After one discovers the immigrant in his family on passenger lists and land records, the next step is to visit the records in the country of embarkation.
It is not too complicated because church attendance was required, and baptisms, christenings, marriages, and mortuary records were kept in the local parish records. In London, for example, one should research all parish registers, regardless, to better understand the family structure. Each surname should be written down, with its data, and carefully identified. In working with the names, each person is suspected of being a family member. Incidentially, for years, the birthdate of Gabriel Holland, the emigrant to Jamestown, was given as 1600 on the Internet, and many other records. However, the parish register recorded his birth as having occurred in 1586. Thus, errors occur in genealogy research, and are shared down the lineage.
Cataloging this information is best done on a family group sheet. This practice will assist in sorting out the children of each generation and ascertaining what happened to them. Studying the history of the family seat will provide keener reasoning and rationalization of that era. It is essential to know the politics of the ruling monarchy, such as when Henry VIII converted the church to Anglican.
The Catholic records before that era are probably located at the Vatican. Did you know Pope Clemente V’s papacy was in Avignon, France, from 1307 to 1377? This was the period of the Black Plague.
The fourteenth century progenitor of Gabriel Hollande was Sir Thomas de Holande who had secretly married Joan Plantagenet, the Fair Maid of Kent, the granddaughter of King Edward I. Afterwards, Thomas, a Knight of the Royal Garter, was sent to fight in the war in France. When he returned, he discovered that King Edward had given Joan in marriage to the Earl of Salisbury. The Catholic Church ruled over such matters, so Thomas presented his petition to the pope. The brief notation I found in the English records was that the Pope did not hear the petition until several years later. This is because of the plague. Thomas won his cause. He returned to England, and his wife was returned to him. These are the things to consider and question to seek more clues.
As a pivotal to this event, Thomas and Joan had six children, and Thomas probably died on the battlefield of France. He could have been slain or died of the plague, which was common among the knights. The story continues with a rich history. Joan married again, this time to her first cousin, Edward III (the Black Prince), and by him, she had one son, Richard II.
American history is more accessible to locate, mainly because of the Internet. GeorgiaPioneers.com has a vast collection of county records from 7 States and books from every State and some foreign countries. Members should click on “Navigation” and then “Books”.
Also, the United Kingdom has some exciting records online. You can find records from other countries by looking at familysearch.org.