John Serle c1370 King's Keeper of the Little Park at Thaxted Essex. John Serle c1420 King's Keeper of the Great Park at Great Bardfield Essex. Both are my ancestors.
I didn't, I only took my Searles back to the early 1600s, a guy named Ken Searles wrote a book entitled "From Bardfield to Brookend A genealogical Journey through the county of Essex". It is the story of the Searles families, mainly but not completely about the Essex Searles, I descend from my maternal grandparents who both had a Searles parent, they were first cousins. I was able to to take my Searles back past 1600 via Ken's research but I did manage to find a few full earlier dates to replace where Ken had just the year and the odd family member Ken missed. He must have had a lot of patience because as you can imagine a lot of the early Searles had to be obtained from Wills, Manor Court Rolls, taxes etc etc, plus so much was in Latin. Also some of our Searles lived in Great Saling and the PRs go no further back than about 1713. Although we have the line back to c1319 we can only go back to c1420 with written proof. So hats off to Ken he did a magnificent job.
I have a couple of Essex Searles in my tree, but later: Rebecca, who was born about 1805 in Helions Bumpstead and Susan from Newport in 1850.
I wonder! When I can I'll have a browse of the book to see if Ken Searles makes mention of your two. The early Searles up to around the 1600s owed a fair bit of property around the Salings, Bardfields and one two other places, where did my inheritance go, your lot didn't get it did they?
Hi Jan. Had a look in the book last evening but could find no mention of the areas you mentioned, also looked at the Searles trees Ken Searles sent me and didn't find a mention of those two ladies. Wile I think of it should you take the ladies lines back a generation or two sometime and let me have the names and dates/period, I'll have another look. In the mean time and when time permits I'll have an in depth check of the book. It could of course be that that Ken missed Rebecca and Susan but perhaps mentions their parents or grandparents etc, there's a heck of a lot of Searles and their branches in the book so I can't see that there wouldn't be a link to your Searles somewhere, sometime in the book. By the way branches of the Essex Searles branched out to "foreign parts", Hertfordshire, Greater London, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and USA. From memory about two or three came to Australia plus of course me and mine.
Something I forgot to mention which might be of interest is a tree in "The Pedigree Of The Searles Family in Essex", author Ken Searles, this is the "Searles tree Ken Searles sent me" I mentioned in Post #8. It starts with:- Doomsday book 1066: Serlo held manor of Hazeleigh in Dengie Hundred. Doomsday book 1086: Serlo de Marci held land in Margaret Roding,Dunmow, Farnham, Greenstead. Serlo held manor of Yardleys, Thaxted. May have been Serlo de Marci. Serlo held manor of Hazeleigh of Ralph Peverel. Then goes to: Patent Rolls 1319-1327, Thaxted and Lay Subsidy 1327, Thaxted John Serle fl 1319-1327. John Serle fl 1319-1327 is where Ken Searles considers where he can confidently consider his Essex Searles line begins and the same for me of course. The Serlo and Serlo de Marci connection is a theory which cannot really be proved although my thoughts are that it looks darned good. Bold type is as it appears in Ken Searles "Pedigree Of The Searles Family in Essex".
Hello & Good Morning, i hope that you dont mind the contact. I came accross your posts in connection withe the SERLE's of Essex. My father was Alfred John Serle b 1913 Plymouth Devon. I have traced my family history back to the 1760's with reasonable confidence and cross checking various records. The problem that I have is how do you validate parish records to be (reasonably certain) that you have the right person? once we get the census record the task is much easier. The added complication is the way the name is spelled sometimes with an A and other times without. In my own case there is a change of spelling between my father's original surname and my own. This was due to a typo when he joined the RAF and he changed it by deed poll so as not to have to do all the paperwork again. What I am yet to find is SERLE zero in my line. They just seem to peter out with no obvious marriage or travel into the area but they must have come from somewhere. Any advice and help on solving this would be much appreciated. regards, Geoffrey Searle (Bristol)
Welcome to the world of wondering Geoffrey. I think most of us have asked that question at some time. I won't mention the families where the male of the species has taken on the name of the spousal family for a sum in order to keep her family name going. o-oh I guess I already did
It's not an easy task and it requires patience, luck and often help from others. Parish registers unfortunately vary so much regarding the info they give. It's mostly just gathering all the info you can then taking into account factors such as naming patterns of later generations and comparing those with a family you are trying to validate. A not so common first name that has been passed down the generations can provide a clue. Probably some of the more experienced people on here can give you some advice or point you in the right direction. As far as the name Searle(s) is concerned you will find it spelled many different ways but they will sound like Searle(s) when pronounced. It will be spelled differently from parish to parish and even vary.differently in the same Parish registers. In one of the families with my surname, there were 13 children and in those 13 children there were three surname variations. In my Searles line the name has been spelled Serl, Serle, Serles, Sarle Searle and of course Searles, in the way names are spelled in parish registers it's all down to the person making the entries, he will hear the name and then write it down the way he thinks it is spelled, hence the variations. So my advice here would be to not be too concerned about the spelling, mostly its how the spelling sounds when pronounced, if it sounds like Serle or Searles then it is. If you have any problems with and ancestor or related person, post it on here there's a nice bunch of people on here very happy to help, quite good at it too. So far my Searles have all been Essex born, since I haven't been able to trace the lives of all the siblings of my Searles ancestors there's a chance ,I suppose, our Searles could link up if you get back further, then again perhaps not. Good luck with your research,
