Page 29 - Gen Mag Online November 2020

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MEDIAEVAL FAMILY HISTORY

One of the joys of researching one’s family history is if you manage to hook into a gateway family.
A gateway family is one whose ancestry is well documented, and can stretch back into the middle
ages; in some cases well beyond that.

First though, what does the word mediaeval mean? The Middle Ages or Mediaeval Period is thought
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to have started around the 5 century - about the time of the fall of the Roman Empire in the West
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and ended in the late 15 century - about the time of Henry VII or Henry VIII. Some historians point
to the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453 when Constantinople fell to the Turks. Others believe that
the year 1500 is a better date as it also coincided with the age of enlightenment when science and
art began to be fully appreciated.

While it has been argued that most people living in Europe and in countries settled by Europeans
such as the USA and Australia, are descended from Charlemaigne, the difficulty for most people is
proving it.

But mediaeval history is not confined to linking up with the descendants of kings and queens, as
interesting as that is. There are many records which hold the names of ordinary people who lived
since the conquest of William the Conqueror.

Although the feudal system king William introduced in Britain was devastating for ordinary people,
it did create a system making the manor one of the basic units of local government, the other being
the parish. The manor existed almost to the present day. It also produced many documents in which
our ancestors names will be mentioned - especially if land was transferred from father to son. Land
holding wasn’t just a matter of the aristocracy.

Finding such documents is not easy however as manors often traversed counties. As such, you
might have to contact different record offices to track down what is available.

The manor and the documents it generated requires an article or articles to fully grasp what they
were about, so this will be left for another time. In the meantime, a brief discussion of what resources
are available if you are lucky enough to link up with a well known or well documented family such
as the Molyneux family of Liverpool or the Talbots of Salesbury in Lancashire.

Useful Websites

Researching mediaeval history and genealogy has become a lot easier since the advent of the
Internet. Many useful documents have been published online, saving researchers time as well as
money.

One of the most useful websites is archive.org which holds a very large number of books, pamphlets
and other documents which can help put flesh on the bones of your mediaeval and later ancestors.
One such set of records are Deeds. The Yorkshire Archaeological Society for instance, published
10 volumes of Yorkshire deeds, which mention a very wide number of people living in Yorkshire area
from around the 1300s. Deeds had to be witnessed so it may be your ancestor did that.

Other useful resources are those published by various historic societies such as County Parish
Register Societies and Lancashire & Cheshire Historic Society or the Manchester based Chetham
Society. Many of these published volumes (including mediaeval wills) will be found in local record
offices but why not search archive.org first.

Two other useful website when you manage to link up with particular aristocratic and gentry families
are Medlands and Some Notes On Mediaeval English Genealogy.

The National Archives in London should not be overlooked either as you can often download
documents in which your ancestors are mentioned.