Advice pre-1800 please

[ElizabethHerts]

With all my lines except for two (one illegitimate, one untraceable!) I am back to before 1800.

So far I have been using parish records and wills to help with my research, with some success. I now have a couple of lines back to 1600. Wills are my favourite resource at present and my collection has increased considerably.

I am aware that there are parts of the Records' Office that I have never frequented. :) Please could I have some advice on other sources which I could now use to obtain more information on my ancestors, and how to go about it.

[Joan of Archives]

I expect you have tried the Marriage licences & Poor Law records? In Bucks they have a Posse Comitatus which was useful for a few more male names. I expect you are more of an expert than me, I am still learning lol! :d

Generally I think wills are the best & sometimes it's worth looking at wills for other people with the same surname if it's not a common one that sometimes throws up a few clues & can link families together.

[ElizabethHerts]

I expect you have tried the Marriage licences & Poor Law records? In Bucks they have a Posse Comitatus which was useful for a few more male names. I expect you are more of an expert than me, I am still learning lol! :d

Generally I think wills are the best & sometimes it's worth looking at wills for other people with the same surname if it's not a common one that sometimes throws up a few clues & can link families together.

I'm about to try the Marriage Licenses, Joan, and I am compiling a list of everyone who married by licence. One of OH's branches seem to have always married by licence for about 60 years at least!

The Posse Comitatus for Bucks was really useful for my Jeffcoats. I don't think other counties have the records so well preserved?

[Mary from Italy]

You need to check which diocese the parish belonged to, because the older marriage licences you're interested in may not be in the Record Office for the county it belongs to.

The Poor Law records are always worth a look; at Leicester RO, which is the one I'm most familiar with, they have a card index, which includes apprenticeships as well as settlement, removal and bastardy orders.

Have a look at the Hearth Tax records, too (you'll need to know which Hundred the parish belonged to), and ask the RO if there were any old censuses in the area you're interested in; there was a census in Lichfield in 1695, for example, which I've found very useful.

I've found it's worthwhile combing the National Archives site for the surname I'm interested in - I've found loads of deeds there which are held in county record offices (the ones that used to be in the A2A catalogue). The RO will also have an index of its holdings.

I'm about at the same stage as Elizabeth, but I've found so many old wills and deeds, dating back to about 1600 (mainly for one particular family in Lichfield), that it's going to take me ages to transcribe them before going back further.

I think the next step will be manorial records, which I know nothing about.

[ElizabethHerts]

Thanks, Mary. I think I shall have to plan my visits to Records Offices and Archives very carefully and do some homework first. I still have a lot of parish registers to look at, but I might start looking at Hearth Tax records etc.

Has anyone looked at old maps at a record office? I sometimes see people poring over them.

[Mary from Italy]

No, although I've found some tithe maps online, which were quite interesting.

[Phoenix]

Different areas have different strengths.

I would look to see what is online/printed etc by local history societies, record societies and family history societies. Anything county wide will give you an idea of the geographical distribution of a surname.

I love land tax assessments. These survive from about 1780 to 1830. They show owners and occupiers, with rateable value and sometimes the name of the property. If you look at a series - they were taken annually - you can infer deaths and movements.

If manorial records survive, these again can show ancestors' movements, taking out mortgages, will writing etc.

Vestry minutes and churchwardens' accounts can throw up ancestors' names. Where parish records haven't survived, I've found bells being tolled, or the earth being broken for a grave.

[ElizabethHerts]

Phoenix, many thanks! As usual, you are a mine of information. :)

[Olde Crone]

I have never been very organised about this and have tended just to dash off after any mention of the name, which will in turn lead to other sources and so on.

Pre-internet, the card index files in the County Records Office were extremely useful for following surnames and place names, rather than looking for a TYPE of document.

Now we all have the luxury of the internet, a really good old google for the surname/place can often be very rewarding too.

A lot depends on what your ancestors did pre 1700. If they were landowners or farmers etc, they will usually be well documented - land transactions have been a goldmine of information for me, especially in circumstances where there are so many similar names on the parish registers that it is impossible to sort one family from another.

If you can visit your CRO with relative ease, then I would suggest you spend a day just familiarising yourself with the resources, rather than trying to find a specific item.

Good luck - I love this part of the research!

OC

[anne fraser]

I have got a lot of my information from house deeds. Tennancy' agreements were often for 99 years and could pass twice. Some of mine were copy holders for the Duchy of Cornwall which was well documented. It is well worth looking at local court reports I think country folk did a fair bit of poaching.

[ElizabethHerts]

I've had a trip to the Hertfordshire record office today, and thought I would add another source:

Hertfordshire have indexes for Militia Lists for various years in the 1700s.

I found quite a few for OH's family in Hatfield.
His ancestor Thomas Tufnall in Hatfield for consecutive years - if the same name appears successively it is likely to be the same person. He was identified by where he lived and his occupation. Another Tufnall appeared briefly and I assume that was his brother, but will have to prove it somehow!

Also his ancestor Henry Caveler appears from 1758 right through to 1785. I wish I knew where he came from though as this is the only time the surname is found and I expect he was baptised under a different spelling. He seems to have come from elsewhere to Hatfield as he is the only one!

The Militia Lists are really a good source of information. However, unlike the Posse Comitatus for Bucks, it doesn't include information about carts etc!

[Lindsay]

Interesting thread, as I've reached a similar stage on my tree and have been pondering which way to go next.