1800 as you will be very aware the parish records very often do not show this like modern records do and having been given the privileged of access to the real manorial records of one family which they still hold, the same records that the Heralds on their visitation transcribed from, which many people use as primary records ( Heralds visitations) and being able to compare the two side by side along with the PRs, day book etc , the Heralds certainly in that county were as bad as the online copy and paste merchants of today marrying people off to other local 'noble' families where there is not record of it in the manorial records or the parish records, a name 'fitted' so they wrote it in, but there is no primary record to prove it at all.

[Matt62]

I am 22 years old. I started researching my ancestry seriously when I was about 18 (4 years ago roughly). I had always grown up with stories from my great grandmother about the 'old days'. We would have tea and discuss all the amazing tales she had seen and heard in her life. I started taking notes when I was 14 or 15 and did a few searches on the internet and for records, specifically regarding my German great-great-great grandfather. Not until I was 19 however and my great grandmother had just passed away did I decide to actually go beyond tales and memories to properly and seriously find things out for myself.  I felt as if with her death the 'old days' where passing away and that I had a duty to keep the stories going.

But yes, you are not alone in starting genealogy young although we are probably in the minority. Come to think of it, you are so young that you make me feel old(ish) 

One of my cousins is in his late 20s and has actually just qualified as a professional genealogist after taking a Master's Degree in it. Another of my younger cousins is also really interested in everything too do with the family and he is only 13. I think that kids and young adults nowadays are more inquisitive by nature than older generations. My own parents knew very little about their family histories. We seem to have a more knowledge-based society today (ie with internet access etc.)