Both Civil Registration and Census Returns run out when you get back to about 1840, and rarely provide information relevant before 1800. At this stage you need to turn to Parish Records: These date back to the mid 1500's. Cromwell, at the Court of Henry VIII, ordered that every wedding, baptism and burial should be recorded.

Have any other records been destroyed? Yes! In 1896 fire damaged the 1890 supplemental schedules of crime, mortality and pauperism and other special classes. Any remains were later destroyed by order of The Interior Department.

“Sometimes the buyer never returned to the courthouse to retrieve the now-recorded document. The original deed of your ancestor’s property may be in that old box marked “original deeds” or “unclaimed deeds” on the top shelf, gathering dust."