Family Tree USA – September 2019

(やまだぃちぅ) #1
64 FAMILY TREE MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 2019

NOW WHAT?


Q


I have a


relative who


thinks he’s traced


our family back to


200 B.C. How do I


convince him it’s


impossible to fi nd


records that far


back? And what


is the furthest


possible date?


I


mpossible might be too strong, but it’s certainly highly unlikely
your relative has traced ancestors back that far. Stone records
called stele and ancient jiapu books sometimes record Chinese lineages
back more than 100 generations. Japanese and Malaysian families with
royal roots also claim to have records dating to several centuries B.C.
But if you have European ancestry, even noble family trees can’t go
much further than the fi fth or sixth century A.D. Pedigrees of Ger-
man nobility generally begin about the 8th century, and English peer-
age records date from as early as the 13th century.
If your a ncestors were more ordina r y folks, your resea rch w ill t y pi-
cally hit a “brick wall” at the oldest dates of written records. In Eng-
land, the Domesday Book, a famous one-time census commissioned
in 1085 by William the Conqueror, lists landholders in English settle-
ments south of what was then the Scottish border. You can view it at
<www.domesdaybook.co.uk>.
Otherwise, the oldest surviving public records in England are the
“pipe rolls” (so called after their resemblance to pipes when rolled up)
of the exchequer. These accounts of royal income and taxpayers, ini-
tially kept by sheriff s, date from 1129/1130, with continuous records
from 1155 through 1832. Many have been published and indexed by
the Pipe Roll Society <www.piperollsociety.co.uk>.

Find your


German


Ancestors!


Professional German
Genealogist with many years
of experience provides a
reliable and cost-eff ective
service in the search of your
German Ancestry.

To request additional
information please contact
Dr. Volker Jarren
D 79106 Freiburg,
Ferdinand-Weiss-Strasse 59
or
[email protected]
http://www.volkerjarren.de
<www.facebook.com/familytreemagazine>

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