Going Beyond 1535

[avance0306]

I'm curious as to how one would be able to go further back, beyond 1535 with records... I realize that it gets really sticky before 1837's mandatory recording but I'd like to trace as far back as reasonably possible.

FMP only has to 1535 and I'm not comfortable spending all my credits in on fell swoop... Insight is appreciated!

Thanks,
Sara

[Peter Goodey]

If you get as far as 1535* you can consider yourself very lucky. And you will need to budget for more than just an FMP sub!

*Don't know where 1535 comes from. The nominal start of parish registers is 1538 but survival is very poor before the 1590s.

[Guy Etchells]

Prior to 1538 one uses virtually the same records as prior to 1836 with the exception of Parish Registers.
In other words Manorial Records, Wills, Apprenticeship Records, Records of Freemen, Court Leet, etc..
Plus the thousands of other available sources, most of which are not online but often pop up in books and CDs
(check Parish Chest http://www.parishchest.com/ ).
These include various tax records, property records etc.

One many even be lucky enough to be able to use census records; but at that date they are called a survey and do not hold the same information as the later 19th and 20th century census.
Cheers
Guy

[Peter Goodey]

For a note of some internet sources for medieval genealogy (say pre-1600ish), see
http://www.
medievalgenealogy.org.uk/sources/olmed.shtml

The vast majority of records that you are likely to need are not on the internet and not likely to be for the foreseeable future.

[BeeE586]

This may or may not be of help but I have used National Archives to search for information on my birth village. There are no parish registers extant before 1650 but by entering the name of the village - Beighton ; its hamlets - Hackenthorpe, Birley, Southall; the names of Lords of the Manor at various times and of prominent families, and the names of a couple of important farms I have at least discovered where information can be found. After this, it is just time spent in archives and record offices, or a request to any where it is not possible to visit.

One drawback is that the further back one goes the more probable it is that the documents will be in Latin.