How far back have you got with your family tree?

Question

i`ve got to 1755,which is quite far. but how do some people manage to get back to the 1500`s and further?

Answer 1

1565, using parish registers, and history books, lots of boring old history, in school I used to hate history so much, now I love it. They don't write history without names and stories and they mention their sources and bibliographies which lead to other sources.

Answer 2

I have got back to 1560,fairly easily but I think I may have been lucky. A lot depends on the areas you are researching as some records go further back than others.

Answer 3

I have all the way back to 1800's on mother and 1700's on father's , can be Word of mouth , family records and research yourself , census records,birth etc., anykind of  documentation your family keeps, also newspaper articals. My mother's side is in a book in the library too, The people of Ka'u! My father's side was part of the Great Mahele.....

Answer 4

till 5 centuries back

Answer 5

In my paternal line, I have traced back to the beginning of the 1700s with official records.

In my maternal line, I don't have any records, but I have personal accounts and stories about people born as far back as the early 1800s. The records are harder to obtain because it's all abroad, and I don't speak the languages.

The earliest date in my entire tree is the early 1400s, but the relations are VERY far removed, and I'm only related to them through marriage. I should also admit that I didn't do the research for them myself!

Answer 6

How farback you can go depends pretty much on where your ancestors resided back in those days. If they came to the US in Mayflower times it's alot easier than having to search foreign census records or names.

It takes time and patience, Ive been researching my family for over three years now and still havent finished.

Answer 7

Three (3) years and $7,350.00 later, I traced a lineage to Glasgow, Scotland, 1422.

It's almost impossible to do it yourself and there are so many church records that have to be physically reviewed.

My oldest brother spent $ 300.00 and four (4) years and made it only to 1748.

There are reputable companies that guarantee their work, but you need to find one in your ancestral land.

Answer 8

On some lines, I have got back to the mid 1700s.

On one line, it goes back to 1530, but this was done by another family member by trawling through parish records.

It is not always accurate though, as the early parish records did not include as much information as later ones.

With some baptisms, you are lucky if the vicar recorded the name of the person being baptised.  

Even where they did record the childs name, it was often only the fathers name, the mother didnt enter into it.

As a lot of parents named children after themselves, it can be difficult to work out which child belongs to which parent, especially with a common surname.

Good luck

Answer 9

Most of my lines peter out in the mid 1700s as well.  Only one goes back to 1538ish with any certainty.  Another long line is claimed by a cousin going back into the 1500s, but their information is suspect and so far unprovable.

Anyone who gets back pre-1538 without relying on royal lines or various dukes, earls and other wealthy landowners is doing very well indeed.  Since my lot were labourers, 1538 is about as far as I'll ever get.

Answer 10

I tried once, but I only got as far as the first twig on the ancestry tree because I'm an orphan.