What is the furthest year back that people can go back to find out about their a

Question:is it the 16th century? 14th century?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: is it the 16th century? 14th century?

It depends. Most French-Canadians can easily go back to the 1500s because so much of the research on the original settlers is so well researched and published my major universities. The hard part is just getting your line back to 1799 so that you can use a lot of the major resources.

Catholics are at a distinct advantage because the Church required priests to keep records of all baptisms, first communions, confessions, marriages, ordinations and deaths since the early 1400s. Baptists are at a distinct disadvantage because they didn't keep many of these records until the 1900s. Anabaptists have it good if they can sort through all the multitude of George Yoders in the tree. They can easily hit the 1400s.

France, Belgium and Spain are among the most difficult countries to research because none of their records are centralized and archived. By contrast, Canada, England and Poland are extremely easy once you figure out where the records are kept and how to access them.

Most people can reasonably hit the 1400s in the US or Canada...if they're of European origin, stay patient and use all of the resources available. Mexicans can reasonably hit the early 1800s. Russian Jews may not get back much farther than 1900 because of all attempts to wipe records of them from the face of the earth. Eastern Europe is just starting to emerge. None of us is really sure how much they're going to release and how far they'll go in digitizing it.

Well i don't know the exact year, but i once worked with a man who was researching his family all the way back to the biblical times, I think he had a missing link or two but had some going all the way back to the Virgin Mary. So i guess if you get a a hold of the right info there is no end to how far back you can go. One last thing, this man researched so much that he went blind.

Depends on the area, the amount and type of surviving records and often dumb luck. One branch of my family could be traced back to the 9th, or was it the 10th century. While another we can only get back to my Great Great grandparents. Since my ancestors are almost exclusively from the Rhine river region in Germany there isn't much dating back before the 30 years war (1618 to 1648) which is why most branches stop in the 1640's and 1630's at the earliest. Some people can trace things back further, but it all depends.

I can go back to the 400s to Queen Basina and King Bisinus of Thuringia.

It is interesting how people trance their roots back to royalty... and that is logical because the common man wasn't usually literate...

My understanding is that serfs & slaves frequently took their "masters" name.... under those conditions the link to a royal or titled family may be a fantasy...

On my maternal side there is some evidence that one line can be traced back to the 1400's... unfortunately there are several points at which one takes a leap of "faith" because of weak evidence....

Some of the DNA testing that has been done has misplaced long held family beliefs about the history of family origens.

I'm interested in having DNA testing to see if in fact my family origens are from Northern Europe... I believe it to be true but will the science support that?

It is according to have far back a person can get valid documentation. Anyone claiming their family line goes back to Juliius Ceasar and they don't have valid documentation (birth, marriage, death) records to prove it should be viewed with amusement.

I know that someone had traced my moms family as far back as the 15th century in France. They were Huguenots and had to flee from the persecution that they as protestants were being inflicited. They fled to northeastern england, where they have been ever since

For most people, the furthest back they can go is going to be around the 1500s. Written documentation simply doesn't exist for most our ancestors before that time. There are very few exceptions.

Anyone who says they can trace their family back to Biblical times is making up stories--that simply can't be proven.

I agree with the writer who mentioned the French Canadians (well, the Acadians, anyway). Their records are excellent and provable.

Mine goes back to the first 3 King Edwards,(1200's to 1300's) the plantagenets, and then way back from there into I believe the middle of the first century AD. I'll have to check up on that, been a while since I've had a look, but I believe that is correct. If you've got a Royal line (and you'd be surprised how many of us do) it makes it a lot easier to trace back.