As many of us know, whose ancestral branches get stuck, stop or peter out in the 1700s, tracing back centuries and centuries isn’t necessarily easy. However it is possible, and it’s quite an extraordinary thought that as regular family historians we are able to examine documents that may reveal clues about our ancestors, their lives and world, back in Tudor times. So let’s get started and see how we might go about finding out more.
Even if we have not traced the branches of our tree back to the 1500s, there is nothing to stop us exploring the records of the 16th century and honing our research skills for the period, in anticipation of the time that we have built our family trees that far back.
Why the Tudor period is so important for family history?
The Tudor period spans 1485- 1603 and it’s all thanks to Henry VIII’s (in)famous civil servant Thomas Cromwell that we have the parish registers to search. Cromwell’s mandate on Monday 5 September 1538 – that each parish should keep a record of the baptisms, marriages and burials of its inhabitants – means that as family historians today
