Other than the usual (e.g. apprenticeships, wills, burial/memorial inscriptions, property leases), what other records have Forum members had proven success with, when trying to take your family further back?
My direct ancestor was born in Bedminster circa 1780, according to the 1851 census. He settled in Falkland, Hemington, Somerset, where it seems older kin (?) had been living since circa 1700. These older kin are noted as "gents" on documents I've seen from 1700-1775. However, my ancestor was an ag lab.
Unfortunately, Bedminster St John parish records have a lengthy gap from 1623/24 to 1806. So unless I stumble upon a record which confirms his father and/or mother, I can't take his line further back without any certainty. His 1808 marriage in Bristol records a male witness with the same surname, but I don't know if it's his brother, father, or an uncle.
My ancestor's surname was very common in Bristol region during the 17th-19th centuries. And the males recycled the same names: William, John, Samuel, and Joseph. So without my ancestor's baptism record, it's nigh on impossible to separate the wheat from the chaff.
