Finding People further back than the late 1700s (General)
by rookancestrybest 
, United Kingdom, Saturday, March 20, 2010, 22:03 (5441 days ago)
I know for definite that Thomas Rook (born 1784 and died 15/3/1844 in Lane End, Coleford) and his wife Elizabeth Mary Stead (born Jan 20th 1786 Bristol, died May 26 1866, Lane End, Coleford) are my direct ancestors.
I have also traced Elizabeth's parents and grandparents.
However, I can find a Thomas Rook born October 10th 1760 (in Littledean) who died in March 1809 (in Newnham) but I cannot find conclusive proof that he might be my Thomas' father nor how many siblings the Thomas born 1784 had for definite. What can I do to check this information and to attempt to go back further?
Finding People further back than the late 1700s
by admin 
, Forest of Dean, Sunday, March 21, 2010, 13:12 (5440 days ago) @ rookancestrybest
Unless you can trace your line to landed gentry or nobility, it is a matter of chance whether anything was recorded at all.
If there are no other sources of information such as wills, property transfers (only affluent families tended to have these) or informative and well-preserved gravestones, that may be the end of the line.
However, I believe in years to come as more people paticipate in giving DNA samples, a lot of genealogy questions will be answered as well as producing a few surprises for some.
Finding People further back than the late 1700s
by rookancestrybest , United Kingdom, Friday, March 26, 2010, 22:53 (5435 days ago) @ admin
Another branch of my family can be traced back to the Tudor peroid and that's just through church records, Mormon Website, graves, churches etc. and the family not moving. This branch, however was not from the Forest of Dean.