Medievalancestors

Prior to the Reformations in Britain in 1534 and 1560, it can become significantly harder to make progress in our ancestral research. As can be seen on shows such as Who Do You Think You Are?, however, it may be possible to make a breakthrough back to the medieval era, thanks to a connection into a royal line, a parallel line within the landed classes, or even at the commoners level. The medieval era, also referred to as the ‘Middle Ages’, spans from the mid 5th century departure of the Romans from Britain, to the mid 15th century, prior to the Renaissance. For the earlier phase of this period, we can effectively rule out any meaningful research into our earlier forebears, although we can certainly understand from contemporary and near contemporary sources the history of the territories where our ancestors lived.

One of the most famous sources documenting early England, for example, is the ‘Anglo-Saxon Chronicle’ (https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2016/02/anglo-saxon-chronicles-now-online.html), believed to have been written in the late 9th century AD during the reign of King Alfred the Great at Wessex. It documents the history of the Anglo-Saxons in southern England, and before their arrival in the country, going as far back as the year 60BC. The chronicle, in essence a series of ‘annals’ structured as a chronology drawn from earlier contemporary manuscripts, exists through many copies (which don’t always agree with each other), and continued to be updated until the early 12th century. It thus provides a detailed source bridging the gap from the Romans’ departure to the arrival of the Normans in 1066. Not only is the document written in Anglo-Saxon (Old English), the forerunner to our own modern tongue, it also provides information on dynastic royal lines, including a genealogy for Alfred, and bishops of the early church.

Similarly for Scotland, one of the earliest sources documenting the history of the arrival of the Gaels from Ireland to Argyll in the early 6th century, where they established the kingdom of Dál Riada, is the ‘Senchus fer n-Alban’ (www.duffus.com/ Articles/senchus_fer_n_alban. htm). Although many copies were created in the 14th and 15th centuries, they are believed to have been derived from a manuscript initially drawn up in the 10th century using earlier contemporary sources dating back to the 7th century. As well as p