Question

Does anyone know of the BEUERESFORDE family prior to 1227

Comments

David, Since there has not been much response so far can you tell us any more about where in the world you expect to find this family and any first names that you have identified and sourced?

Answer 1

This is my family. Or it was back then, today there are a number of derivatives of the spelling, I am of the BERESFORD.

The reason for the question is that with the help of the Beresford Family Society, traced my link in this huge family by father/son connection back to Hugh De Beueresforde 1227 ish. There are lots of notable families that have over the years married in to the Beresford line.

I know that I still have a lot of work to do between today and yesteryear but I cannot believe that a family which apparently owned most of Derbyshire and the surounds suddenly appear from nowhere. Hence the question to the Wiki users.

Thanks

David

Comments

This is normal.  Bureaucracy was a new invention.  English law had always relied on memories of local juries to establish facts and precedents.  There was no systematic recording of anything very much.  Deeds and wills were rarely written.

Patent rolls and plea rolls start about 1200.  Exchequer rolls survive from about 1155, but all the Norman rolls are lost except 1129-30.

So records from before 1200 tend to be a random collection of odds and sods.  We can only learn what we can from what there is.

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Also, new surnames were being invented all the time.  Everybody had ancestors but their ancestors didn't have the same name since the year dot.  So parents can be hiding in plain sight, but unrecognizable.