About two thirds of my ancestry comes from the counties of Shropshire, Motgomeryshire and a small bit from Denbighshire. Owing to being of rural stock, they didn't move around a lot. I've also noted that the area they did move around in is delineated by the start of the Welsh mountain ranges at the edge of Montgomeryshire and Denbighshire.
My tree is quite expansive. Going back to cira 1700 I have around 164 ancestors born in generation 10, around more like 50%+ if it were not for two illegitimagies: 1918 and 1861 and that a quarter of me tree is from India.
I have found in my research back towards the 1600s and occasionally 1500s that there is a great regional variation in the quality of records.
Here are my findings:
Shropshire - My ancestry is confined to the western third of the country. The parish registers usually extend back to around 1660-1670 and then stop. Though there are a good number that extend back further. There are only a few that don't go back to the 1600s. They are usually good quality back to around the 1720s-1730s, but then you may start to find obvious missing baptisms in family groups and not find marriages. By the time you get back to the late 1600s the quality decreases further and in this period I am often unable to find marriages. Here most of my lines end, with people born in the window 1660-1675.
I'm not sure if this very common commencement of registers has something to do with the civil war? As so often registers start shortly after.
There are also a number of registers that have a gap during the civil war era and given that BTs for this era start around 1660, that period is lost.
Montgomeryshire - My ancestry here spans most of the county and the registers are in a very similar overall condition as the Shropshire registers, though they are slightly worse and fewer go back to the 16th century. Registers tend to be better if they are for a town, rather than a small village and also the more culturally Welsh an area the more likely the registers are to be in bad condition.
Denbighshire - I only have ancestry from a small portion of the south-east of the county, but the registers are notably much worse than in the aforementioned counties. Once you get to around 1750 you can expect to find a few decades completely missing. There are also a lot more registers that start in the 1700s. For one parish, where I likely have ancestry, the register commences in about 1768.
Ayrshire/Fife - I have two lines back to these counties. The registers tend not to include any burial registers, which means there is a big gap when you have no age at death. There also seems to be quite frequent gaps in late 1700s registers and they tend to begin in the window 1680-1720. The only plus is that baptisms usually list mother's maiden name and marriages are often recorded in the parishes of both bride and groom.
Berkshire - I have a small portion of ancestry from this county, starting in 1791, via India. As the records are not online I've not been able to deduce much on the record quality, but it does seem to be better than other listed counties, with registers often going back to 1538.
Wills - Also worth noting is that survival of wills for areas close to Wales appears to be lower, with an obvious drop-off pre-Civil war. It appears to me that in other counties, like Lancashire there is better survival of wills back to the 1500s and 1400s.
I'm interested in others with a good knowledge of a county's PRs on what the condition is in that county. Are there counties where it's readily easy to trace back through the 1600s without big gaps and missing marriages?
