Family Tree USA – September 2019

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

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