Genealogy before the Parish Registers

Introduction

• 1538 is the natural cut-off when parish registers first appeared
• Survival of registers is patchy for a century or more after this date
• Bare information in parish registers needs confirmation from other sources
• Supplementary evidence used in modern genealogy - wills, records of land ownership, monumental inscriptions etc. - is also available in the medieval period
• The older the record, the poorer are its chances of survival

Who do we look for?

• Still easier to trace the ancestry of the wealthy and prominent than the poor and insignificant
• Manorial records of tenancy contain poorer people too
• much research has already been done in the field
• much source material has been transcribed and published, often in English translation
• tempting to believe that published genealogical work is accurate
• genealogy has had more than its fair share of shoddy research

Types of Medieval Records

• Manorial Records
• Wills
• Heralds' Visitations
• Inquisitions post mortem
• Feet of Fines
• Education records
• Rolls
• Published sources

Surnames

• hereditary surnames came in only gradually in the centuries following the Norman conquest
• beware of components of the name which look like surnames, but are not
• indexes of printed records and historical texts are often arranged by forename

Handwriting and Language

• English becomes a foreign language at some point in the 15th century
• most documents are in Latin, and a few in French anyway !
• in legal documents - the Latin is often highly abbreviated
• Handwriting in official medieval records is usually fairly carefully done (Victorian censuses can be harder to read!) Dates
• from about the late 12th century until 1751 the civil, ecclesiastical and legal year began on 25 March
• In Anglo-Saxon and Norman times the year was generally reckoned from 25 December
• Earlier still, the year sometimes began in September
• In Sept 1752 Julian and Gregorian calendars came in, but this meant that for 170 years there was a week difference due to leap years!
• anno domini system of numbering years was introduced in England by Bede in the eighth century
• from the late 12th century it became standard, instead, to date civil documents by the regnal year
• Regnal years can date from the coronation or the accession !
• From the thirteenth century, documents often dated relative to a nearby saint's day, feast day or other religious festival
• Many converters are available on the internet (phew!)

Manorial Records

• The manor was the building block of feudal society
• embodied the 'government' of the local community
• administrative control over succession to land tenure within the manor
• local court of law for routine offences
• genealogical information about ordinary people - rather than the upper classes - is likely to survive from medieval times
• Very low survival rate - estimated at about 4%
• Known records can be found in the National Register of Archives
• language in medieval times is Latin, often heavily abbreviated
• the form of the proceedings and the terminology are often very standardised
• many manorial court records continue in Latin until the 18th century

Manorial Records - the Court Baron

• dealt with the everyday business of the manor and met typically every 3 or 4 weeks
• business would include the reporting of tenants' deaths
• the surrender of the land and the admission of the new tenant would be recorded, and the relationship between the two would normally be noted
• payments for the marriages of the daughters of customary tenants
• records of the remarriage of widows
• tenants may appear as officials or jurors, they may be noted as absent (with or without leave), or they may be fined (amerced) for some minor offence

Manorial Records - the Court Leet

• routine local matters (and even with capital offences in earlier times)
• jurisdiction declined rapidly during Tudor times

Manorial Records - Surveys

• custumal, common in the 12th and 13th century, which records the tenants, their holdings and their obligations to the lord
• the extent, a valuation of the manor, which seems to have been inspired in the 13th century by official surveys connected with inquisitions post mortem
• rentals, lists of tenants and the rents payable, beginning in the 14th century, when it became common for the lord to rent out the demesne rather than working it himself

Wills

• the will in a recognisably modern form did not evolve until the late 13th century. Wills and testaments merged in 1540
• Wills only dealing with land did not require probate
• Testaments dealt with personal property.
• early wills often primarily concerned with burial and gifts to the church and fell under the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts
• likely to survive as transcripts in a register, rather than as original documents
• Before 1500, most written in Latin - or occasionally French
• members of the family are named
• to a greater extent than in modern wills, children may well have been previously provided for
• often provided for the spiritual welfare of members of the family who were already dead. Parents may well be named, together with even more remote ancestors if one is very lucky.

Heralds' Visitations

• collection of pedigrees of families with the right to bear arms
• must be used with great care
• dates are given only occasionally
• may sound too good to be true and sadly, in many cases, it is not true
• often more impressive than accurate
• the shorter the pedigree entered at a visitation, the more reliable it is likely to be

Inquisitions post mortem

• Held for anyone holding land directly from the Monarch
• Protecting the King's interests
• Outlaws or sine prole land reverted to the Crown
• Chester, Lancaster and Durham have their own records (Palatines)
• Crown takes profits until age 21, then fine paid to assume title (Lords did the same to manorial tenants)
• Documents often contain proof of age
• Births tended to be relative to memorable events
• Records run from 1235 until 1662
• Index held at the PRO in Kew
• Copies were kept by family - often deposited at the CRO
• Can be difficult to read in the original form

Feet of Fines

• Records from 1195 to 1834
• Transfers of property for deforciant (seller) to querent (buyer)
• 3 copies on same sheet - 1 for each party and bottom copy (hence feet of fine) for exchequer or palatine authority
• Useful as transfers are often between relatives
• Descent of ownership or occupancy is often described
• Indexes drawn up by local societies
• Records are held at the PRO

Education Records

• Most useful are the Cambridge and Oxford lists of graduates
• Gives parentage and the dates and ages at graduation and/or matriculation
• Aberdeen University available from 1495
• St Andrews available from 1413

Charters or Charter Rolls

• 1199 through 1517
• documents recording grants, usually of land, but sometimes of other property or rights
• medieval equivalent of what we now call deeds
• Family relationships are frequently mentioned
• may record a marriage gift to a daughter, or provision for a younger son
• Spouses and children appear, sometimes as witnesses to express their assent to the grant
• many have ended up at the Public Record Office
• a large number of charters have survived as transcripts
• more charters - many since lost - were later copied, in the 16th century and later, by heralds and antiquaries

Patent Rolls

• Open or unsealed letters issued by Chancery Court
• 66 volumes covering 1216 to 1587
• Chester and Lancaster have their own records
• Wide range of subjects : grants, licences, wardships, land usage
• Jail delivery and keeping the peace are also found

Curia Regis Rolls

• Could deal with just about anything !
• Plea rolls from 1273 - 1875 contain several pedigrees
• Early rolls published by the Seldon Society

Close Rolls

• 1205 - 1905 held at PRO
• Deeds, wills, leases, changes of name
• Particularly useful for deeds of sale
• Calendarised to 1509 with full texts from 1227 - 1272

Fine Rolls

• Fine is a payment for privilege e.g. to enter land
• Run from 1120 to the execution of Charles I
• Calendars in 22 volumes up to 1509

Published Sources

• www.medievalgenealogy.orgouk/guide
• 'Making a Pedigree' by John Unett, SoG 1961
• Burkes Peerage etc. (Family Tree Maker's 'Notable British Families 1600-1900' available on CD)
• For Cheshire 'The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester' by George Ormerod on CD (fully indexed)
• The Victoria County History series