Medieval records in England

I have been lurking for quite some time trying to find some help for my dilemma researching my Piddington family in Cuddington, Bucks, England. I am now beyond parish register time and have a couple of wills. The first belongs to Elizabeth Piddington d. 1622 who names her children but does not indicate who her husband may be. The other two wills are of earlier time 1540 and 1559 respectively.

Chris Dickinson...

Presumably, since your date below is 1622, you mean that are now beyond
parish register time in that particular parish?

From reading recent posts it sounds like I may be out of luck trying to determine who Elizabeth's husband may be and how he may connect to the earlier Piddingtons. Is there a good place for me to look beyond parish registers and wills?

Chris Phillips...

I've tried to gather some useful information on resources for medieval (and
early modern) English genealogy here:
These include a brief guide to the kind of records that are available, some
references to published works, and some links to what's online.

Chris Phillips

Chris Dickinson...

This is pre-modern advice, not medieval! :-)

A lot depends on the resources available for this family and place.

First of all, it's absolutely necessary to keep your horizons broad. Don't
says wills, say probate. Don't say Piddington, say Cuddington!

Has local probate been filmed by the LDS? If it has, get the film that
covers Piddington and any film that covers other family names of similar
status. Then sit down and skim through each reel - you'll start to find all
sorts of hints - people who leave things to Piddingtons in their wills
(often giving their family relationships); Piddingtons who are witnesses to
wills; debts to and from Piddingtons in inventories; inventory prizers who
are Piddingtons; bondsmen who are Piddingtons.

If the name is rare, and you discover a unknown male Piddington in any
context c.1610/20, then he is probably your Elizabeth's husband.

The four other main sources that might provide you with something are:

(1)

Items that have survived at a family or manorial level - admissions to
tenements, manorial courts, indentures. Some might already be listed on A2A,
others may not yet have been indexed.

(2)

Property conveyances that are stored at TNA. You may find, for instance,
that there is an index to Feet of Fines for your area.

Chris Dickinson...

I phrased that very badly. There will be an index at TNA covering the
area - what I meant to say is that there may be a printed and
published abstract of Feet of Fines for your area.

(3)

Court of Chancery. This can take you back (if you are lucky) two or three
generations if there is a meaty land dispute.

(4)

Moving up a social level - Visitations, Victoria County Histories and the
like.

And ask on soc.genealogy.britain & Bucks-L. A significant contributer on
both lists, Eve McLaughlin, is Britain's best known genealogist.

Thank you - Linda Hansen