When I tell people I work on family history and genealogy, I usually get one of two responses. My favourite is when they ask about stories of interesting ancestors – I think every ancestor is interesting. However, there are always those who want to know “how far back can you go?”.
The stories about how my ancestors lived is the most interesting. I learn more about the history of a particular place when I am trying to understand how a 4x great grandparent lived than I ever did in school. It is so much more personal.
I post stories about my ancestors lives for my family as I uncover them. One of my brothers, although he loves to read the stories, also said to me – let me know when you get back to the Domesday Book.
Domesday Book
For those of you who don’t know, William conquered England in 1066 and 20 years later he ordered the creation of a book that recorded every person, cow and ox in the country. Each person was recorded, what sort of people they were, how much each had and, importantly, how much it was worth.
The Hull Domesday Project is a great resource if you want to read more about it.
The Bagot Line
Working back on one line, I found in Burke’s Landed Gentry some interesting tidbits. The Irish Bagot/Baggot/Bagod line that I am working on apparently has been in Ireland 700 years (I’m adding 200 since the book was published).
It is connected to the Staffordshire Bagot line that goes back to the Domesday book.
I did find Bagod listed in the Domesday book in Bramshell.
The Open Domesday Book is great – you can search for names and places and find out all sorts of interesting pieces of information.
Of course, the problem is proving it to genealogical standards.
Apparently, the Irish line was reviewed in 1711 and 1867 by the Ulster King of Arms to grant the coat of arms, so there may be information in those offices – if the four courts fire did not destroy those documents.
Blogging the experience
Inspired by Yvette Hoitink and her quest to prove her ancestry from Eleanor of Aquitaine, I have decided to blog my journey.
Over the next several months/years my project will be to prove the ancestry back and blog about it here. Or perhaps not, I may just as likely hit a point where the information is wrong and I am not related. This happened when hoping to prove a relationship to the Guiness family.
I am pretty sure I have several generations done back to Elizabeth BAGOT who died in 1725, so I will need to write up each generation and be sure I have proved those links adequately.
I will start with me, my mother and my grandmother in my next post. Then I will follow with one or two generations at a time every month or so. Then it will take me longer as I continue to prove the generations in secondary sources such as Burke’s and the Bagot Irish Line. I will tag the posts with Bagot to Domesday and you can follow along if you like.
I’m excited! Are you?
