Family Historian User Group

I have been concentrating on my American ancestors that mostly emigrated between 1620 and 1660.

Now I want to begin my research on my English ancestors and I am not finding much yet. Because of the time period being prior to 1660 most of my sources don't have much. Ancestry has very little from prior to 1660. I don't have subscriptions to either myheritage or findmypast but sometimes I can see generally what information they may have but again I have found very little.

One ancestor, William Boynton(1572 - 1617), comes from East Riding, Yorkshire, England.

I am open to suggestions as to where I might go to get genealogical or historical info.

https://genealogy.stackexchange.com/a/3640/6485 may give you a starting point or two. Although it mentions 1th century England, the sources for 17th century England are similar, with the addition of PRs, and Protestation Returns that I can think of off the top of my head.

Starting Points for East Riding of Yorkshire Research:

Borthwick Institute for Archives: https://www.york.ac.uk/borthwick/
East Riding Archives: https://www.eastridingarchives.co.uk/collections/
North Yorkshire Records Office: https://archivesunlocked.northyorks.gov ... fault.aspx
Hull History Centre: http://www.hullhistorycentre.org.uk/home.aspx

FindMyPast seems to have some publishing agreements with each of the above as record availability is constantly increasing, but mainly concentrating on records from the mid-late 1500s onwards (coinciding with the start of available Parish Records). Borthwick has all surviving probate documents which fell under the Prerogative Court of York, plus Bishops Transcripts from across Yorkshire but documents prior to 1700 tend to become increasingly difficult to 'read or interpret' due varying styles of Old-English scripts used, dialect/terminology; and variations in personal and/or place names; plus of course, frequent lapses into Church Latin especially for legal documents/records.

Mervyn

Thank you all,

I have been pursuing all your suggestions and so far I have found a wealth of information. Lots of work to go.