How far back can you trace your family ancestry?

Well, this question is easy as it happens to have been an interest of mine for many years. It goes back close on 60 years when as a 13 year old I would cycle into Wolverhampton on a Saturday afternoon and one of my favourite destinations was Start's second hand bookstore. It was a narrow shop with three floors of very old and somewhat smelly books, most leather bound, covering all types of subjects. One day I discovered a book that told of a Captain Francis Burslem of HMS Coventry.

I couldn't wait to tell my father about this but when I did he he thought the idea was rubbish and it took another 40 years or more to prove him wrong! Captain Francis was indeed on our family tree. After I retired I had the time and the availability of information on the Internet to find pretty well all the Burslems going back to the 1450s, and bit by bit, I have established the trees of associated families that Burslems have married into such as the the Tolefrees, Ducks, Cliftons and Wedgwoods.

The fascinating part is learning about how and where they lived, their occupations and how short a life some them had. Disease was just around the corner for many. For many of the families, research slows down and maybe stops after about 200 years as official records only began in the 1800s and before that it is pretty well hit and miss. However my family history shows all sorts from potters,yeoman farmers, mine owners, bakers butchers and coachmen, to tailors and cordwainers.

New information is becoming available each year do who knows what new facts will turn up. My interest sparked Rhona to look into her history but that is another story from a different country!