Medieval Genealogy
A recognition of some restrictions to
genealogical research before 1500, but some ideas to help overcome the
constraints
This webpage
is still to be written.
I have found
an excellent starting point to explore medieval records is Medieval Genealogy.
The home page of the site is not particularly fancy, but the site provides structured
access to medieval documents. It’s a great starting point because if you
are not too sure about where to start, it provides immediate access to the
primary medieval documents which will help you to research your early
ancestors. It gives you ideas about where to look in the first place,
particularly in its public records
collection.
I use the Internet Archive as an excellent resource to
find primary sources and relevant articles. It is a very helpful resource when
you know the name of the document or resource that you would like to search for
and need online access. The documents are searchable and the quantity of information to which the site
gives access is astonishing.
The National Archives (“TNA”)
provides access to the national content of archives. It is the primary source
of material and the website is worth some study to get best use from it. It is
possible to find a lot of material by searching, and sometimes the material is
digitised and can be accessed directly or by subscribing to a free account.
There is also a lot of guidance on research including the TNA guides to
researching medieval
and early modern history. The quantity of information is such that it might
be that the only way to view the primary documents is to visit the archives at
Kew Gardens in London.
British History Online is a
collection of primary and secondary sources, which provides direct access to
medieval and later material. It is searchable and relatively easy to navigate.
It also includes access to the Victoria County Histories which provide some
really helpful source material about the history of particular places across
England. It is a great asset for searching primary
sources. For instance it includes access to the Yorkshire Lay
Subsidy of 1301 and a register
of the freemen of York. You can also find access to Close Rolls, Patent Rolls,
Inquisitions Post Mortem and other such sources. It provides access for
instance to the
Victoria County History for the County of York. It also provides access to
some historical
maps, including Yorkshire maps
of the mid nineteenth century.
The History of England
Resources is another website which provides access to another wealth of
information which is helpful to medieval research.
A great
source of academic articles can be found through JSTOR (short for Jay-Store or Journal
Storage), founded at Princeton University in 1994, to which you can subscribe
for free for up to a hundred articles each month.
Open Domesday is a great resource which
provides searchable access to the Domesday Book, completed in 1086, which not
only links to the relevant pages of the Domesday Book, but allows you to search
for particular places and translates the information available about each place
listed in Domesday.
As you
search the medieval records you will often confront dates which are defined by
the regnal year of the monarch of the period. You will need some help to
accurately translate the regnal year to the calendar year and you’ll find that
help through a number of internet sites which allow you to calculating regnal years.
There is a
webpage about the value of medieval money.
For
Yorkshire genealogy
The Borthwick Institute for Archives.
The York Archbishop Registers
database.
Cause Papers in the Diocesan Courts
of the Archbishopric of York 1300 to 1858.
The above
sites are all free, and there are also sites that can be accessed for a
subscription such as the Foundation for Medieval
Genealogy. Genealogy subscriptions to Ancestry
and Find my Past also provide
access to medieval material.