Stuck on family tree 1540 brassington derbyshire, any ideas how i get more infor

Question:i am stuck now with the toplis family. In 1540 there was mrs toplis[dont have her name yet]her son was thomas he paid 9shillings in1620 for the copyhold of his estate. any ideas

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: i am stuck now with the toplis family. In 1540 there was mrs toplis[dont have her name yet]her son was thomas he paid 9shillings in1620 for the copyhold of his estate. any ideas

You're at the limit of English parish registers, which begin only in 1538 (if you're very very lucky, which obviously you have been). Your chances of getting beyond this point are pretty slim, but not impossible.

Your first task, is probably to take up Latin. You'll need it. Then you can see if there are any wills at the local record office or at the National Archives that pre-date 1540. You should also ask Debryshire Record Office if there are any manorial records for this area from the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries. There was a national Poll Tax in 1391 or thereabouts that might have survived, plus other name lists you might be able to work from, but as I said before, official documents from this period are invariably in Latin and they are almost impossible for the layman to read.

I found a 1391 poll tax return, gave it a 30 second look on the microfilm reader and then gave it up as a bad idea. Documents from this period are just beyond me. You really do need to be an expert paelographer to work really well beyond the 16th century, and unless you find a link into the gentry or nobility, the amount of paperwork you will find on each generation further back will get less and less.

My advice is to be happy with 1540. You've got as far back as you are likely to for now unless you have a degree in Latin. Plenty of people don't even get that far!

You are working at the limit of paper records, there might not be a way past this point, but on the off chance that some records do survive try the web site below.

Good luck and good hunting

Sadly much before this there is not much information to go on unless you are connected with royality have you tried the churnch records