Post by donne on Mar 24, 2010 6:26:52 GMT -5
Most of us tend to give up on family history in the era before the creation of parish records if our family doesn't include a link to those aristocratic families where pre- 16 century records exist. However the Chancery Rolls have been an important source of information to British historians, these being records of the justice dispensed by the king, and they include sometimes mention of more 'ordinary' people.
Usually they are found in 'calendared' form i.e. summarised and, if necessary, translated from the original medieval Latin, and published in huge tomes found in academic libraries. Increasingly the contents of these tomes are appearing on line, and the so-called Patent Rolls have been published together with a search engine at:
www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/patentrolls/
If you are prepared to pay a fee, www.british-history.ac.uk/statepapers.aspx offers access to the 'Close Rolls' and other papers.
It's worth having a look at the University of Iowa site to see if a search reveals any interesting snippet relating to a Cornish place or family name you are interested in. But remember the summaries preserve the medieval spelling of places and people's names and this may not be immediately recognised.
For my own part, I was intrigued to find mention of a pardon given on 29 June 1446 at Westminster, to four Cornishmen - John Smyth of Fowey, 'marchaunt'; Stephen Marke of Seintclere, 'marchaunt'; John Stapp of Landilp (Landulph, East Cornwall), mariner and Patrick Donne of Saltaysshe (Saltash, East Cornwall), mariner. Now what was all that about?!
Usually they are found in 'calendared' form i.e. summarised and, if necessary, translated from the original medieval Latin, and published in huge tomes found in academic libraries. Increasingly the contents of these tomes are appearing on line, and the so-called Patent Rolls have been published together with a search engine at:
www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/patentrolls/
If you are prepared to pay a fee, www.british-history.ac.uk/statepapers.aspx offers access to the 'Close Rolls' and other papers.
It's worth having a look at the University of Iowa site to see if a search reveals any interesting snippet relating to a Cornish place or family name you are interested in. But remember the summaries preserve the medieval spelling of places and people's names and this may not be immediately recognised.
For my own part, I was intrigued to find mention of a pardon given on 29 June 1446 at Westminster, to four Cornishmen - John Smyth of Fowey, 'marchaunt'; Stephen Marke of Seintclere, 'marchaunt'; John Stapp of Landilp (Landulph, East Cornwall), mariner and Patrick Donne of Saltaysshe (Saltash, East Cornwall), mariner. Now what was all that about?!