Best Websites
The best online resources for medieval genealogy
As a budding genealogical journalist in the late 1990s, I informed my new editor that I could trace my family back to 1066. My editor immediately informed me that this was “rubbish”, which annoyingly turned out to be true.
Even if you are not part of the small but happy band who can claim a provable connection back to the Middle Ages, there is a fascination with this period of history. The sources are tricky, fragmentary and unfamiliar, the terms often drenched in Latin and obscure, archaic legalese. It can seem too that this is only a stomping ground for the landed gentry, because their paper trails were more likely to survive than the virtually nonexistent traces left by an agricultural labourer.
Nevertheless, early modern genealogy is a fascinating area of study for one-namers, or anyone interested in the earliest occurrences of a surname. Many of the websites this month offer free access to name-rich sources, while others give you the context and background to why each document was created.
MEDIEVAL GENEALOGY
w medievalgenealogy.org.uk
Some sources familiar to family historians stretch back to the late medieval period, such as parish and probate material. Alongside these sit a host of lesser-known avenues that can be broadly grouped under local administration (such as manorial records), court records, heraldic material, taxation and more. To get to grips with this unruly bunch, visit this labour of love from acknowledged expert Chris Phillips. I’d recommend starting with the ‘Guide’ or ‘Sources’ sections, or there’s an entire area dedicated to explaining the shifting calendar. The site is peppered with links to sources, too. The ‘What’s New’ page, for example, is currently headed by the Latin text and English translation of a 15th-century Topography of Medieval Bristol.