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I dont have lots of names in my tree on GR, I usually just put ancestors, although I have my parents and grandparents siblings and their spouses. I mainly add extra people in the hope of finding out more about my own ancestors. I do have a lot of info on paper on Bettanys in Staffs since they might fit in somewhere, and it is not an over-common name. Also lots on paper on other lines.
I dont believe in copying all the info that a hotmatch has in their tree if the info is about their spouse's gt grandfather's motherinlaw's niece's spouse's descendents. Totally irrelevent to me.
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Dee,
Before my ancestors moved to London from Northamptonshire they were all ag labs, shepherds, carpenters etc, but the further back you go, the more likely you are to find other occupations that your ancestors had, and some of yours somewhere may welll be gamekeepers, bailiffs and so on, even poachers! They will probably have worked for the local farmer, who may well have been landed gentry.
They may have worked below stairs, but that did not mean that they did not write wills or even that they could not write. Many of my ag labs were able to write as I have witnessed from their good hands in signing their own names and in some of their wills, leaving their humble goods of table linen to their nephews and nieces, of which I always found an abundance. I will say that hardly any of this sort of information will be found on line, but it will be found at the County Record Office of the county from where your folk are from, and it will take a lot longer than 2+years to research. As said earlier I have been at this family history game for 30+ years, and it is a hobby for life, and it can wait until you have the time. Your ancestors are not going anywhere. If you collect a lot of material, and join relevant Family History Societies, then that county/counties could be interested in taking your info to help others, though I doubt they would be interested in just a string of names and you will need to have some meat on your bones, if you understand my meaning.
A little known fact maybe for many people is that when you do get back to the 1600's, and this is not really done online, you will find that 50% of people were quite wealthy. Remember the population at this time was only about 4 million.
Please do not underestimate your ag labs, they were a lot more intelligent than we realise. I will pull up an old thread about Ag Labs that should make you all very proud of them.
Janet Noth London Borders
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Janet
thanks for your comments, I have looked at the ag lab thread...interesting.
Wish I could get past my 3xgt grandfather (still a shepherd), can't find his baptism yet.
Will keep looking and when I can plan another holiday in Norfolk, see if I can get more insight on the land my ancestors all worked on!
Thanks
Dee
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Dee
Shepherds probably moved around even if from one village to the next so your Great X3 g father is probably bap in a village only about 3/5 miles away. Look at Phillimores Index of Parishes, found in any big reference library. There you will find all the parishes for every county, including Norfolk. I photocopied the part of Northants I was interested in and took all the parishes of a 3/5 mile base around the original hamlet and I eventually found them in a village 3 miles away. I also had to use some detective powers to find them but find them I did. Have also left another note on the Ag Lab one for you
Good Luck
Janet North London Borders
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