How far in years can you trace for family tree or roots back?

Question: How far in years can you trace for family tree or roots back!?
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In genealogy, the primary method is to trace documents!. Writing and reading in Western Civilization didn't really flourish until the invention of moveable type, and the skills of writing were only held by the clergy, and took some time to spread to the general populace!. Many records have been destroyed over the years!. As a result, you're doing well if you can document your research back to the 1600's, and if you can get to the 1500's you're doing fantastic: but in those cases, those ancestors will be famous leaders or the clergy that wrote the documents!. If a person can trance before the Renaissance, I would be highly suspect of their link to documents unless their ancestors were extremely important leaders!. Seldom will you ever find valid records of your ancestors who were common laborers or serfs, before civil and post-Reformation church records were kept!.

Happy hunting!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Depends on your forbears and how often they appear in surviving documents, since most genealogical research is conducted through church records, wills, probate courts, censuses, birth, marriage and death records!.

If "your people" were from the mountain country, who lived as far from "civilization" as possible, you may not find much !.!.!. or you'll have huge gaps to fill in the record (i!.e!., you might find back two or three generations, but then a enough of a gap that proving a connection to a likely ancestor will become a huge pain in the neck)!.

When I first started doing my own genealogy, I took for granted that the genealogies I found online were accurate, and at one time I had one branch of the family back to 1444 !.!.!. but then I learned you needed to actually see the documentation yourself, and not trust others' hunches!. So that particular branch is now trimmed back to someone's immigration to the American Colonies circa 1750!. Www@QuestionHome@Com

Parish Records started in the 16th Century; the best I've been able to do is a William Paine b!.1550 Braunton, Devon, s/o John Paine!.
Boyd's Marriage Index is a typescript index of English marriages taken from copies of marriage registers, bishops' transcripts and licences, and covering the period 1538-1837 for a large number of parishes!.
Some people claim descent directly from the time of William the Conqueror but this would only be for noble families!.
The Phillimore Atlas and Index of Parish Registers gives useful information about Registers for Parish Churches in the Counties!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Most people do good getting back to the 1600s!.
If you managed to make a link in some of your family lines to a royal or noble line, you might be able to go back to the first millennium in those particular lines!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

100 years My grandfather was a farmer in europe left in the 1930s if you aren't still living in Europe you aren't noble if you were you wouldnt have left!. That was the point of leaving europe!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

i have gone back to early 1700's but it was hard work!.!.!. and cost a fortune!.!.!.!.x

yep dont trust family search they get it wrong a lot of the time,Www@QuestionHome@Com

Back before Christ in the Middle East on one thin line on mt Mom's side!. On my Dad's side, the early 1400s!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

1600's in UK

1400s in CanadaWww@QuestionHome@Com

466 years!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Some of them 320yearsWww@QuestionHome@Com