How far back has anyone gone on their Geneology? .....

[sheilajim]

Hi Everybody

I was wondering how far back anyone has gone on their searches.

I have been searching since about the first of June 2005(mostly on the internet and a trip to LDS) and can't break into the 18th century.

I would like to know if anyone has gotten further back.

Thanks

Sheila

[marilyn morning]

Hi Sheila,

Many of the members here on TalkingScot have indeed researched their families back to the eighteenth century myself included, but it takes a little while to achieve the end results that you are searching for.

You mention the internet & LDS center, but are you researching for any of your relatives on www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk//

Regards
Marilyn

[sheilajim]

Hi Marilyn,

Good to hear from you.

Yes indeed, I have used ScotlandsPeople. Most of everything I have found out comes from them. I can hardly wait till they have the OPR images online. That should knock down a few more brick walls. I have also had help on TalkingScot. JustJean helped me find one of my GtGrandparents marriage register, and Jack gave me a tremendous amount of information.

As some of my ancestors were inconsiderate enought to travel back and forth to Ireland, I wish that Ireland had a program like ScotlandsPeople.

I just really would like to hear tales of other people's successes. I'd like to find out that ordinary people, not just royalty can go back a few hundred years.

Thanks

Sheila

Searching for: Boyd, Mclaren, Kennedy, McKinnon, Langan, Morin McDonald, King, McVeany.

[AnneM]

Hi Sheila

I've got back to the C17 on a couple of my own lines. Also on husband's line have people who were around in the 1640s in Hampshire and Wiltshire, though I would hesitate to claim that as my success as most is due to MaryE who is a whizz kid on all things English.

My own oldest definite couple is Patrick Cowper and Anna Cuthbert who were born in Perthshire in the 1670s. It is likeky that Anna's parents were Patrick Cuthbert and Jeane Reid but I can't prove that one. Their Anna was born 30th Oct 1678 in Perth. I also have a John Allan and Isobel Elliot born in the late C17 in the Borders.

I was lucky that the Perth OPRs are brilliant compared to most. Hope you have as much luck. Take all the help you can get.

Anne

[WilmaM]

I've got back to around the 1750's with my maternal line.

It helped that they were God fearing folks who recorded everything in the kirk and didn't move more than a parish or 2 in Banffshire.

The rather unusual surname of GOODALL / GOODALE played a big part too.

As for my Father's side - forget it - they all came and went to Ireland with monotomous regularity

[mesklin]

Wilma

One of your Goodalls didn't end up in the Scots Fusilier Guards by any chance? You're not the only one with a Goodall in the family.

Dave

[sporran]

Hello Sheila,


on my side (Scotland and England), I have managed to get back to the 1780s and 1790s. This is a fairly common stopping point, except for landed gentry and very unusual names, because statutory records began in 1837 (England), 1855 (Scotland), and censuses with people's names in 1841. It is hard to be definite about relationships without the confirmation of censuses and death records. Perversely, the clan beginnings from Gilkrist Makurerdy in 1425 are laid out (perhaps with a dollop of wishful thinking) to the late 1600s in Ireland, after the legend of the McCurdy brothers rowing from Scotland to Ireland (via Rathlin Island) on a stormy November night in 1666. For the next century, things get a little fuzzy.

On my wife's side (Scotland, England, Canada), we are back to about 1720 in England for one branch, but the real star is the Canadian side. From three generations ago, her maternal side lived on the Îles de la Madeleine, an archipelago in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and a speck on most maps. This archipelago is the equivalent of the old wild-west "one horse town". My wife's cousin produced a book and CD of all the records that he could find, with a staggering amount of inter-family marriages, and the result that we have 10 people from the 1500s. Although linking them was difficult, the bonus was that "Add new person" did not feature all that much when entering marriage details.


Regards,

John

[sheilajim]

Hi Everybody,

Good posts from all.

I guess the 1500's are further back than most any of us can even hope to trace, including the aristocracy (excluding Royal Families).

I really like to hear success stories.

Thanks

Sheila

[JustJean]

Hi Sheila

My own research is the standard jumble of Scots Irish miners/farmers/millworkers and English farmers .....make that heavy on the English. Only 1 grandparent of 4 had the Scottish connections so that really leaves me with very little tartan and great lot of New England colonist. (Well there were those surnames like McDonald and McAllister and McKeen tucked way back amongst the settlers that surely must have some plaid in them too but alas no way to find them now!) I've gotten back to Antrim and Down about the famine time but only just. No confirmed sightings.....a lot of guesswork. US research on the other hand has been a cinch due to the body of work of so many researchers who have come before me. One lovely lady from Salt Lake City left a written legacy of her husband's line...DAY....which takes my line (actually more than one branch 'cause when I run certain reports in my genealogy software I have to convince the machine to keep going as it thinks it's caught in a loop ) all the way to a birth in England estimated around 1616. Anthony DAY sailed from London on 16 July 1635 age 19. He's my oldest find at the moment. When the book was written my grandmother was alive and was fortunate enough to make the writer's acquaintance and helped with tons of local connections. I've found it much more fun to find the long losts over there in Bonny Scotland though......

Best wishes to you in your own searching!

Jean

[HeatherH]

Hi Sheila, I just started in Oct. myself but have managed to get one little branch back to the early 1700s and with a little luck on my trip to scotland next month will hit the late 1600s.However my goal isn't how far back I can get or even how many of my relatives I can find, but how much about them I can uncover.
HeatherK