Given up before I begun!

[piersc]

Hi everyone

I registered just now in order to get some advice.

Someone researched my family name about 15 years ago. She got as far back as about 1425 and then could find nothing more.

My question was going to be, have the research tools of recent times improved by so much that it might be worth picking this up again? I was going to have a crack at it myself had it not been too complicated.... however, I've just read an article that was written about a member of my family who's started up some genealogy company and is writing a book about our family and it turns out he can trace us back to being chefs for William the Conqueror! A slighty bigger job than I had anticipated!

In the 1600's one of the men of the family moved to the USA and that branch of the family has a few hundred members in it. However, I'm the only male left (other than my father) in our branch of the family that was left in the UK so it's up to me to continue the name! No pressure there then!

[Northern Lass]

Hi and welcome to the forum

[marie]

It could be worth it for you to start digging around again. One of my lines -Peploe/pepler (1600s)- had a book written in the 1880s that has been THE source for years. Recently, because of the ability to contact others, new sources available on line and such, the group of us researching this line have discovered that the book was wrong - even the medieval history group of the LDS church has this line wrong. We have family letters, wills, court cases and even an engraved snuffbox to document our findings. I was talking to a support person at Salt Lake today and she said that they would really appreciate having the information, as she agreed that the research - being a collaboration of descendents on 3 continents- could probably not be replicated.
Word of caution - you might offend the book writer. We had quite a time with our book author to convince him that he hadn't had the whole story when he wrote his book. We're all good friends now but it was dicey for a while.
To get back before 1425, you need a connection to a notable household or name - and you have to REALLY prove that connection. Most people did not have surnames yet and not all parishes were keeping real good records. So there may have been a John Whatsis in William's entourage but there could have been another John working the fields that also ended up using the Whatsis surname when he decided to adopt one.
But good luck and what name are you working on?

[piersc]

Thanks for the replies. I really have no experience at doing this at all and seeing how much work has gone in to tracing back my family in the past has put me off slightly. My father did a bit of digging after the lady who did our original family tree had finished and he found himself travelling quite a bit to go through church records. I didn't expect it to be a 5 minute job but I'm now thinking I don't have the time to start this at the moment.

The name is Cockey by the way.

[marie]

Give me the deatils of a couple of your earliest Cockeys that you are sure of. I'm off to the FHC now and I help there on Wednesdays and Thursdays. I have access to all their resources including the new family search, so I can nose around a bit if no one comes in. I have to wait always for my films to come in and then I only get a Peploe/ler on about every third one or so. Lots of time to use

[piersc]

Wow, thank you very much.

Unfortunately I wont be going to my parents today so I can't get hold of any of the family trees.

I've just Googled one of the more famous members of the family that I know of and found this:

"William Cockey was born in December 1663 at Warminster, son of Lewis Cockey, a brazier, bellfounder and clocksmith (born 1626, died 1711). "

The American line settled in Maryland and named the town after themselves: Cockeysville http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunt_Valley,_Maryland, however that was in the 1700s.

Basically, any Cockey that you come across on the internet has links with us. Just interested how far back we can go.

[Northern Lass]

Might be an idea to add your name to the surname interests too!