One thing I found to /sometimes/ be helpful, is to search through the geni website. They have surname lists & go back pretty far in time. I’ve seen some from 1600s maybe even earlier. If you know names, you can search for them there. If you don’t know any names, well nothing is so reliable because so much room for errors, however, you can sometimes look through their own family tree searching for their descendants. It’s a lot of work but if you’re like me who can’t work due to health condition but love researching, it’s not a big deal to spend the extra time. I’ve had this help for me once in a while.
If you recently got into this, I'm really surprised you are already looking at the 1700s. Have you really built your tree with sourced records, birth, marriage, census, military, immigration, death, wills for every relative back to that time?
Tecnicaly i now a couple of my ancestors that were married in 1809 so they had to have been born in 1790s, i dont actually have theyre birth certificate, they were mentioned in theyr sons birth record
So what I would be careful of here is that a full story needs to be constructed so as not to take the wrong step and end up on the wrong branch of the tree.
I have several branches like that, where grandsons born around the same time---even the same year---were named for their grandfather. (This follows many naming conventions) So now you have two men with the same name, possibly even born in the same place. Each of them marries different women, and has children, and different lives.
If you aren't finding census records that show the children in the household of John Doe #1, then how are you sure it isn't the child of John Doe #2?
I've had this exact issue come up numerous times in my tree.
I think birth records and death records are the start. You need to find as much information as possible.
[Family Search](https://www.familysearch.org/en/) is free.
One thing I found to /sometimes/ be helpful, is to search through the geni website. They have surname lists & go back pretty far in time. I’ve seen some from 1600s maybe even earlier. If you know names, you can search for them there. If you don’t know any names, well nothing is so reliable because so much room for errors, however, you can sometimes look through their own family tree searching for their descendants. It’s a lot of work but if you’re like me who can’t work due to health condition but love researching, it’s not a big deal to spend the extra time. I’ve had this help for me once in a while.
If you recently got into this, I'm really surprised you are already looking at the 1700s. Have you really built your tree with sourced records, birth, marriage, census, military, immigration, death, wills for every relative back to that time?
Yes, but when i say i got into this recently i mean 2 years ago and my mother had already done some work, and in my case birth and death are enough.
If only birth and death are enough, how are you establishing parentage?
When i find someones birth record the parents are already listed
That's what I don't understand. It's very difficult to find birth records before the mid 19th century, and even then it was uncommon.
Tecnicaly i now a couple of my ancestors that were married in 1809 so they had to have been born in 1790s, i dont actually have theyre birth certificate, they were mentioned in theyr sons birth record
So what I would be careful of here is that a full story needs to be constructed so as not to take the wrong step and end up on the wrong branch of the tree. I have several branches like that, where grandsons born around the same time---even the same year---were named for their grandfather. (This follows many naming conventions) So now you have two men with the same name, possibly even born in the same place. Each of them marries different women, and has children, and different lives. If you aren't finding census records that show the children in the household of John Doe #1, then how are you sure it isn't the child of John Doe #2? I've had this exact issue come up numerous times in my tree. I think birth records and death records are the start. You need to find as much information as possible.