how do you trace your family down to 1400??

Question

yeah, i need to find my past family members, but i dont think its even possible to go all the way back to like 1400s is it? if so how.. i dont even really know my family.. let alone back 6 generations... anyone know how to help me find them?/

Answer 1

Nor do I. I just have snippets of some of my family and they remain in my heart. This is until my great grandmother. 1400 is a big challenge.

Answer 2

Unless you were a member of the nobility or aristocracy, your cahnces of getting back to 1400 are very slim indeed. For most people in England and Wales the trail runs cold in 1538 when the earliest parish registers begin.

For those who can read the earliest 15th and 16th C 'secretary' hands it is sometimes possible to find documents such as wills from ealier periods than this, and depending on the location being researched, there are other earlier Medieval and Manorial documents that could be consulted to try and get further back to the 1300s, so it is not impossible, but it is a huge challenge and requires some serious paleography skills.

You shouldn't have any real trouble getting back to the early 1800s, as the 19th century is when using the internet for your research really comes into its own and you can start using places like Ancestry for access to the 1841-1901 censuses. It's getting back to 1901 though that can present the biggest challenge, especially if you don't really know anything about your family and can't reliably remember at least one grandparent who was born near to or before 1901. Chances are then, you'll have to start trawling the BMD indexes year by year and order birth marriage and death certificates from scratch - starting with yourself and working backwards through your parents and grandparents.

I'd recommend trying to find yourself in the Birth indexes first - an event and date you are sure of. If you were born in Febuary 1977 then you will probably find yourself in the indexes for the Jan/Mar quarter, and you'll see that your mothers maiden name and registration district should match up with what you know. Then try finding your parents births - if you have a rough date and year this will be quite easy. If not, then you'll have to "blanket search" certain years and make a note of any possible entries that you think might be your parents. When you find them, the index references will give you enough info to order an actual certificate from the GRO (www.gro.gov.uk), and these will give you the names of their parents and allow you to get further back. You then start working backwards methodically again and eventually you'll get there and far enough to start making good use of the internet.

The amount you can do online is growing every day, but if you ever hope to get back to 1400, you'll have to put in a lot of leg-work the old-fashioned way. But don't be fooled into thinking that you can do everything on the internet and that your family tree will magically appear for you, because it won't - not unless you go on Genes Reunited and find a distant second cousin or Great Aunt Ethel already working on your tree. They might be, so it's always worthwhile joining a site like this, but I'll worn you now that genealogy is a hobby that costs, and it will cost you big. Is it worth it? Sure, but don't go thinking it will be easy or quick. Most of us have been at this for years or decades and are still learning new things!

Answer 3

Wow! what a great question. With the help of an exceptionly awesome aunt and the internet, I've got a thin family line traced back to 1423 to Norfolk, England, so it is entirely possible.

I've done some research on my own, but have recently started taking a non-credit class at my local technical college on using the genaeology software "FamilyTree Maker". While the class talks quite a bit about using the software, it is also FULL of ideas on how to trace back your family. It is not really possible to give you all the information from the class in this answer, but I'll try to give you a sound overview.

First, start with yourself. Document your siblings, their birthdates, and any children they may have. Then go back to your parents. Find out their birthdates, their wedding anniversary, where they were married, etc. Gather any photos you can. If you have grandparents who are still alive, ask them all the same questions: how many children did they have, their kids and their birthdates, their wedding date, do they have photos of interesting things you could scan into your computer to save for your history. Ask grandparents about their parents and grandparents. If you have a very elderly relative, start with them because sadly, they could leave us forever at any time. Ask them anything and everthing about what they remember about their family growing up, where their parents came from (almost all of us in the US had families that came from somewhere else).

Once you have gleaned all the info you can from your living relatives, hit the internet. There are a ton of websites that can help you. Some will charge for pretty much everything (ancestry.com) and others will not. There are a couple of websites you can find passenger lists of ships entering Ellis Island (also earlier known as Castle Garden). The first is www.ellisisland.org, the second is www.castlegarden.org. I'm remembering these off the top of my head, so if the address is wrong, just do an internet search for Ellis Island passenger list or Castle Garden passengers. The websites will be very near the top of the search results. The EI and CG websites are free. There are also websites that will show you actual pages from historical censuses. The Censuses often show all people living in a household, including any domestic help. They will sometimes show if the people could read/write, if they spoke English, how many children born, how many children alive (sadly, not always the same in the old days...), where the parents of the adults came from. If you can find "your" people in the censuses, you can find a LOT and it may give you more stepping stones back. Check with your local library. Many have subscriptions to Ancestry.com and with your library card, you can often access the census sites for free. Those sites allow you to print and download the actual census images. You may find that a magnifying glass will be of great value in reading the old, handwritten censuses!

As you gather information, it is nice to have the software to enter and organize the data, but it is not imperative. You may be able to simply write it out in notebooks.

One other tip from my genealogy instructor: if you find some information on the web that is valuable to you, print it out right then. Family History and geneaology web sites are always changing and being updated and what you find at lunch time may be gone by dinner time. You just don't know. Find it, print it.

This can be a wonderful, life-long pursuit. It is truly a puzzle, with each piece found leading to additional pieces. It will take a lot of patience and persistence, but it is very rewarding. I have my mother's family going back to 1423, but very little on my father's side. However, last night, I finally found his family's record of landing at Castle Garden in 1855. What a thrill!

I hope this will help you. Good Luck with your project!

Answer 4

If there is ONE mantra here from those with experIence, it is that you always work from yourself, back, and document each step of the way. Every one of your ancestors will be distinct persons, and there is no guarantee as to what you might find. Certain families (ie nobility) have already been well researched and documented, since records were kept of their descendants for reasons of inheritance. Other families were poor and no one cared if they lived or died. If your line lived in a certain locality where the parish registers survived, it helps. The next county may have records lost to fires, etc. You MAY get stuck at someone in the 1800s (and the records simply don't exist) while another line goes way back.
You COULD find numerous submitted files online about your ancestor... only to go to the courthouse, and discover the magic document, which proves all those online files to be in error.
There really is no way to predict, but that's half the fun. With determination, flexible thinking, etc, I can say that it's likely that you can find much more than you think.
http://www.cyndislist.com/ is my personal favorite. Many people here swear by Ancestry.com, which has many resources, while I have never used it, except for 2-3 'lookups' from generous people here. Much of the 'gold' is not online, in my opinion.
Please check out cyndi's, especially the beginner area AND the section of things to watch out for (myths and scams). And be prepared to be addicted.

Answer 5

With the help of ancestry.com, myherritage.com, and geneology.com, (and the use of free trials), I have dated my family back to the early 1700's.
I would recommend checking these sites. Just do searches for your Maternal and Paternal grandparents (and dont forget maiden names). Its awesome to find out things about your family.
As far as 1400, It'll be really doubtful. The problem with these sites is that records were only kept for so many years, and only some places recorded things. Especially if your family is from America. It also gets tricky when your family immigrated.
Good luck with your journey :)

Answer 6

With a little bit of luck and perhaps some other family members who have already done some of the searching--Seriously, I was over joyed a few weeks ago when I traced my paternal grandfather father's family back to New Hampshire in 1805--quite a feat considering their surname was Smith.

As to those medieval ancestors, Ancestry.com traces my paternal great grandmother's line back to Scotland and the House of Stewart (James I and II). Apparently, the youngest son of a Scottish earl immigrated to Virginia in about 1690.

Of course, researching my family's history started over thirty years ago when I first looked at records in old family bibles and made numerous trips to the public document section of the public library. It also helps if family members have unusual surnames.

Answer 7

A cousin has the family records. it goes back to 18 generations ie. almost 1400. take great pride in it.

network with family members, ask them, document, know where they came from, travel and seek information and there are experts also. it is a lot of hard work.

Answer 8

It is not easy. And it depends on where you come from. For example, I've got Plantagenet blood in me, so I can trace back pretty far. But my boyfriend's family is from Moravia, and by some chance of luck, his family kept some pretty good records up to the mid-1700s when the first one came to America, but anything before that, its like trying to find a "Smith in a haystack", if you know what I mean.

Best advice I can give you, is to buckle down and just pay for Ancestry.com, thats where I found almost all of my information, with bits and pieces coming from Rootsweb.com and FamilySearch.org.