How far back have you got with near certainty?

[Davedrave]

I suppose it’s all very much the luck of the draw. If parish records don’t survive then you are stumped and the same goes for old wills, and then there’s the issue of non-baptism. I have one individual whose earliest record seems to be a marriage in 1828 and whose burial age means he would have been born in 1800. He’s the most recent unknown.

[mrcakey]

Back to 1770 on my paternal line, after which there's not enough corroborating evidence to discern which of the 500,000 Houghtons with one of the four or five family names is the correct one.

On my maternal line I get stuck at the start of the 19th century. Just can't find the records.

I feel a little embarrassed now! 

[Nanna52]

Gee and I thought I was doing well tracing one line back to 1699 through baptism records.  When you consider that was before Australia was settled, thank goodness for the internet.  None of my other lines go back further than the mid 1700’s. 

[frostyknight]

I'm Irish. Lucky to get back to late 1700s. 

[Deirdre784]

I can't get back further than 1850s on my 2 Irish lines despite knowing the mother's maiden name from later RC baptisms in Cardiff. Most other lines i can't really get back much before 1800 with any certainty as they all moved around such a lot. Grandparents born in Cardiff but previous generations scattered around England (Staffs / Essex / Suffolk / Somerset) and Wales (Pembrokeshire). Much the same, with different locations, but no Irish, on my husband's side.

[coombs]

I do feel for people researching Irish ancestors as it is so difficult.

I have got some lines back to the 1500s, thanks to merchants and mayors and aldermen. One of my Colchester ancestors was from 100 miles away originally, she was originally from Lincolnshire. May have moved down there for service, and in her will she mentioned family in Lincs. And a Sussex line in the 1700s leads back to Norfolk, Lincolnshire and Somerset on the same direct line further back.

[QueenoftheWest]

The furthest I have got back with certainty is to this ancestor:
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Pyke-920
who died in 1584. I am actually descended from him twice, as one of my ancestor couples were second cousins once removed (which seems distant enough so as to be acceptable  ) 

However, the only reason I was able to do so is thanks to the incredible work of the Wiltshire Archives in digitising their records for people who are unable to view them in person. A huge shoutout to them!

It was also a matter of luck, as a very unusual name (Vincent Head) runs in the family. It starts with my ancestor Vincent Head (d.1822 and verified by DNA), who was named after his grandfather, who was named after his grandfather... Also, in general, they were very good at following naming conventions!

More luck would follow, because these ancestors with unusual names were landowners/holders and so left wills, which allowed me to verify my information, rather than simply relying on parish registers.

Most of my lines do not go back this far; this is actually very rare for me, as I follow a very strict "burden of proof" method, which means that if I feel I couldn't defend my reasoning in court, then it is not going in the main tree! I have research trees, where I add the lines I feel I could not prove now, but maybe one day in the future I could.

As a side note, I am half Irish and those lines can't even break into the 18th century!

Queenie 

[Biggles50]

The answer depends upon how much tongue in cheek is acceptable.

Also depends upon the records that are available, the church records in the village where my predecessors lived are on Lan OPC and go back to the 1700’s so tracing them was pretty straightforward.

Usually before 1800 I become more doubtful.

This far back and beyond is in my tree thanks to a gateway.

[Top-of-the-hill]

  I have two lines back with some certainty to the 1640s and one probable, to a marriage in 1611. All these in East Kent villages and thanks to the Canterbury Archives and Findmypast for digitising them. I did do some of the original work back in the dark ages going through Bishops Transcripts in the said archive!
  I doubt if I shall ever get much further - no professional men or aldermen in my past, though I did have high hopes when I found a Nethersole born 1652, but nothing so far on that front.